RECIPE | SIMPLE CREPES

One night, while Daniel was working late and after Jack was asleep, I got the crazy idea in my head to try to make crepes as a surprise for Daniel. I did a little internet research, watched a hilariously dry and awkward Martha Stewart video about her preferred crepe recipe (great tips though) and realized I needed to really scale back on the proportions she used (and I didn't have quite the caliber of ingredients she called for on hand) so I improvised and came up with this really simple and easy crepe recipe for three. 

You will need:

1 cup pastry flour (I used White Lily brand)

1 hearty dash of salt

1 1/2 cups cold whole milk (don't skimp on the fat!)

2 whole eggs and 1 additional egg yolk

2 teaspoons melted butter (unsalted)

Step 1) sift salt and flour through a large sifter into a medium sized-mixing bowl. 

Step 2) In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs and egg yolk. After the eggs are thoroughly beaten, whisk in the whole milk as well. 

Step 3) Make a little well in the flour (like a volcano), pour the liquid mixture into the middle of the well (aka volcano) and mix with whisk until the flour dissolves into the liquid. After that, mix in the butter and strain the entire liquid mixture into another bowl. It should have the consistency of a heavy cream and appear as below. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Step 4) Heat another two tablespoons or so of butter on medium heat in a smallish non-stick pan. You should choose your pan based on how big you want your crepes. Once the pan and butter are hot use a ladle to pour in 1-2 ounces of crepe batter. Pick the pan up off of the stove and rotate the pan until the crepe batter spreads around and covers the entire bottom. As the crepe is cooking, use a non-stick spatula to make sure the edges of the crepe do not get stuck to the pan. Once the crepe slides around the pan easily without sticking, it's ready to flip. I sprinkled a little brown sugar on each side of my crepes just to add a touch of sweetness and to help the crepes brown up a bit. I like my crepes a little more on the done side so that they appear like so:

Step 5) Choose your toppings! This is the really fun part. I grabbed all the condiments out of my fridge that could possibly be yummy on a crepe and let everyone in the family choose which one they wanted. This included: peanut butter, honey, chow-chow, goat cheese, bananas, pepper jelly, chocolate almond spread, applesauce and honeysuckle jelly. Pictured below are my two favorite combinations: chèvre goat cheese + honey and the Trader Joe's chocolate almond butter + bananas. 

This was an awesome family brunch recipe, especially for Jack who loved picking his own toppings and who persistently maintained that these were called pancakes. We will definitely be making these regularly from now on! 

Sarah