- Buckwheat Crêpes
18-20 crpes
It's best to let the batter chill overnight, but let it come to room temperature prior to frying them up. And keep stirring the batter as you go while frying since the flour tends to sink to the bottom.
2 cups (500 ml) whole milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons (80 gr) butter, salted or unsalted, melted
1/2 cup (70 gr) buckwheat flour
3/4 cup (105 gr) all-purpose flour (In France, I use type 65)
3 large eggs
In a blender, or with a whisk, mix together all the ingredients until smooth. Cover and chill overnight.
To fry the crpes, remove the batter from the refrigerator about an hour before frying. Stir it briskly; it should be the consistency of heavy cream. (If not, you can add a tablespoon of milk.)
8- to 9-inch skillet on the stovetop. You can use a real crpe pan that's been seasoned, but I use a Tefal non-stick skillet which works great.
Drop a tiny piece of butter or neutral oil in the hot pan and wipe it around with a paper towel. (I only do this for the first crpe.)
Lift the pan and pour 1/4 cup of the batter in the middle of the hot skillet, swirling the pan to distribute the batter quickly and evenly. The pan shouldn't be too hot or too cold: the batter should start cooking within a few seconds, giving you just enough time to swirl it. It may take a couple of crpes for you to get your rhythm.
After about a minute, run a non-stick spatula around the underside of the rim of the crpe, then flip the crepe over. I grasp the crepe with my fingers, but you're not me (…consider yourself lucky!) and I'm not you. So use the spatula if you wish.
Let the crpe cook on the flip side for about 30 seconds, then slide it out onto a dinner plate. Repeat, cooking the crepes with the remaining batter, stirring the batter every so often as you go.
Crpes should be served warm. To rewarm the crpes for serving, fold the crepes and put them in a baking dish covered with foil. Heat them in a moderate oven until warmed through.
Serving I fried up a stack this morning and plan to serve them with a spoonful of ruby-red cherry compote and a scoop of melting homemade vanilla ice cream tonight. But feel free to be creative and use any fruits or sauces you wish. A smear of Nutella, your favorite jam or simply a drizzle of honey and a tab of butter is terrific folded inside. For savory crpes, fold some grated cheese and maybe a piece of ham in the crpe and warm in a non-stick or lightly-buttered skillet for a minute or so, flipping the crpe midway though, until the cheese is melted.
Storage
Since this recipes makes 18-20 crpes, it may be more than you need all at once. But if you're going to stand over a hot stove, you may as well make extra and freeze them. Once cool, wrap securely in plastic film, then foil. They'll keep in the freezer for a couple of months. You can also store them in the refrigerator for up to three days, well-wrapped.
Other posts on crpe-making:
Jam Crepes from Heidi.
Deb's crepe cake
Clotilde's crepes and galettes de sarrasin
Shuna's recipe for Whole Cherry Sauce appears in Edible San Francisco, along with my Olive Oil Ice Cream
My two favorite creperies in Paris.
And The Magic Pan lives on !
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Categories:
Extras , Recipes
Tags:
Breton , Brittany , buckwheat , crepe , creperie , France , galette
33 comments
35 AM
I use my iron skillet, as did my granny before me- same one! This is my comfort food. I don't even know what others are talking about when they say that of macaroni and cheese, because that was merely what we had to eat every few Friday nights. Crepes R it.
It was a frequent winter Sunday supper. Of all of them, my favorite is what my mum called "crepes simples". Butter and brown sugar, then rolled up into a cigar. I have since dropped the butter. There are a couple of things right with roots half in Brittany. This is one of them. (That bag of stuffing in the pot au feu is definitely another!)
30 AM
Miam miam!
31 AM
David,
Here's a great savory crepe filling: My Scallop Crepes
36 AM
Yum! I just might have to make some crepes tonight!
21 AM
50 of my closest friends to the grand opening. The recipe was very
70′s…Harvey Wallbanger crepes…a filling of vanilla pudding from a box flavored with galliano and orange peel. Someday I might try to re-create them the Slow Food way, with a creme anglais from scratch! And I too loved watching Paula in Paris. The wonder of a first-timer. Great!
35 PM
F**k the crepes! We want to see photos of you in a dress!
51 PM
ha! what a clever title :)
15 AM
My favourite crepe stall is the one at Marche des Enfants Rouge. They also sell sandwiches and blinis. Organic flour and all that, a crepe sucre costs 2 1/50 euros but is the best version I've tried so far. The end result looks more like brandy snap than crepe, lots of crisp caramelised bits yet still soft with nice bite.
23 AM
Adrian: If that's what you want, I expect a dinner invite first. And a room afterwards.
No make that a suite…
Umami: I really like the Japanese stall there. I haven't tried the crepes there (but I always say yes to crisp caramelized bits!), but there's a good stand at near Montparnasse that's about a big as a phone booth that only sells them right off the griddle.
Mariann: My favorite was the ‘brick' of ice cream folded in a crepe for dessert. And indeed, it was a big rectangular brick of vanilla ice cream! It was doused with chocolate sauce and probably an inhuman amount of whipped cream (which is why I probably liked it).
I don't remember any Harvey Wallbanger crepes, but from the sounds of it, I don't think I missed anythingexcept a nasty hangover.
I was surprised to see the Magic Pan still exists somewhere, and not just in our imaginations : )
00 PM
The silly joke in the the beginning reminds me of an old journalist joke.
Raw journalist to seasoned journalist: Hey! How do you end a story?
Seasoned journalist: With a period, boy. With a period!
Can't go wrong with crepes. Too tasty for words.
Cheers!
19 PM
I went to the Magic Pan last week in Chicago! I didn't know it was around in the 70s. I thought it was new so I'd try it out. I was disappointed and I actually wrote a post on my blog about it today. Yo might like it.
http://chewonthatblog.com/?p
193
It'll be worth clicking on, trust me :)
53 PM
I made a crepe cake for a family dinner last Christmas. Everyone was wowed, and, as a bonus, it was really delicious. It was definitely worth the time it took to make.
34 AM
Oh yes I know about the phone book stand crepe place too in Montparnasse. ? rue Odessa. I am in that neighbourhood often because of French phonetics class and for afternoon tea it's either crepes or pain au lait. The crepe there is excellent, especially if the young lady makes it.
42 PM
Anna Maria Albergetti?!? My god, I haven't thought of her in eons but I do remember well those Good Seasons commercials! But unlike you, I rebeled by always going over each mark just a little. I've always been like that…
16 AM
hi dear, nice to see your web. you seems crepes professional. i am looking for Japanese style crepes recipe, do you know French style, American style of crepes are different from Japanese one. Japnese crepes are crispy. i tried a lot of recipe, but can't reach to "crispy" and difficult to search out Japanese recipe. Can you help me somehow? thank you, appreciated it. thank you for your time. Vivien
03 AM
Hi David,
Do you think this recipe would work with all whole wheat flour? I'm trying to stay away from the "white foods" and would love to be able to eat crepes!
12 AM
Danielle: I don't know, but if you want to try one, perhaps try using one of the finer whole-wheat flours, like the pastry one. There's also something called "white" whole-wheat flour, but I've not used it.
53 AM
Hi David:
A post-Magic pan suggestion in Chicago would be ‘La Creperie' on Clark St.-when it first opened some 25
years ago, it was a small cafe' with the owner-cook stationed near the front in full view of the patrons making the crepes on large griddles. Now, the front cooking area is still there but uused as the cafe has grown with an expanded dining room and outdoor seating but still the same great bretone-style crepes. Another place overseas that I've enjoyed is the Pancake Bakery in Amsterdam at Prinsengracht 19
