Dessert Crepes

French/France

Dessert Crepes are one of the most popular desserts in the world. The word crepe comes from a Latin word Crispus which meant crisp. So famous that it even has it’s very own Holiday. February 2 is known as le jour des crêpes (‘the day of crepes’) and folks make crepes, and apparently most make them for dinner. In the beginning it was a religious holiday. It is also known as La Chandeleur (‘the return of the light’), because it symbolizes that Spring is on it’s way. the crepe looks looks like the sun and reminds us that the cold winter will soon be over. Some say it is also the French Groundhog Day!
There is a legend that crêpes were born of a “happy accident,” when a 13th-century housewife in Brittany, France accidentally spilled some buckwheat porridge from a kettle in the fireplace onto a flat cooking stone, but other sources put crepes much earlier on the timeline.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs well beaten
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon Bourbon
• pinch of salt
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 1-1/4 tablespoons melted butter
• 1/2 cup sifted flour
• 3 teaspoons sugar
• Clarified butter for frying

Description:

Add all ingredients, but clarified butter, to beaten eggs. Beat with a rotary beater until smooth and let batter stand at room temperature for one hour.
*Clarified Butter: melt 6 tablespoons butter in a heavy pan. Let stand a few minutes and then carefully pour off clear liquid which clarified, discarding residue which is left.
Heat a skillet or omelet pan until a few drops of water sprinkled in the pan bounce across and evaporate. Brush pan with clarified butter. Pour in about 2 tablespoons of batter and quickly rotate and tilt pan so that the bottom is covered. It will set brown in about 20 seconds. Turn and brown other side. Slide onto a warm plate. Repeat above until all batter has been used.

Submitted by:

Mary Kurtz