The traditional French Crêpes recipe
My sweetest childhood memory! The crêpes were my father’s speciality. He enjoyed baking some for my brothers and me. We were used to eating them for dinner with ham, cheese, and a bechamel sauce inside. Then for dessert, we enjoyed them with some sugar, chocolate spread, jam. It’s, for me, one of my happiest memories.
He was used to baking them “à l’oeil”, which means without any measuring. I’m here today to give you my recipe with, of course, all the proportions.
Servings
around 15 crêpes
Prep time:
10min
Cook time:
30min
Resting time:
30min
Introduction
About this Recipe
On the 2nd of February, we celebrate “La Chandeleur” here in France. It’s a religious celebration which comes 40 days after Christmas. The name of this day comes from the “chandelles” (*the candles) which were used during this day.
The tradition on this day is to bake French crêpe. Once you flip your crêpes, you’ll need to put a gold coin in your left hand. If you succeed to flip your crêpe correctly, you won’t lack money for the new year.
You’ll see that I didn’t use any sugar in this recipe as you’ll add different toppings to them.
If you want, you can use some sugar or vanilla sugar in your mix. I also really enjoyed adding some orange blossom water, but it’s completely optional.
These crêpes are different from the galette, which is in the same shape but with buckwheat flour instead of the all-purpose flour used in this recipe.
It’s quite like a pancake but thinner and lighter!
Ingredients
- 2 + 1/3 cup (550g) of milk
- 2 cups + 1 tbsp (250g) of all-purpose flour
- 4 eggs
- 1 tbsp of neutral oil (or melted butter)
- *3 tbsp of orange blossom water
- *1 bag of vanilla sugar
(*Optional)
Here are the most common toppings you could find here in France to taste your crêpe:
- Sugar
- Sugar + lemon juice
- Chocolate spread
- Chestnut cream
- Salted caramel
- Chantilly
- Jam
- Honey
- Maple syrup
Pick yours and taste your homemade crêpe
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1
Start by breaking the eggs in a bowl and whisking them.
Add the milk, the melted butter (or neutral oil), and the orange blossom water* (*optional). Stir together.
Step 2
Add the flour 2 times and stir until everything is well combined. There are little tips here to be sure to have perfect preparation. I advise you to use a hand blender to finalize to stir everything together and avoid any lumps in your mix.
Let it rest for approximately 30 mins.
Step 3
It’s really easy to cook your crêpe. You only need a crêpe pan. It’s almost like a regular pan but thinner and lighter, which will help you to flip the crêpe during the cooking. If you don’t have one, no problem, you can use a regular pan.
Step 4
Place your pan on medium heat. Let it warm and grease it with some butter. Don’t hesitate to wipe the excess.
Now, take some crêpe mix and pour around a full ladle on your crepe pan with a ladle. Move the pan to spread the mix on all your pan and let it cook.
Once the edges of your crêpes start to brown a little bit, you should be able to move it just by moving your pan. If you’re comfortable with that, flip your crêpe with your pan with a small hand movement. If you’re not, take a spatula and flip your crêpe.
Step 5
Let it cook on the other side for 1 to 2 minutes; it’s really quick.
Now, place it on a plate and continue to cook all your mix with the same process. Don’t forget to grease your pan each time to avoid your crêpe sticking to the pan.
Step 6
Your crêpes are just ready ! You could taste them just warm or completely cool. Just pick your favorite topping and enjoy 🙂
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