Crepes!!

Crepes are probably one of the most glorious things in the world. I've been obsessed for years. I discovered crepes and nutella on a school trip to France and came home craving them. Since there's no place in my teeny tiny little collection of towns I live in who serve crepes, I've had to learn to make them myself.  I received The American Boulangerie cook book by Pascal Rigo not long after my discovery into the crepe world and have been making them from his recipe ever since. 

                              

Here's what you need:

3 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 + 3tbsp sugar

2 tsp salt

4 large eggs

5 1/3 cups milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp rum

3 tbsp unsalted butter

veggie oil for pan

Mix dry ingredients and create a well. Crack the eggs directly into the well. 

Slowly combine the flour into the eggs until it becomes hard to stir.

Then slowly add the milk. This is a slow process and it's a lot of milk so if you're using a one cup measuring cup make sure you're paying attention to how many cups you've added. It's very easy to lose count. Believe me. 

This is what it should start to look like once all the milk is added.  Add the vanilla and rum now. 

Grown up sized whisks are a PLUS! Whisk this up until it's all combined and smooth. Cover and let it rest at room temperature for at least one hour. 

This is what it'll look like after resting so make sure to give it a good stir! Now you're ready to start making some crepes! 

You can use a specialty crepe pan or a regular frying pan. Just make sure it has slightly rounded sides so you can flip them more easily! Here's a picture in a crepe pan and fry pan. My crepe pan was very sticky today so I ended up finishing in a frying pan.  

Use a 1/4 or 1/3 measuring cup (depending on your pan size- I used 1/4 in the crepe pan and 1/3 in the fry pan).  Put some veggie oil on a paper towel and rub it around the pan. Scoop the batter and quickly pour into the pan while swirling to coat the entire base. Your batter should sing to you when the pan is ready. I don't usually hear it when I put it in at first but I hear it when I flip it.  It may take you a few tries to get this right. It's really important that your pan is the right temperature. I find that for my stove it's right above medium heat.  Often I have to move between a few levels to get the right temperature as my pan is gaining heat while cooking a large amount of crepes.  

Let the crepe cook for about 1 minute on the first size and flip for about 20 seconds. I use a small spatula and my finger to flip these guys. I use the spatula to loosen the sides of the crepe and use my fingers for the rest of the flip. They will be HOT. You might want to take a different route and use a spatula for the whole flip. 

It took me about an hour to make my whole stack. make sure you watch the batter and give it a stir when needed. Don't worry if these aren't pretty, it'll give the final cake character. I even used the ones I ripped.

You can eat these as it. Add your favorite fillings--I can't have nutella anymore but I love crunchy cookie butter or smores (roasted marshmallows and chocolate). Or make a {cake}.