Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Crêpes (French pancakes)

Even though February is in the middle of winter and it's downright depressing that spring is still so far away, you will not find a French person who doesn't LOVE this month!

And that's because we celebrate La Chandeleur (or Candlemas), otherwise known as Crepe Day. In this day of celebration (February 2nd), it is tradition to stuff your face with as many Crepes as humanly possible.

Now this year Crepe day fell on the same day as the lunar New Year, and because I made Pho last week to celebrate, I had to wait a week before I made my crepes. But here they are now:) And you should make some too!

Enjoy!


INGREDIENTS (for about 30-40 crepes, depending on the size of your pan):
- 8 large eggs
- 4 cups of milk (1 liter)
- 1lb AP flour (500g)
- 4 tbsp melted butter (not pictured)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- a pinch of salt
- optional: 1 tbsp of rum (this is a classic flavor, but you can use any other flavoring you like such as orange blossom water, lemon zest, orange zest, vanilla extract, coconut extract, coffee, etc...)


RECIPE:
- in a large bowl, mix the flour and salt, add the eggs and milk all at the same time and whisk until smooth

- if there are lumps, you can pass it through a fine sieve before adding the melted butter and blending with a whisk

- let the batter rest at least 1 hour in the fridge
- preheat a flat pan on medium-high heat and add a little drizzle of melted butter in the pan before you pour in a ladleful of batter and immediately swirl the pan around so that the batter coats the entire bottom of the pan in a thin layer

- just like for pancakes, you want to start seeing small bubbles on the uncooked surface of the crepe and browning of the edges before you carefully flip it over with a spatula

Note: if the first crepe is a fail, don't despair! The first one is always messed up! And you get to nibble on it while you cook the rest ;)
- the subsequent crepes do not even need melted butter in the pan (that's why there is so much melted butter in the batter itself!), but feel free to add some in between crepes if you feel like the crepes stick to the bottom
- serve warm with any sweet toppings you like! Classics include Nutella with or without banana slices, strawberry preserves, plain sugar and my favorite: a light sprinkle of plain sugar and a few drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice. De-li-cious!
- Happy Crepe day!


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