Here you will find my ultimate favourite homemade easy French crêpes recipe! These crêpes are thin, light and delicate, ready to be filled with your favourite sweet or savoury fillings!
What are Crêpes
This classic European favourite originating from France is a definite winner. These light crêpes can be enjoyed for breakfast, brunch, lunch, snack and even dinner, or any time you crave! Even though the sweet version might be the most popular, savoury crêpes aren’t to be dismissed as they are truly incredibly scrumptious. Originating from Breton, France, these can be made either with normal wheat flour or buckwheat flour. The latter is famously known as galette bretonne that has savoury fillings. Here, in this post, I will be focusing more on the recipe which uses the normal wheat flour. Even though, they might look intimidating to make, these crêpes are ultra quick to prepare and you only need a handful of basic ingredients.
How to make Crêpes
As already mentioned, making the crêpes themselves is quite easy, although at first they might be intimidating. The first crêpe most probably won’t be a success, but don’t worry with time and practice you will easily get the hand of it. Making the batter is incredibly quick. There are several methods out there, but this is the one that has worked for me in the recent years where I have been improving my crêpes. In a large bowl, mix in the the eggs, sugar, salt, butter and rum, to create a wet mixture. To this, all at once add the flour, mix well until there are no lumps and you get a thick batter. Gently start streaming in the milk, so that the batter starts to loosen and you will get a runny batter.
Once done, I like to let the batter chill for at least 30 minutes. You can also prepare batter the night before and let it chill overnight covered in the fridge. For the sweet crêpes I like to add icing sugar to the batter for that added sweetness. However, if you are making savoury crêpes, I recommend that you either leave out the sugar completely or else just add a teaspoon.
Best way to cook them
Once it’s time to cook them, grab a non-stick pan or skillet and heat it up. Lightly grease with butter. For my crêpes pan, which is around 25cm, I use a 1/4 cup of batter. As soon as I ladle the batter in the pan, I lift it up and swirl the batter around so that they are uniform and thin. I cook it for about a minute, then gently lift the sides with a thin spatula and flip it over. Let cook for a few seconds so that it caramelises. Repeat until all are done.
How to fill these crêpes
The beauty of crêpes is that they are a blank canvas! Although they can be enjoyed on their own, they are more commonly filled with something sweet or savoury. Since I’ve been living here in Luxembourg, and can find crêpes literally everywhere and at any occasion, I can say that I had a good share of crêpes. Some of my favourite sweet fillings are the famous nutella or speculoos spreads, which can be either left as is or topped further with fruits and nuts. Another classic are the crêpes suzette, the caramel ones, or cream and fruit, however don’t forget to sprinkle a generous amount of icing sugar on top to finish it off. For the savoury ones, my favourite are a simple ham and cheese, or else others filled with egg, vegetables, other cured meats and even seafood! The options are truly endless.
FAQs
Storing these crêpes: Fridge and Freezer
This recipe makes a good number of crêpes. Luckily, crêpes are easy to store for later and then simply reheat. To store the crêpes in the fridge, start by stacking on top of each other the crêpes by layering in between a piece of parchment paper. Cover with plastic and store in a zip lock bag or in an airtight container. The crêpes can be stored like this in the fridge for not more than 3 days. Or else, you use the same method and freeze them. Like this, they can last up to two months.
To reheat, you can either give them a quick setting in the microwave, or else you can gently reheat them at a low temperature in the oven. Occasionally, I have also reheated them on the stove in the same pan. However, be careful with the latter so that you don’t over cook and end up burning them!
Easy French Crêpes
Ingredients
- 250 g flour
- 500 ml milk
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 20 g butter melted
- 60 g icing sugar
- 15 ml rum optional
Instructions
- In a large bowl beat together the eggs, sugar, salt, butter and rum to the mixture.
- All at once add the flour and whisk it in to create a thick batter.
- Gently stream in the milk, mixing every time to avoid clumps. You will end up with a runny liquid batter.
- Heat up a crêpes pan or a non stick pan on medium heat. Grease it lightly with some butter.
- Ladle the batter on the pan* and move around until it’s all covered and there is a thin layer cooking. Let it cook for about a minute and flip over, cook for a few seconds until both sides are nicely caramelised. Repeat until all the crêpes are cooked!
Notes
If you have any questions, feedback or comments on this recipe, please leave a comment below. Please also rate this recipe by double clicking on the stars below. If you did make this recipe, tag @apronandwhisk and hashtag #apronandwhisk, as I’m curious to see what you create!
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Very nice, we ❤️ crepes! I can still remember that cake you made of crepes and exquisite chocolate filling…
They are always good <3 I need to make that one soon!