Crêpes

Crêpes were always a Christmas morning tradition with my family, either at home or at Grandmaman's house. We woke up too late this Christmas to bother with breakfast, since we were off for a huge feast at my in-laws in the afternoon, so I shifted crêpe day to New Year's Day instead. A great start to the year, I think!

Crêpes

4 eggs

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

2 cups milk

1 tsp soft butter

(Makes approximately 8 large crepes)

Beat the eggs with the soft butter, sugar, and salt, until they're frothy. Add milk and keep beating. Using a whisk is usually best. Add the flour and beat out the lumps, but it's ok if you've got small lumps, it won't matter. Keep the batter cold. This is very important. I usually leave an ice cube or two in the bowl of batter, especially if it's going to sit a few minutes before it goes into the pan.

Heat your pan with butter and a little oil (canola, vegetable, whatever you have handy) and wait till it's hot enough to make a drop of water sizzle. Drop a ladle full of batter into the center of the pan and tip and swirl the pan to coat the whole surface. When the edges of the crêpe curl and brown, shake the pan. If the crêpe moves freely, it's ready to flip. Shake it so it's hanging out of the pan a little on one edge, then slide a spatula under it to help you flip it. If you have mad kitchen skills and think you can flip it with a flick of your wrist, feel free, but I can never make that work.

This is what it should look like when you flip it:

Once flipped, cook the other side for 30 seconds to one minute, then transfer (slide) to a plate.

These are savory crêpes, not sweet dessert ones. Normally I cover them with a thin sprinkling of brown sugar, then roll them up and drizzle maple syrup over them, and they really don't need to be any further improved. You could also put ham and cheese or any other savory fillings in them - after flipping the crêpe, lay some cheese and whatever else you want on one half of the crepe and then flip the other half over it. Instant filled crêpe.

While you do not need a fancy crêpe pan to make crepes, I do recommend getting one if you're going to make crêpes with any regularity. Flipping them is much simpler with a special pan because of the low edges, and I find the heat is very even, at least in the one I have. Look for one that's about 10 inches across and has a very shallow lip. You don't need a "crêpe spreader" tool, just tipping the pan is plenty to get the batter spread out. If you're using a normal frying pan, you will be fine, but it may be trickier to get a spatula underneath the crêpe to flip it.