Today I got up and went down to volunteer... on an empty stomach. Not a good plan, EVER! We all know we should eat breakfast, although it is the effort, so early in the morning, especially when you are not a big eater in the morning either, like myself.
To be honest, my body just doesn't want food in the morning (unless i'm on holiday). I can only eat around an hour or two after getting up, if I don't want to feel ill. Which means if I don't want to see visions of food where ever I go, I need to get up earlier. Which to be frank i'm cool with- I'm a morning person anyway. The only downside being is that no one else in the house will probably be up at the same time as me, meaning i'll be sitting by myself, or eating by myself with no one to talk to. Needy I know. This has been well established- i'm a people person. It is not that I can't cope with my own company, i'm a big fan of me. Me and me are two peas in a pod. I mean sure i'll annoy myself with my questions from time to time, but it's me. I can't stay mad at me for long. It would be impractical.
Boy do I love to talk. It doesn't matter who you are, if you are up for a chat, i'm your gal! It annoys Cushla and mama though I think, especially early in the morning. This being the time when all they want is a cuppa and time to charge for the day. But nope. They have, as mother calls me a 'motor-mouth' as a housemate. Chatter chatter chatter- rather like this post so far. Let's get to the crepes eh?
The ingredients for these are;
- 100g Plain Flour
- 300ml Milk
- 2 Eggs
-Hob on high to heat pan, then down to medium for cooking. I work with 6 to heat it and then go to 4 to cook.
- Plus any extras you may like on your crepes. I used Nutella for Cushla and Maple Syrup for myself. But you could opt for sugar, fresh fruit, jam or if your feeling like you deserve a special treat and it is a reasonable time of the day, you could saute (this is to gently fry) the crepes in butter until warmed through and add a little cointreau and flambe it. Flambe is to set the alcohol on fire in the pan and let the alcohol burn off, leaving the taste, but taking away the sharpness.
This recipe is probably well- established in many published recipes, but I heard of it from Linda. Linda is like a second mum- so I trusted her on this, and I was right to. We were in France and one night Linda decided to make crepes with cointreau. So she did and they were delicious. Sweet and slightly tart from the cointreau. Perfectly balanced. But it was 4pm when I made these- just shy of happy hour. ;)
Firstly what you want to do, is measure out all you ingredients and chuck them all into one bowl. Not only is this a quick and scrummy dish that could be a great snack or meal, but it is also dishes friendly. One bowl, a whisk and a spatula- now that is a dish I can roll with on a week day when it sometimes isn't viable to spend ages cooking and all you want is some food in your tum tum that is yum yum.
You want to measure them all out now, not only is it practical, but this isn't like a cake recipe. You can't add things at different times. If you did, you'd be likely to get scrambled egg, sprinkled with flour and then soaked in milk- creating some sort of inedible soup food. Once you combine all the ingredients before cooking and mix it all up, it is bliss. Smooth, silky and sumptuous. It is a beautiful mixture that promises taste and it delivers.
Heat up the pan until it feels hot when you hover your hand over the base. Don't go touching the base unless you want crepes with a side of hand. :) Add a teaspoon of butter to the pan when heated and move the pan from side-to-side. This evenly coats the pan with a silky, buttery blanket of deliciousness. Butter is always good. Like they say in Julie and Julia 'You can never have too much butter'. I love butter. Butter and I are buds.
Pour a ladle full of the batter into the pan and using your handle, move the pan from side-to-side or in a circular motion like you did for the butter to create the crepe like shape. The amount of batter needed for each crepe will depend on the size of your pan and your hunger. I was super hungry and made quite large ones. Piggy moment.
Leave the batter be now. Let is chill. This requires patience. Listen to some music, do the dishes, dance with the dog, have a glass of wine- do whatever needs be to stop yourself from poking and pulling at the crepe. It is independent and doing its own thing. Let is cook and bubble and brown.
I run a silicone spatula along the rim of the crepe to ensure it doesn't stick to the sides and also this allows me to make sure that it is browning on the bottom. When it looks to be suitably speckled with golden brown specks, flip it over.
Now, you can approach this one way or the other. Choice numero uno- being the spatula flip. To do this, you simply and gently slid the spatula under the center of the crepe, lift slightly and then in one swift move, rotate the spatula and presto we have a fully or semi- flipped crepe. Well done- I don't mean that to sound patronising. It's harder than you think, I can't recall the amount of times I've dropped a crepe, or split it in half.
The alternative being to be brave. You and the crepe must become one. Dos become uno- as Miranda would say. You need to believe in yourself and have the confidence to accept whatever happens.
You basically take your crepe cradled in the comforting warmth of the pan and flip it into the air. Do this by manipulating it to one end, normally the end not facing you and as you did for the spatula method, quickly flip it upwards. Hopefully this will then result in a flipped crepe. All you have to do is remember to catch it after flipping. I haven't on a few occasions and dropped them. Resulting in all the love and care you put into making this beaut food, being harshly made known to you in the form of a smooshed, sad and now unloved food product on what were formally known as your clean floors. It's a good thing I have a live-in, walking hoover- Toff Toff. My beloved wee pooch!
Once you have one crepe done, depending on how many you are making, you can put the finished ones into a pre-heated oven on an over safe plate. I do this on a ceramic dinner plate at 50C on a fan assisted oven.
When they are all completed, turn off the hob, as no one wants a burnt pan, and eat up with whatever you want.
Currently listening to 'I want To Know What Love Is'- Foreigner. I feel that this song perfectly illustrates my love for crepes and how I feel when they aren't in my life. Love to me, is having a full tummy of crepes.
To make the nutella crepes for Cush, I flipped the crepe when the first side was cooked and then after a few seconds, maybe a minute, I got a teaspoon of nutella and put dollops of it around one half of the crepe. I then got my trusty pallet knife and spread this evenly around to cover one half of the crepe. (You could use a knife, or the back of a spoon)
I then folded the crepe over on itself and served it up.
Hope you liked this. Sometimes the simplest of dishes can be the very best. xxx
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