Crepe-tastic!

eating crepes at a mittelaltermarkt in Germany

 

A couple of years ago I was able to travel to Germany.  It was absolutely wonderful and I very much want to return.  While there I ate a lot of delicious food and drank a lot of delicious beer.  While this was my second trip to Germany, it was my first experience with crepes.  Savory, sweet, delicious crepes.  I had to learn how to make these, but all the places I visited in Germany had all these specialty tools.  There was a special pan or heating plate that the crepes were cooked on, a wooden dowel type dealie for crepe magicking, and a knife-spatula-flipper hybrid.  I don't have the storage space for so many single purpose items. So I set out to teach myself how to make crepes.  I had basically figured it out and then I forgot about the magical deliciousness of crepes until a couple of weeks ago when my brother asked me if I could teach him how to make them.  All of the recipes I read on the interweb were complicated and made a million and a half.  After some experimenting and serious quantity reduction, I came up with this killer crepe concoction.  Bonus: the Weight Watcher Point Plus value is 1 point per crepe. 

Crepes: makes about 10 crepes

Ingredients:
1 large egg
1/2 cup of flour
1/2 cup of 1% milk
1/4 cup of water

That is it, just four ingredients! The type of flour is really up to you, it depends on what type of crepe you want - I usually use white flour for the versatility. If you use a different type of flour, the Weight Watcher point value may change.  You can also add other things to the batter.  For sweet crepes, I am fond of adding a splash of vanilla extract (that is what the brown in the picture is) or a tablespoon or two of cocoa powder (chocolate crepes are amazing!).  You can also add sugar or sugar substitute or any herbs or seasonings, whatever you are in the mood for.  Rosemary whole wheat crepes with a chicken, spinach, and mushroom filling sounds spectacular: I am making myself hungry.

Many of the recipes I read required you to whisk the ingredients in a specific order and sing a song while spinning in a counterclockwise circle.  While I understand the importance of all that and respect the people who swear by it - I just put it all in my Magic Bullet and gave it one serious blend.  I have not noticed any difference between whisking with kitchen voodoo and blending the hell out of it.  Besides, this way, cleanup is a snap! 

While you are blending away, your pan should be heating up.  I turn the burner to medium high heat.  You will know when your pan is hot enough by using the pancake trick: water droplets should sizzle and disappear immediately.  A few notes on the pan: I use a 9 inch nonstick pan.  It makes smallish crepes (approximately 7 inches in diameter).  You can use a larger pan, but the point value may change.  I have never used anything but a nonstick pan, so I don't know how it would work in a stainless, copper, or whatever other kinds of pans exist. 

Now comes the most complicated part: trying to take a picture while pouring batter in the pan.  You really should pour the batter in the the center of the pan, and not the side like the picture shows.  Oops.  I don't know exactly how much I pour in, 1/8 of a cup maybe?

As soon as you pour however much batter into your pan, immediately lift the pan off the heat and rotate it (clockwise, counterclockwise, whatever makes you happy) so the batter coats the entire bottom of the pan.  Return the pan to the heat when the batter stops moving. 

Let that bad boy cook until the batter stops looking all raw like and the edges start to curl.  Then flip it over!  I just reach in and grab the curling edges with my fingers and turn the crepe over.  Sometimes, if I am feeling especially fancy, I will shake the pan a bit to be sure it is slipping easily about the pan and then do some fancy wrist flicking to flip it.  I am not always successful.  You are welcome to use an egg turner, spatula, tongs, Snow White's song birds . . . just make sure they stick around for clean up!

Let it cook half as long as the first side, or until you feel it is done, you know, whatever.  Then remove from pan.  Repeat about 9 more times.  Then fill with your favorite filling.  I am partial to nutella.  Or applesauce and cinnamon.  Or peanut butter and banana.  Or cheese, Canadian bacon, and spinach.  I am making myself hungry again. 

 

Once again, all pictures were taken in my tiny and dark apartment kitchen with my iPhone.  Except for the first picture, that was taken in Germany with a purple Nikon Coolpix.