Crêpes

A thin batter rested an hour so the flour swells, where the first one is always wrong and is meant to be.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (whole milk).

Ingredients

• 250 g plain flour
• 4 eggs
• 600 ml whole milk
• 60 g butter, melted and cooled, plus more for the pan
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar, for sweet crêpes
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Method

1. THE BATTER IS RESTED AN HOUR AND IT IS NOT OPTIONAL. Flour needs that time to take up the milk: used straight away the batter is thin and gritty and the crêpes tear when turned. Rested, it thickens noticeably, pours smoothly and makes a crêpe that holds together. An hour at room temperature, or overnight in the fridge.
2. THE FIRST ONE IS ALWAYS WRONG AND IS MEANT TO BE. It takes up the excess butter and tells you whether the pan is hot enough and the batter thin enough. Everyone makes it and nobody eats it. Adjust from what it tells you rather than treating it as a failure.
3. THE PAN IS WIPED, NOT GREASED, between crêpes. A smear of butter on kitchen paper. Butter added each time pools and fries the batter instead of letting it set.
4. Flour, sugar and salt in a bowl with a well in the middle.
5. Eggs broken into the well and whisked, drawing the flour in gradually from the edges, until it is a thick smooth paste with no lumps. Lumps now will still be there later.
6. Milk added a little at a time, whisking, then the melted butter. The batter should be the thickness of single cream and pour off the whisk in a ribbon.
7. RESTED, covered, 1 hour.
8. Whisked again briefly -- it settles -- and thinned with a splash of milk if it has gone thick.
9. A crêpe pan or a wide heavy frying pan over a medium-high heat, wiped with buttered paper.
10. A small ladle of batter poured in and the pan lifted and SWIRLED immediately so it runs to the edges in a thin even layer. Any surplus poured back.
11. 45 to 60 seconds, until the edges lift and the underside is patched gold. Turned with a palette knife or a flick, 20 to 30 seconds more.
12. Stacked on a plate over a pan of hot water, each one covering the last, which keeps them soft.
13. They keep a day between sheets of paper and reheat in a dry pan in seconds.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes