Your First Crêpe Recipe

By Kara Morris, written on Oct. 11, 2008

When I was younger I followed my best friend’s parents around their house asking them about food; her father is a limitlessly curious and creative food epicurean and her mother can throw together any pie or cake without a recipe.

Inspired by this culinary duo, I began to teach myself to cook. The first recipe I learned was from a children’s cookbook. It’s a fairly simple crêpe recipe that doesn’t use sugar so you can serve it with ham and eggs or as a dessert with berries and whipped cream. I passed it on to my younger brother when he was 5; by 6 he could flip the crêpes without a spatula and we’d make them together for our sisters and parents.

Crêpes
If you want to challenge yourself, try making this recipe sans spatula.

1 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
2 eggs
4 tablespoons melted buttter
2/3 cup milk and 2/3 cup water mixed together

1. Mix eggs and some water/milk mix in bowl
2. Mix flour and salt in separate bowl and whist dry ingredients into liquid a little at a time
3. Pour in remaining milk/water and whisk until well-blended; add the melted butter
4. Heat a skillet on medium then brush with 1/2 of melted butter bit of butter*; you can also cut a thin slice of butter and spread around your pan with the tip of a knife.
5. Pour about 2 tbsp of butter in pan and immediately tilt from side to side to spread batter
6. Let cook for about one minute, or until the edges have curled slightly, then flip and allow to cook for 10-20 more seconds
7. Serve with jelly, whipped cream, berries, pudding, chocolate sauce, eggs and ham, etc

* if you don’t have a brush you can cut a small potato in half, stick the rounded end with a fork, dip the flat end in butter and spread–this is traditional French technique, according to a French friend

This summer I made crêpes for dinner with my roommate. In France, crêpes are actually eaten fairly infrequently and are only served for dinner.