Crespelles (Italian Crêpes)

If you've never made crêpes before (I hadn't, this was my first time) they can seem daunting. So thin. Will they burn? Will they stick? Aren't crêpes just too fancy and too...Frenchy?

Nope.

They couldn't be easier to make. I got the hang of it after one or two and after that it was smooth sailing.

This is a lightened up version compared to traditional crêpes recipes that turned out great.

Crespelles (Italian Crêpes)

(from here)

1 cup flour

1 1/2 cups 1% milk

2 large egg whites

1 whole egg

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

cooking spray

==

Most recipes call to make this in a blender. I don't have a blender, so I used my food processor. It worked fine.

Toss in the milk, eggs, oil and salt and give it about 10 long pulses. Maybe a full second for each pulse.

Add the cup of flour.

Repeat the pulses as above: Ten, one second pulses.

Transfer to a bowl and let the batter sit in the fridge for about 10 minutes or until the bubbles are gone.

==

Grab a small, non-stick pan and put it over med/low heat. Rule of thumb here is that if the crêpes brown before they flip, it's too hot, if they take more than 30 seconds to cook, it's too low. You'll get the hang of it pretty fast.

My pan measured 8 inches across to give you perspective.

==

Give the pan a quick spray of oil.

Immediately spoon in 2 tablespoons of batter.
(This would be easier if I had "2 tablespoon" measure, but I just quickly did 2 spoonfuls and it worked out fine)

I eventually found that starting on one side of the pan gave me more even crêpes.

Swirl it around until it covers the bottom of the pan. Don't worry about it being perfect.

Cook for 30 seconds or until the edges start to come up from the pan.

Flip and cook for 10 more seconds.

I actually used my fingers to flip them from the edge, but if you don't have callouses, use a spatula and be careful not to tear them.

Stack on a plate to cool. Don't worry, they shouldn't stick together.

This batter made something like 22 of them.

I ended up making a savory dish with these, but had the leftovers for breakfast this morning with some butter and raspberry jam. They were fantastic! I could have eaten 30 of them.

They were light and airy, but had some tooth to them. You can taste the egg and it went really well with butter.

Overall, this was a really fun experiment with making crêpes and I am very glad that I tried. I'll make more in the future, for sure.

Enjoy!