Basic French Crêpes

Originally Posted by: fy8725

Today we're learning how to make crêpes, which are thin French pancakes. This food thread has no gimmicks, so let's get started.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk (use whole milk if you have it; I didn't, so I mixed 1 part fat free to 1 part half and half)
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Method

First, break your eggs into a mixing bowl and beat them.

Once smooth, and the milk and beat them some more.

Now add the dry ingredients. Mix the flour, sugar, and salt together in a separate bowl, or be lazy like me and just add them to the eggs and milk.

Get out your electric mixer, and mix it until...

...you get this. Not too difficult so far.

It's time to cook! Here's what you'll need:

Frying pan Melted butter (1-2 tablespoons is right, just stick it in the microwave) Cooking Brush

Make sure your pan is hot before you do anything, so you don't fuck up the first one like I did. Once it's hot, brush the butter all over the pan quickly. As a warning, this will warp the bristles on your brush. It will work fine afterwards, but just look ugly.

With the butter on, pour a small amount of batter into the pan. Generally about a half cup is good; you want the crêpes to be thin.

While the batter is still batter, swirl the pan around until the whole pan is covered in batter. You have to do this immediately after pouring the batter in, because it bakes on very quickly. Once the edges start to become done, take a butterknife and run it along the edges to loosen the crêpe. Be careful not to cut it up.

With the edges loosened, flip the crêpe over. The other side will cook fairly quickly. Throw it onto a plate, and you're finished.

This recipe makes anywhere from 6-12 crêpes, depending on the size and thickness of the batter. You can eat these with just about anything; I like putting yogurt and fresh fruit in, or jam.

Bon appétit!

Other Fillings:

(A brief list as added by Toast, please add more)

Crepes can be filled with just about anything, but here are some notable options. Note that desert crepes often call for a slightly sweeter batter, but if you want to keep the sweetness to just the filling you can use a normal batter easily.

One of my favorite sunday getogethers is crepe-brunch where I make a giant stack of crepes and put out a variety of toppings and let people combine to their heart's content. Some of the combos below are classic french simple crepes, others are shall we say, homebrew.

Savoury

• Minced Ham and Cheddar Cheese
• Swiss Cheese (with or without asparagus)
• Blue Cheese (Roquefort is best)
• Any kind of cheese (one of my favorites is a local horseradish cheddar, also smoked varieties)
• Smoked Salmon
• Diced Chicken with Roasted Red Pepper
• Cream Cheese

Sweet/Dessert

• Cinnamon and Brown Sugar with Butter
• Crêpe Suzette sugar and flambeed with Grand Marnier or similar.
• Powdered Sugar
• Nutella (My personal favorite, often with added crumbled walnuts)
• Nutella with Banana
• Fresh Fruit
• Fruit Compotes (Similar to anything you'd serve on a Waffle)
• Jams and Marmalades
• Cream Cheese and Strawberry Jam
• Peanut Butter
• Dulce de Leche
• Caramel
• Nuts