Tasty Tuesday - Crepes!

Birthdays are big in our house. Well, I make them big anyway. Everyone gets to choose the birthday dinner and the type of cake ... and I'll make it. We've done everything from Peach Cake to homemade bagel dogs to pasta with carbonara and more. Thursday was my birthday. So of course I got breakfast in bed. Well, I at least had breakfast made for me. Ok ok ok, so I had to make my own special birthday breakfast.

That's ok, because it was worth it. I know Melisa thinks I made these for her, but really I made them in honor of her, so there's no reason for her to be upset that our double recipe was gone by the time we finished our meal. Besides, she was in Tennessee and far away; they would have been gross if I'd saved them for her.

Easy Crepes

Ingredients*:
2 eggs
1 c milk (rice milk for us)
1 c flour
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 t butter (or in our case dairy free dairy substitute), melted

Directions:
Place all the ingredients into a blender - the eggs, flour, milk, salt, and melted butter. Turn it on, starting at low and moving it up until it's blended. This will take only a few seconds. You want it completely mixed but don't want to keep mixing it so that you don't have tough gluten filled crepes. This is going to be an extremely thin batter. Don't panic that it's too thin. Trust me.

Once you have the mixture blended, stick it in the fridge for a half hour or so (or do it overnight - covered - if you want to have these when you first wake up. Yes, everything is already cold, but when you let mixtures with flour (pie crust, pizza dough, pasta, etc) rest after mixing, it allows the flour to relax so that it isn't as tough and that you can keep it from snapping back together as you work with it. Just trust me and do it.

I have an actual crepe pan, which is nonstick and very shallow. If you don't have a crepe pan, you can use a frying pan, but try to use the shallowest one that you own. Heat the pan on medium heat, and brush the pan with oil so that your crepes don't stick. With my pan, I have to brush it once (and this is just a tiny tiny bit of oil) and never again for a batch. Depending on your pan, you may need to reoil it as you go.

I always use a measuring cup to do my crepes. I dip a one-third cup measure into the batter then pour it in a circle at the center of the pan. Immediately, you must pick up the pan and twirl it in a circle. Don't do it slowly, or your batter will cook where it is an not spread across the entire pan. That doesn't mean you have to toss the crepe, but your goal is to have it reach the full circle. It takes a little practice, but you'll get it. Once you've twirled it and had the batter cover the entire pan, place it back on the stove and let it cook.

It will take only a minute or so to cook on the first side. You'll know it's ready when you see the edges start to get almost crispy and begin to pull away from the edge a little. I use a wooden fork to flip my crepes, as it's the easiest and most effective tool I've found. Use a tine of the fork to pull the edge of the crepe away from the pan, then slide the fork under it (use your fingers to hold the crepe in place, as needed) and lift. Flip it over, then let it cook on the other side for another thirty to forty-five seconds.

Remove the crepe to a plate and decide what you're going to fill it with. Some suggestions from my family? Nutella, Nutella with sliced bananas, cherry preserves, cherry preserves with Nutella, maple syrup, maple syrup with bananas, bananas with Nutella and whipped cream. Whatever your filling, place it in the center of the crepe in a line from one end to the other. Carefully fold the crepe over the line, then roll it up. Serve immediately.

If you're making these for later, you can separate them with waxed paper to store. They actually store great in the freezer, which had been my original intention when making the double batch. Silly me. And yes, it's possible to make these into savory crepes (mmm Thai chicken or creamed spinach). But I need some Nutella in my birthday breakfast crepes.

*This is a single batch. For my family of four, I made a double batch (about 16 crepes) that was a good meal for us but were all gone with no leftovers. I figure I'll be doing at least a triple batch by the time Mister Man is a teenager.

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Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Also posting now with A Southern Fairytale and her Mouthwatering Monday.