The ultimate french crepe recipe for pancake day.
Below I have laid out 3 crêpes recipes: the traditional one as per my grandmother's recipe, the savoury one with buckwheat flour, and the vegan one which I have developed to match the colour flavour and texture of the traditional french one.
In France, we celebrate pancake day not on shrove Tuesday as is general custom in the UK, but on the Chandeleur. It is then more common to eat fried goods like beignets and merveilles on shrove Tuesday if you're wondering, although pancakes aren't forbidden!
La Chandeleur, or Candlemas, is a traditionally catholic holiday celebrating the presentation of Jesus Christ at the Temple, the tradition of eating crêpes on this date in France comes from Pope Gelasius I offering galettes to pilgrims who had travelled to the Vatican for the occasion.
THE TRADITIONAL ONE
Ingredients: (makes approx 12)
300g plain flour
3 eggs
360mL UHT semi-skimmed milk
1 Tbs caster sugar
2 Tbs melted butter
Pinch of salt
1 tsp orange blossom water
Method: (see photos below)
Melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave (20 seconds on max Watt).
In a large mixing bowl, sieve the flour and add a pinch of salt.
Create a well in the middle of the flour, crack in the eggs and add the melted butter and half of the milk.
Whisk together until well combined and it forms a thick paste, this first stage will stop you from getting lumps in the batter.
Add the remaining milk bit by bit, stirring continuously, once all combined stir in the orange blossom and sugar (don't add if you want to fill these with savoury fillings). The batter should be pourable, so quite liquid but still a bit viscous, similar to a drinkable yogurt.
Cover and leave to rest for at least 30 minutes.
Warm a frying pan on high heat, melt a little butter into it then pour in one ladle of batter and move the pan in a circular motion by rotating your wrist until the bottom of the pan is fully covered in a thin layer of batter. Don't worry about the first couple, it's tradition to mess up the first crêpe! If it's too difficult to move around in the pan then it might be too thick, feel free to add a little bit of milk to thin it up.
Cook until the edges start to brown, then flip and cook for another 30 seconds on the other side.
Fill with lemon & sugar, butter & honey, vanilla sugar, cinnamon sugar, jam, chocolate spread, banana, berry compote, maple syrup, or anything else you fancy.
Bon appétit!
Full Video:
More about this recipe:
Fo me there's a few key things that are important in this recipe that make this crepe (or crêpe) the authentic, ultimate french one:
1 egg per 100g of flour. This may seem like a lot compared to other crepe recipes I've seen out there, but the high egg content is essential not only to get a nice even golden colour during the cook but to give the crepe that elasticity and chewy bite and richer flavour.
Melted butter in the batter. They are french after all and this will help with colouring and the crêpe not sticking to the pan, it will also add flavour to the batter.
Orange blossom in the batter. The North African influence in France means orange blossom is much more available and has made its way into a lot of desserts, my grandmother always put it in crêpes as do many other people. If you can't find it, it is sometimes traditional to put vanilla instead of orange blossom in them.
UHT milk in the batter. Although most milk consumed in the UK is fresh chilled milk, in France it is more common to use UHT milk. They taste completely different and this does make its way to the final crêpe's flavour.
Photos:
THE SAVOURY ONE
Ingredients: (makes approx 10)
270g buckwheat flour
1 egg
3 tsp melted butter
Pinch of salt
500mL water
Method: (see photos below)
Melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave (20 seconds on max Watt).
In a large mixing bowl, sieve the flour and add a pinch of salt.
Create a well in the middle of the flour, crack in the egg and add the melted butter and half of the water.
Whisk together until well combined and it forms a thick paste, this first stage will stop you from getting lumps in the batter.
Add the remaining water bit by bit, stirring continuously. The batter should be pourable, so quite liquid but still a bit viscous, a bit more liquid than drinkable yogurt.
Cover and leave to rest for at least 1 hour, preferably 2.
Warm a frying pan on high heat, melt a little butter into it then pour in 1 - 2 ladles of batter and move the pan in a circular motion by rotating your wrist until the bottom of the pan is fully covered in a thin layer of batter. Don't worry about the first couple, it's tradition to mess up the first crêpe! If it's too difficult to move around in the pan then it might be too thick, feel free to add a little bit of milk to thin it up. With the buckwheat flour, the batter when it hits the pan starts to bubble up and this creates holes in the pancake like a lace effect. This is normal, I find the best way to get an even spread is to make a couple seconds once you've poured the batter in the pan before starting to spread it.
Cook until the edges start to brown, then flip and cook for another minute on the other side.
Fill with cheese, ham and a fried egg for the most classic topping, or go wild with the possibilities. I really like spinach, mushrooms and garlic.
Bon appétit!
Full Video:
More about this recipe:
The main thing is to do a few trial runs spreading the batter in the pan.
Make sure the pan is really hot and give it a few seconds before you start to spread it. You may need ladles of batter per crêpe to fill the pan.
There's different schools of thought, but I like to pre-cook all my crêpes then put one back in the pan to warm up, and melt the cheese on top before topping with other things like a fried egg etc.
Photos:
THE VEGAN ONE
Ingredients: (makes approx 14)
320g plain flour
140g aquafaba ( = chickpea water from 1 tin of chickpeas)
2 Tbs vegetable oil
1 Tbs caster sugar
300mL oat milk
100mL water
Pinch of salt
1 tsp orange blossom water
Method: (see photos below)
In a large mixing bowl, sieve the flour and add a pinch of salt.
Create a well in the middle of the flour, add the vegetable oil and the water.
Whisk together until well combined and it forms a thick paste, this first stage will stop you from getting lumps in the batter.
Add the oat milk bit by bit, stirring continuously. The batter should be pourable, so quite liquid but still a bit viscous, a bit more liquid than drinkable yogurt/double cream.
Cover and leave to rest for at least 30 minutes.
Warm a frying pan on high heat with a tiny drizzle of vegetable oil, then pour in 1 ladle of batter and move the pan in a circular motion by rotating your wrist until the bottom of the pan is fully covered in a thin layer of batter. Don't worry about the first couple, it's tradition to mess up the first crêpe! If it's too difficult to move around in the pan then it might be too thick, feel free to add a little bit of water to thin it up.
Cook until the edges start to brown, then flip and cook for another minute on the other side.
Fill with sugar and lemon, maple syrup, jam, almond butter, berry compote and vegan yogurt, cinnamon sugar, vanilla sugar, chocolate and banana, anything you fancy.
Bon appétit!
Full Video:
More about this recipe:
I've tried a few different vegan crepe batter recipes but I've developed this one to be as close to the traditional one as possible, and honestly I was blown away! It is impossible to tell them appart once cooked. There's a few key elements to this:
The use of aquafaba to replace the eggs
The blend of rich oat milk with water
The use of vegetable oil in the batter to get a nice even browning
The use of orange blossom water for the flavour
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