[Sca-cooks] crepes

Fields Family Farm fields at texas.net
Mon Sep 20 06:40:06 PDT 2010


In Paris, where I first had crepes made professionally for me where I could
see it, the vendor, with his cart on the side of the street, used a flat
griddle and a ladle.  He poured the batter out onto the griddle with a
spiral motion, and then spread it with the bottom of the ladle, not a
'spreader'.  It came out beautifully flat and thin.  But then again, he'd
probably done tens of thousands of them.

When I came back to the states I tried to find a crepe recipe that would
duplicate that texture/taste/consistency.  I tried at least 5 or 6 recipes
from my favorite cookbooks (this was 18 years ago, so before most websites),
but none of them were quite right.  So, through a process of
experimentation, documentation, and testing, I came up with my own crepes
recipe.

It may not be the 'perfect' crepe, but it duplicates the delicious ones we
had from that street vendor in Paris:

2 cups milk
1.5 cups flour
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 tablespoons melted butter
a 'pinch' of salt (optional)

Don't put 'hot' butter into the mix - let it cool a bit first.  Add
everything together at once, and whisk until smooth.  The batter will be
thin and liquid.  Re-stir it in between ladles to keep the butter mixed in.
Make sure the pan is hot enough that a drop of water will 'dance' on it.
Ladle it into the pan and swirl the pan to spread it out.  Or, if you're
using a griddle, I suppose you could use a 'spreader'.  Cook until 'done' -
it takes practice to tell when they're done.  You can flip them and brown
the second side slightly, if you like them that way.  This recipe usually
makes about 8-10 crepes, depending on the size of your ladle.  I've cooked
these in non-stick pans, and properly seasoned cast-iron.  I don't know how
they'd do in stainless.

I've used that recipe for years now, and they come out wonderfully each
time.


Hrethric



On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 7:34 AM, Elise Fleming <alysk at ix.netcom.com> wrote:

> Stefan quoted and wrote:
> >The one from Le Menagier de Paris says:
> <<< CREPES. Take flour and mix with eggs both yolks and whites, but >throw
> out the germ... >>>
> >What does the "throw out the germ" mean here?
>
> Since I get the digest, someone's probably answered, but I think it's the
> little firm, whitish bit that you find in the egg white.  It doesn't melt or
> go away and would make a small lumpy bit in an otherwise flat crepe.
>
> >And this: <<< And let the iron or brass skillet hold three chopines, and
> the sides be half a finger tall, and let it be as broad at the bottom as at
> the top, neither more nor less; and for a reason. >>>
>
> >I thought chopines were shoes? At first I thought it might be referring
> >to having three pancakes in a pan, but the recipe already talks about
> >making one pancake in the middle of the pan, which doesn't allow space >for
> more pancakes.
>
> Whose translation are you using?  Which Le Menagier did you see?  Some
> people know medieval French better than others and the others may have not
> used the correct word.
>
> Alys K.
> --
> Elise Fleming
> alysk at ix.netcom.com
> http://home.netcom.com/~alysk/ <http://home.netcom.com/%7Ealysk/>
>
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