So, what are Crepes? They aren't pancakes as there is no rising agent like baking powder used, and they aren't eggs, though the egg content is high relative to the amount of flour used. Crepes are somewhere in between and buttery and thin and soft for easy cutting with a fork. In short, they are delightful and versatile for serving with many types of fillings and sometimes covering with sauces, gravies, or in the case of sweet Crepes, powdered sugar or fruit syrup or whipped cream. You may recall the classic Crepe dish, Crepes Suzette, with strawberries and whipped cream.
The recipe below is from The Joy of Cooking©, somewhat modified, and it is very good. I was completely successful and highly pleased starting with the very first time I ever made Crepes. It is easy.
Serve these Crepes with soft butter and warm maple syrup. Or you might serve them with fresh, halved, sweetened strawberries, or fresh blueberries, or both, and whipped cream. Or you might make a thickened, heated fruit compote using some sugar and some corn starch. Whatever you decide, if you make the sweet Crepes, remember to serve some bacon or sausage or ham, along with fruit juice or other fresh fruit if you are using maple syrup, and fresh hot coffee, to make a breakfast meal complete.
If you make the Crepes without sugar, for savory fillings, be sure to check out a variety of Internet recipes for different fillings. For example, you might use heated diced white meat turkey, turkey gravy, and a few long tender spears of lightly cooked asparagus, all inside the hot rolled up Crepe, with some additional gravy on top. A typical serving will be two Crepes, or three for people with large appetites.
Yummy!
Ingredients: (makes six to eight sweet Crepes)
1 cup of flour
1/8 teaspoon of salt
3 tbsp. of sugar
1 cup of milk
4 extra large eggs
1/2 cup of lukewarm water
1/2 stick of butter, melted
1 tsp. of butter for coating the inside bottom of the skillet
8 ounces of warmed pure maple syrup in a small bowl (optional)
1 stick of room temperature butter on a saucer for use with the maple syrup (optional)
Directions:
Prepare the other breakfast items first and use a 200 degrees F warming oven to keep the cooked bacon or sausage warm.
Put the small bowl of maple syrup into the warming oven.
Put the serving plates you plan to use into the warming oven.
Add together the flour, salt, and sugar in an electric mixer bowl and mix on low speed for one minute.
Add the eggs and mix on medium speed for one minute.
Use the microwave oven to melt the butter in a small cup, then add the melted butter to the mixing bowl, then mix for two minutes.
Add the milk and the lukewarm water to the mixing bowl gradually and continue mixing for five minutes on medium speed. The idea is that you want the batter to be totally uniform and runny, and the long mixing period assures that all ingredients will be completely mixed.
Preheat a heavy bottom skillet with a bottom diameter of about eight inches on medium heat and melt the one teaspoon of butter to coat the inside bottom of the skillet evenly.
Note that during cooking of successive Crepes you may need to lower the temperature to avoid having a skillet that is too hot. Note also as described below that you remove the skillet from the heat each time you are ready to flip a Crepe over to cook the second side. In any event, the butter in the skillet should not be allowed to turn brown, nor should the skillet smoke. Finally, you don't need to add butter to the skillet for each Crepe. Typically you can make two to three Crepes before needing to use an additional one teaspoon of butter.
Use a one cup soup ladle to pour batter for the first Crepe into the skillet, moving the ladle while pouring to cover the entire bottom surface of the skillet. You probably will not need the entire cup of batter to do that. If necessary you can tilt the skillet to cause even batter distribution.
Cook for one to one and one half minutes, then remove the skillet from the heat. The top of the Crepe will be uncooked but will not have much if any runny batter on it.
Use a narrow, long bladed spatula to get underneath the Crepe, starting from under one edge and going all the way across underneath the center of the Crepe, then lift it from the skillet and flip it over onto the uncooked side in the skillet.
Cook for about one minute, or perhaps a bit more time if the skillet cooled too much during flipping, then lift the skillet and tip it and let the completed Crepe slide from the skillet onto a wax paper covered plate. If necessary you can use the spatula to assist in that process.
Repeat the above cooking instructions for the rest of the batter, adding and melting another teaspoon of butter in the skillet each time two or three Crepes have been made.
Stack the Crepes on top of each other as they are cooked, then put the stacked plate into the warming oven.
Remove and serve the Crepes with room temperature butter and warmed maple syrup, or with fresh fruit items with whipped cream or powdered sugar as described earlier.
Serve all the other breakfast items when you serve the Crepes.
Enjoy!