Crepes or The French Thin pancakes

Hello Foodies, This recipe comes from straight from Brittany. I have spend quite a bit of time working in the North west coast of France, The Country side where the Crepe was born in the 13th Century. This is the best recipe for Crepes i came across. I am sharing it with you from the heart of Brittany in France and the bottom of my Heart . My crepes are very thin and light in texture. They will make you want more as one wont suffice. This recipe is for the sweet lovers as i am using plain flour, not buckwheat, which is for the savoury crepes. Get the sugar, lemon, Nutella, butter, jam, preserve, Peanut butter, almond butter, sliced fruits. Gather whatever you feel like ready..... they are to DIE for.... Bon Appetit Frenchy
Servings: 16 yield(s)
Prep Time: 75 mins
Cook Time: 20 mins
Total Time: 95 mins
Ingredients
    This recipe makes between 14 and 18 Crepes depending the size of your crepe pan. (i used a 26cm diameter crepe pan)
  • 630 ml Milk (Full cream)
  • 260 g Flour (Plain or all purpose)
  • 200 g Cream (sour or whipping cream (liquid cream))
  • 4 Eggs (240 g (4 x 60 g))
  • 40 g Sugar
  • 40 g Butter
  • 1 tsp Vanilla paste (5 ml of Essence ( 1 scraped pod))
  • 20 ml Rum (Calvados, Brandy, Grand Marnier, Cointreau, Brandy, Whiskey)
  • 1 pinch Salt
Instructions
    Making the Crepe Batter
  1. Using a scale, measure correctly all your ingredients. As you know by now, if you have seen all my recipes i do not use cup as measurement as it is not precise enough and Patisserie is a science. Using your microwave and a plastic container, melt your butter. (10 seconds burst do the trick 2 to 3 times).
  2. Keep the butter aside to cool down a little.
  3. meanwhile in a large bowl or a jug, Place your full cream milk.
  4. Add the cream to the milk.
  5. Add the eggs. (Crack them first in a bowl and remove shells)
  6. Using a hand blender or a whisk, Mix well all ingredients. The hand blender helps to really liquefied the eggs. (it takes a minute)
  7. Place a sieve over a bowl and put the flour into the sieve. It gets rid of lumps, impurity and aerate the flour.
  8. Add the sugar to the flour.
  9. Add a pinch of salt.
  10. And sieve it all together. This way you do the motion only once. (Tip of the day aahahah ). If you follow well what did we do here ??? all wet ingredients mix togehter on one side and major liquid ingredients mix together on the other side.
  11. Place the dry ingredients you just sieved in a large bowl... You could have done this in a large bowl already and save yourself cleaning a bowl.
  12. Create a little well in the center.
  13. with a whisk mix in the middle of the well and slowly add the liquid ingredients. Keep whisking in the center. As you pour the liquids and mix it will gently incorporate the flour on the side.
  14. Keep up the same technique and add more liquid.
  15. As your crepe batter is getting thicker, add more liquid.
  16. Here all the liquid is in the bowl and i gently finish mixing it all together.
  17. Done.
  18. To prevent any lumps, sieve your batter in a clean bowl.
  19. Good job, no big lumps of flour. Well done Frenchy... if you had big lumps, you could be in trouble as the crepe wont cook properly and hold together. you will need to re mix the flour into the batter.
  20. Time to add the vanilla.
  21. Add 1 tea spoon.
  22. Add your melted cool down butter.
  23. Add the rum. 1 cap for the taste.
  24. One more for Luck
  25. hein hein hein...........
  26. Give it a quick mix all together.
  27. Cover the crepe batter and rest for 1 hour at least. If you cook them stray away they will shrink during cooking .. and i m not Even joking.
  28. Cook the Crepes
  29. You can buy a crepes pan or have an omelette pan or use a non-stick pan. Make sure it is clean. This pan has been around for a while i can tell you and still go alright. Make sure you heat up on high heat and reduce the heat to medium. It will take you few crepes to find out how high or low the heat should be... Too hot they will burn and dry too quickly.. to low they remain white and taste like plastic. So heat up the pan, and if like me you have spray oil at home, spray a bit of fat on your hot pan. AWAY FROM THE FLAME, please be safe. otherwise use a clean cloth with a bit of oil or a bit of butter. Oil the pan between every crepes.
  30. Take a full ladle of batter in one hand and on the other hand the hot pan. Pour the laddle of crepe batter all at once and with a circular movement, make the crepe batter to stretch all over the pan. you should hear PSCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH as you pour the batter.
  31. Start on one side of the pan.
  32. Keep going around.
  33. Keep the circular movement going.
  34. You are nearly there. Shake it down.
  35. Bam, perfect you have made it. Cook it for 1 minute on one side. be observant on the edge of the crepe and see how dark it becomes. Also look at the crepe, from wet mixture it looks white and opaque and little holes should open... This is a great sign.
  36. Once the edge of the crepe looks a little brown and you cant see anymore wet patch of batter, start to get the spatula all around the edge of the crepe. This will ease the flicking of the crepe in the pan.
  37. With the spatula lift the edge of the crepe, hold the tip gently and do not burn yourself and slide the spatula under the crepe.
  38. Push on the spatula against the pan to not damage your crepe. slide it to 2/3rd of the way.
  39. Lift the crepe straight up.
  40. And flick it on the other side. Cook for another minute. they should be like this one, the same colour. so check the heat under the pan if they are to dark or to pale.
  41. Once cooked, place it on a clean plate. If you want like my grand ma used to do sprinkle some sugar on top, just a little.. It keep them nice and moist and sweet.
  42. Serve them with a little sugar, lemon juice (freshly squeeze)
  43. Crepes should be paper thin, 1 to 2 mm they are not pancakes...
  44. You could serve them on a plate (3 per persons, Chocolate mousse, Raspberry coulis, Vanilla ice cream on apple crumble and fresh leaves. Bon Appetit Frenchy.
Recipe Notes

You can keep the better for 48 hours in the fridge covered. You can keep The crepes covered in the fridge for 3 to 5 days, but i doubt it will last that long. Enjoy them warm with any topping or just as they are.  I like them warm with a little bit of soft butter and Raspberry jam.