Crêpe Recipe.....

I thought Masterchef would inspire me and true to form, I seem to be constantly thinking about recipes at the moment.
I had an abundance of milk at the weekend, so requests for milkshakes and crêpes came flooding in from my OH and son. I did intend to take photo's to accompany this post, but unfortunately no-one would comply with my requests to be arty and in their words 'mess about'....they just wanted to eat them! I whisked about one and a half litres of milkshake, but it still disappeared too quickly. I normally make a mango milkshake but this week I had bought 3 punnets of strawberries from the market...so strawberry won. The trouble is my son doesn't like the pips so call me soft or stupid, but I stood and sieved the whole mixture. I must admit it did look better and tasted delish.
As for the crêpes, I mixed double the quantity and I still had to referee, making sure that everyone had the same amount.

{The mixture reminds me of a mysterious newly discovered solar planet}

I could say we had either berries, strawberries, brandy syrup, chocolate or numerous other suitable accompliments but both my guys just like them simply with either maple syrup or honey.
They stand watching whilst I cook and collect them as soon as they leave the pan, so its a race but I'm beginning to get sneaky...I try to start cooking to get a head start....but they suddenly appear when they get the whiff of crêpes in the air.

{Once again is this a new moon perhaps?}

My cast iron frying pan is perfect for cooking crêpes. But have to confess its a little tricky trying to photograph them cooking as they're done in an instant, once the pan gets up to the correct temperature.

As I mentioned above there was not chance my boys would wait whilst I tittervated the crêpes....

they just disappeared within seconds....hence having to copy someone else's photo : (

 { Copyright © 2005 David Monniaux }

I must get on with this evenings meal...and hopefully I'll get back with more recipes AND photo's soon.

Crêpe Recipe

4oz Flour

1 oz Vanilla Sugar

1 oz melted Butter

pinch of salt

2 Eggs

8 fl oz Milk

Method

Sieve the flour and salt.

Mix the eggs, sugar and half of the milk.

Whisk into the flour.

Add remainder of the milk.

Fold in the butter.

Allow the batter to stand for 2 hours.

Note - If you want a really light batter, seperate one of the eggs and beat the white. Add it to the mixture just before cooking. It may be necessary to add more milk to this mixture.

To Cook

Lightly coat the bottom of a well prepared crêpe pan (a good frying pan will do) Cook quickly on both sides.

The crêpes may be stacked and reheated - they also freeze extremely well....but I never get a chance to do this!

For all the following recipes the crêpes may be prepared in advance.

Crêpe a la confiture - {with jam}

Cook in normal way and spread with jam, roll up a dust with icing sugar.

Crêpes au citron

Cook, fold in quarters. Serve with wedges of lemon and sugar, may also be served a l'orange.

Crêpes Normande

Re-heat the crêpes in butter. Spread with apple puree. Fold in half and sprinkle with caster sugar and

flame with calvados.

Highland Mary Pancakes

Re-heat the crepes in butter. Spread with marmalade, fold and flame with whisky.

Crêpes Suzette

Make a suzette butter by mixing the following.....

100g Butter

100g Golden Caster Sugar

150ml freshly squeezed orange juice (about 12 large oranges)

2 tsp finely grated orange zest

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

3 tbsp Grand Marnier

2 tbsp Cognac

For the sauce, heat the butter and sugar in a deep frying pan (about 25cm/10in) over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar begins to dissolve. Turn up the heat and bubble quite fast, until the mixture starts to go brown and caramelise (about 4 mins), stirring only towards the end. Pour in the orange juice and add the orange and lemon zest, letting the mixture bubble for 3-4 minutes to thicken slightly. Add the Grand Marnier and cognac, heat for a few seconds and lower the heat.

Put one crêpe into the juices and holding it with a fork coat it well in the mixture. Fold it into quarters and push to one side of the pan. Continue the coating and folding with the remaining pancakes. Serves 2-3 Crêpes per person with the sauce.