Happy Pancake Tuesday everyone!
Today I've decided to share my mother's special crêpes recipe. My mum used to bake crêpes for us every Saturday and still does when we go over on holidays. She usually makes sweet ones, but when we have guests, she also makes savoury crêpes, using buckwheat flour. I don't want to pass as pretentious, but my mother's crêpes are just the best (and I have a lot of friends and family who can testify).
In Brittany, crêpes are a National Institution. NO, Crêpes are not French, they are Breton!! And friends who know me know I am VERY fussy about them. I like making crêpes the proper way, using the same flour as my mum's (so they can taste the same), and baking them on a "Bilig" (Crêpe maker in Breton), not a flat pan. I rarely go to the "Crêperie" and if I buy a crêpe in shop or at a stall, I always have some criticism... At this point, you must think I'm being a bit unreasonable completely crazy, and you might be right. I'm just very protective of my beloved crêpes.
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| Wheat flour from my town |
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| Buckwheat flour (also from my town) |
So, if you want to make the best crêpes in the world, here is the recipe:
For approx. 30 "sweet" (or "wheat") crêpes, you will need:
1L of full fat milk
400 g of plain flour
200 g of sugar (150g if your watching your weight!)
20g of Vanilla Sugar (not compulsory, it's hard to find some in Ireland)
A pinch of salt
4 eggs
A knob of butter (melted)
Put the flour in a bowl
Add the sugar, salt, and the eggs
Starting from the centre, whisk the ingredients and add the milk little by little (so that there is no lumps). When you have poured half the milk, add the butter.
Add the rest of the milk while still whisking.
I think the secret (or at least that's the way I do it) is to whisk slowly so that, at the end, the batter is very liquid and there are no lumps.
And now the recipe for "Savoury" (or "Buckwheat") crepes:
1L of full fat milk
300 g of buckwheat flour
100 g of plain flour
1 tea spoon of salt
4 eggs
The rules (Yeah, because Breton people are very serious about crêpes):
The sweet crêpes are folded in triangle and the savoury in rectangle.
You never fill the sweet crêpes on the crêpe maker. You do it on your plate (so that it doesn't stick)
You always fill the savoury crêpes on the crêpe maker (so that the cheese melts, the egg cooks and so on...)
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| Savoury crêpes |
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| Sweet crepes (I know, there are not in triangle, it's because they were cooling down!) |
And if you ever come to my house to eat crêpes, there is one rule. You will have to try and make one on your own!
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| Fabrice's first crepe at my mum's many many years ago |
The most popular savoury crêpe filling in my region is Ham,Cheese and egg, also knows as the "Complete".
My favourite sweet crêpe filling is sugar & lemon, and my favourite savoury is cheese & ham.
What's your favourite filling?
