Crepes

We've been on a bit of a crepe-fest around here. I'm not sure what prompted it, but possibly it was just that I found a recipe that was simple and never failed. It's so good, in fact, that the teenager in the house used the recipe to make a 20 layer crepe cake for a French class assignment with no help from me.

Our usual fillings are much less grand. Fresh squeezed lemon juice and sugar is the most frequent, with Nutella and strawberries a close second, although recently we combined the two with lemon curd and strawberries.

The original recipe came from Paper and Ink. The only alteration we make is to reduce the amount of sugar and vanilla. Maybe it's my vanilla, but I felt it was too strong, and with so many of our fillings being very sweet, having the crepes a little less sweet gave a better balance. I leave both vanilla and sugar out for savory crepes


Basic Crepes

1 c flour
1/4 t salt
1/2 T sugar
1 1/3 c milk
1 t vanilla
3 eggs
3 T melted butter

Sift together flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Whisk together the milk, vanilla and eggs. Gradually whisk the milk/egg mixture into the dry ingredients blending thoroughly to eliminate lumps. Whisk in the melted butter. If possible, allow the mixture to stand for 30 minutes.

Heat a crepe pan or 12-inch nonstick skillet to medium. Lightly coat it with butter. About 1/3 cup batter and quickly swirl to cover the bottom of the skillet. Cook until the underside is golden brown - about 2 minutes. Loosen the edge with a spatula, flip the crepe and cook another minute. Repeat until the batter is used up, adding more butter to the pan as needed.