RECIPE | Very good CRÊPES

For Mardi Gras = Shrove Tuesday = pancake day !

Is the French secret to happiness that we spend all of January eating Galette des Rois, then, within two days of February, make crêpes for La Chandeleur, and barely a few weeks later pull out our whisks again for Mardi Gras?! I like to believe that rather than complain of the cold we spend our winters using up milk, butter, and eggs.

Crêpe recipes can be as pure as simply eggs, milk and flour, but some years ago I set out to create a recipe so fragrant it would hardly require any filling. Heavily leant on the method from the classic French book La Bonne cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange, the crêpes have a great consistency and the fragrance as the batter hits the pan perfumes the whole house irresistibly.

They are delicious as is, but of course the filling is the best bit. Dress them with lemon and brown sugar, strawberry jam, walnuts and honey, banana and chocolate, orange marmalade, apples and caramel, or, forever favourite, flambée with Grand Marnier …

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Recipe inspired by Les crêpes de Jeanne-Marie from La Bonne cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange

55 g (4 Tbsps) butter
250 g (2 cups) flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
6 eggs
400 ml (1 3/4 cups) milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 Tbsps rum
Zest from 1 lemon

Butter or clarified butter = ghee* for cooking

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Melt the butter and remove from the heat.

In a large bowl, mix the flour with the sugar and salt and make a well in the mixture. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring them into the flour with circular movements. Pour in the milk little by little, whisking continuously to obtain a smooth batter. Add the melted butter, vanilla, rum, lemon zest, and stir well.

Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.

When ready to make the crêpes, remove the batter from the refrigerator. The batter should be nice and runny, and at this stage will probably require a little more liquid. Add water, a couple of tablespoons at a time, until the perfect consistency is achieved. **The best way to check the consistency is to make one crêpe and decide whether it is thin enough. Most people agree that the first crêpe never turns out perfectly anyway — the pan is never the right temperature! — so it can easily be sacrificed as a test.**

To cook the crêpes: Heat a non-stick skillet until it is piping hot (a drop of batter poured onto the pan should sizzle) then lower the heat to medium. Grease the skillet with a paper towel dabbed with butter (or clarified butter — there should only be an imperceptible coating of fat in the pan). Holding the skillet in one hand, pour a ladle of batter with the other, carefully but swiftly turning the skillet in a round motion to cover the surface with a thin and even layer of batter (if there is too much batter, pour it back into the bowl, if there isn’t enough, quickly add a little). As soon as the surface of the crêpe is dry (barely a minute or two depending on the heat), lift it with a spatula and turn it around (or flip the crêpe by tossing it, if you feel so inclined). Barely another minute and the crêpe is ready. Repeat, stirring the batter lightly with the ladle from the bottom up between each crêpe.

The best way to keep crêpes warm is to place them on a plate over a pan of simmering water, covered with another large plate or lid. They will not dry out that way.

Garnish with the filling of choice — classic sugar and lemon, or jam, chocolate, apple sauce, etc. — then roll or fold the crêpes to eat!

*Madame E. Saint-Ange suggests using clarified butter, which is a good idea since without the milk solids, the butter doesn’t burn as quickly. To clarify butter, melt in a small saucepan and continue to cook slowly until the milk solids have both risen to the surface and attached at the bottom. Skim off the top layer and pour the clear butter without the solids into a clean bowl. Keeps well covered in the refrigerator.

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