Crêpes

When I was in elementary school, there was a French family that lived down the street from me. I was in the same class as one of the sons, and every year one day his mom would come into our class and tell us about French traditions. And crêpes! I remember she used to wrap a paper plate or something in yellow paper, then we would all get to practice trying to flip the crepes by throwing them up in the air with the pan. I failed a lot. Even now, I use chopsticks and my fingers or a thin spatula to flip them.

More recently, I've seen a lot of people online making Crêpe Suzette, and I really wanted to try! I had so many crêpes from one batch though, that I made a galette, a strawberry-chocolate crepe (my personal favorite), and a mini strawberry mille crêpe!

Crêpe Ingredients

2 large eggs
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup milk
3 Tbsp melted butter or neutral oil
Pinch salt
1 cup all-purpose flour (or buckwheat flour)

Instructions

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, water, milk, butter, salt, and flour until smooth. Alternatively, you can combine all the ingredients together in a blender.
- If using a blender, pulse the mixture 10-12 times on low powder until combined, then scrape down the sides for any loose bits of flour. Pulse a couple more times until you have a thin pancake batter.
Rest the batter in the fridge, covered, for at least one hour or overnight. This will get rid of air bubbles in the batter and hydrate all the flour.
Using a nonstick skillet or crêpe maker, preheat over medium heat. Grease the surface with butter or oil. Pour about 1/4 cup batter for large crêpes and immediately (but carefully) swirl the pan around until the entire surface is covered with batter and is nice and thin.
Let cook for 30- 60 seconds over medium-high heat until it is browning (or at least completely set). Flip the crêpe and let cook an additional 15-30 seconds until cooked through.

Crêpes Suzette

Sugar (about 1/4 cup)
3 Tablespoons butter
Zest and juice of 1 orange
Dry sherry or cognac (I used rum)
4 crêpes
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

In the same (clean) skillet used to cook the crêpes, add a layer of granulated sugar over the bottom. Cook and stir with a rubber spatula over medium heat, until most of the sugar is melted.
Add the butter (be careful of any steam that comes up) and swirl the pan to mix. Cook down to a thicker caramel, then add the orange juice to thin down.
Dip the bottom half of each of your crêpes in the syrup, then fold into quarters. Place all 4 crêpes in the pan like quadrants and cook until the crêpe is golden browned from the caramel. Flip the triangles over to coat the other side, and cook until browned again. If the caramel is getting too thick, add more orange juice.
If you want to flame, add a large splash of your alcohol of choice while the pan is over high heat. Tilt the pan carefully towards the flame, and you might set it on fire! I didn't have to tilt my pan; I added the alcohol and my crêpes combusted :) Cook until all the flames subside, then remove from heat.
Plate crêpes, caramel-size up, with orange zest and whipped cream or ice cream.

Crêpe Galette

Cheese (optional)
Ham (optional)
Tomato, thinly sliced (optional)
1 egg
Crêpe (usually buckwheat)
Scallion, onion (or other seasonings)
Salt and pepper

In the skillet with a crêpe, grate cheese in the center and cook over low heat until it melts. Top with tomato or ham (optional) then carefully crack an egg on top. Quickly fold up the four sides and cover pan with a lid, cooking over medium-low heat until the egg cooks through. Top with scallions and season with salt and pepper.
Alternatively, you can fry the egg in a separate pan and place it in the center of the galette, then fold up the four sides. This is easier than the first method.

Nutella and Strawberry Crêpe

Crêpes
Strawberries
Nutella
Whipped Cream
Chocolate Syrup

Spread some Nutella on one half of the crêpe. Add a layer of sliced strawberries and some whipped cream. Fold crêpe in half, then fold again with the Nutella side inwards. Drizzle with chocolate syrup

Basic Mille Crêpe (Cake Crêpe)

1 batch cooked crêpes (can add flavors to your crêpes or cream, optional)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream (more or less depending on your intended decorations)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)
Fruit, chocolate, or other decorations

Whip cream with powdered sugar and vanilla extract to medium peaks. We want to keep this cream on the softer side, but still spreadable.
- When you spread and decorate the crêpe cake, it agitates the cream more and can turn it grainy.
Place one crêpe on a plate, and spread a thin layer of whipped cream on top. Continue with the remaining crêpes and whipped cream. You can add sliced fruit in between the layers if you want.
If you want, you can wrap and refrigerate the cake for 2 hours to set up. Then place a slightly smaller on top of the crêpe cake and trim around the edges to even them up.
Decorate as you please!

Mille means "thousand" in French, so the mille crepe is named in reference to all the crêpe and whipped cream layers. I'd like to see a crepe cake with a thousand layers one day!