Proper French Crêpes

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Getting great-tasting, paper-thin French crêpes is possible at home, but only if you get the proper cookware and know how to use it. Let me show you!

If you can't see the video above, click on Proper French Crêpes. The high-definition version is available on Vimeo when you click above.

I also uploaded the same video on Youtube which is perhaps faster.

Many of you wrote me to ask why I didn't post any article for the last two weeks. Be calm, thou blog reader, I didn't fall on my Japanese Knife nor choke on my last piece of Montgomery's Cheddar. In fact, I was working really hard for you guys, but video, my new medium, needs lots of bells, whistles, adapters and cables to produce simple-looking content. But we are getting there, and finally here is an installment some of you have been asking for over a year - how to prepare paper-thin French Crêpes.

My not being Breton, nor a professional crêperie chef will demonstrate, I hope, that anybody can achieve these amazing paper-thin crêpes - with the proper tools.

Allow me to insist that the thick, flat crêpe pan is a must. Of course if you could get a professional Bilig, those large electric crêpes burners, that is even better, especially with two of them set at different temperatures for cooking each side of the crêpe. You really, really need to add the milk glass by glass or you will have lumps. And Hervé This, the French food scientist and bel esprit, has tested the kitchen lore that says that crêpe batter whisked by hand tastes better than one made with the same ingredients in a kitchen mixer.

There are more recipes of crêpes than belfries in Brittany. If you look for variations start with the savory buckwheat crepes, cooked in the same manner. Some recipes add vanilla, orange flower blossom, oil or melted butter.

The crepe pan is sold by Le Creuset and Staub. Make sure to get the wooden batter spreader, called rozell in Britanny.