All About Crêpes
More than just strawberries and chocolate
There’s a story that the number of folds in a Chef’s hat are the number of ways that they can cook an egg. I suspect it’s apocryphal, as in a really nice story to tell the tourists who are “ooh la la” ing everything their first time in a Paris bistro.
More telling though, I think, is how many ways a Chef can prepare the same ingredients over and over again while keeping the food interesting. For a serious home cook, I think the equivalent is how many ways you can repurpose the same leftovers without your family plotting a revolt.
We all get sick of leftovers. Leftovers are a leading cause of food waste at home and let’s be honest, eating the same thing several days in a row is pretty grim, but scraping out a somewhat-deliberately forgotten container of colourful mouldy stuff is worse. It’s gross, it’s wasteful, and it’s rather expensive when you do the math about the cost and time invested.
I am, right now, completely sick of ham. We had ham for Easter Sunday and, while it’s great once in a while, the leftovers are tiresome after a few days. Ham sandwiches, pea soup, pasta with ham and cream, etc. My kiddo loves ham, but I’m bored. So it was time to repurpose the last shreds into something different.
Let’s make some crêpes.
Crêpes (sounds like “pep” and not like “grape”) have a reputation as a bit fancy, at least in North America. We often get them in a restaurant or shop that specializes, and for some people the very French-ness of them is fancy-pants by definition. In France though, crêpes are often a casual street food and in reality require only a little more skill than the common pancake. And, just like pancakes, the secret to crêpes is a ratio.
The ratio for crêpes: 1 part egg, 1 part liquid, 1 part flour. Pinch of salt. Spoonful of sugar optional.
Now, technically, it would be better to follow this ratio by weight and not volume, but in this particular case it doesn’t matter too much - you do end up with slightly more flour than necessary, but it can easily be remedied with an additional splash of liquid if you’d like a thinner batter. And if you figure that one egg is about 1/4 cup you can easily scale this formula up or down.
And you’re about to ask: don’t I need a special crêpe pan? No, not at all. A well-seasoned cast iron pan works fine, as does almost any non-stick pan. The advantage of a crêpe pan is that it has very low sides, making it a bit easier to flip and maneuver your crepes. If you really like crêpes and plan to make them on a semi-regular basis it’s a fairly affordable upgrade to your kitchen gear. They are also great if you get into making flatbreads (you should!) like pita, naan, paratha, and tortillas - the advantages are the same.
And, as noted above, a dash of sugar is optional, meaning that crêpes can be as sweet or savory as you please. A tiny bit of salt is always a good idea, but why not play with the liquids a bit? Milk is pretty traditional, but depending on your filling and topping plans you could use orange juice, stock, or even water in a pinch. Flour choice can be varied as well. All purpose flour will give you a good structure and be easy to handle (thank you gluten), but you can easily sub about 50% for something more interesting like rice flour or the very traditional buckwheat, which is what I’m doing below. Chopped herbs are a nice touch too, if they fit into your plan.
But let’s work with what we have, shall we? I’m not being fancy, I’m trying to get rid of leftovers.
You’ll need a bowl, dry measuring cups, a liquid measuring cup, a whisk, a suitable pan (see above) and a fork or thin spatula. For ingredients you’ll need eggs, flour, your liquid of choice, and salt. Sugar is optional. For the pan you’ll need butter or vegetable oil.
For my recipe today I used three eggs, 3/4 cup of milk, and 3/4 cup of flour (as noted above I used 50/50 all purpose and buckwheat) and a two finger pinch of salt. I ended up with six 8-inch crepes. But you can easily scale down to two eggs and half a cup each of liquid and flour, or up to four eggs and a cup of each. See how easy it is to cook by ratio?
Whisk your eggs together with your salt and sugar (if using).
Whisk in the liquid until fully combined.
Add the flour in one go. Whisk until fully combined.
Cover and let rest for at least half an hour, or refrigerate overnight. The batter will look a bit like this:
Heat your pan to medium and when hot brush or wipe with a thin coating of butter or oil. Paper towel works well here.
Ladle or pour a measure of batter into the centre of your pan. Lift the pan and swirl to make a (mostly) even circle. If you’re quick and decisive you’ll get the hang of it by the second one, I assure you. I use a 1/4 cup ladle, but a measuring cup will do as well. Want larger crepes? Use a larger measure of batter.
Crêpes will cook very quickly. When they seem mostly set and a bit dry around the edge they are ready to flip. A thin spatula comes in really handy, but a fork will work.
You’ll only need a few seconds on the other side. If your crêpe reminds you a little of the surface of the moon, you’ve got it right. This one is a little underdone, so I’m flipping it back for a few more seconds.
Let the pan re-heat for a moment, then butter or oil again and continue with the remaining batter.
Stack your crêpes (folded in half, if you like) on a clean, lint-free dishtowel. Wrap to keep warm, or allow to cool completely. They will keep a couple of days in the fridge, if they last that long.
I strongly recommend making more crêpes than you think you need, and not only because they keep fairly well. Like with pancakes, the first one rarely comes out perfect, and the very thin nature of crêpes makes them prone to tearing, particularly if you’re using different flours that don’t contain gluten. And crêpes are notorious for “disappearing” during the cooking process, particularly if there is raspberry jam around (burp!)
And what to do with these pretty things? You can stuff them with fruit and cream and have a fancy brunch. You can roll them full of leftovers, cover them in a sauce (béchamel perhaps?) and warm them though in the oven. A few vegetables can become a substantial meal if you put them into a crêpe with some cheese. Perhaps put an egg on top. Sprinkle them with sugar and a squeeze of lemon and devour anytime of day or night.
I spread my crêpes with Dijon mustard and mayonnaise, added ham, cooked spinach and shredded cheddar, and rewarmed them on the pan. It didn’t get rid of all the ham, but we are getting somewhere.
Once you have your head (and your wrist) around the idea of making crêpes, there is a world of similar dishes that you can try. The French may have made them famous, but they certainly weren’t the only ones to wrap up thin pancakes. The Korean pajeon, the Vietnamese banh xeo, and the dosa from India all share more than a little with savory crepes because I suspect that no matter who you are and where you live you probably have some leftovers, so why not make them interesting?