I got up a wee bit late today and decided to treat myself with my favourite brunch item: crêpes. The wonderful thing with crêpes is that you can plan to make them anytime and always have the ingredients and equipment ready. I left the batter to stand for a little over 30 minutes while I finished off my other kitchen chores.
The recipe is one I adapted slightly from Isabelle‘s blog, a great source for french recipes with plenty of illustrated instructions. Wish I also had someone to take pics of me flipping the crepes high up in the air. That was definitely lotsa fun and you get the hang of it pretty fast. You can double or triple the recipe for a larger batch.
FLIP – IN – THE – AIR CRêPES
Ingredients:
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 pinch salt
1 egg, room temperature
2/3 cup milk
2 tbs caster sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Method:
- Combine flour and salt in a large mixing bowl.
- Add egg and whisk together. Gradually add milk to mixture and continue to whisk until well blended.
- Add sugar and vanilla. Keep whisking until batter is smooth.
- Cover and leave to stand for 30- 60 minutes.
- Lightly oil a crêpe pan [or frying pan if you dnt own one].
- Pour about a 1/4 cup batter in the pan and quickly swirl the pan to spread batter so that it coats the surface evenly.
- Cook crêpe for about 30-45 seconds before flipping over.
- Run a silicone spatula under crêpe to make sure it is not sticking to pan before you attempt to flip it in the air.
- Cook until the other side is also lightly browned.
- Grease pan lightly before cooking each crêpe and enjoy flipping them in the air! Makes 4-5 crêpes [for 1 person].
Crêpes were not the only thing I made today. My interest in yeast experiments lead me to give the country crust bread featured on The Way The Cookie Crumbles a try. While my skill at braiding the loaf still demand lotsa practice I was quite pleased with its texture. It was still very soft hours after it was out of the oven and even better when I warmed it up for a minute or two in the microwave. I have no doubt that it will keep well till breakfast tomorrow.
COUNTRY CRUST BREAD
Ingredients:
3 – 3 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp table salt
1 cup lukewarm water
1 egg, room temperature
2 tbs unsalted butter, melted or vegetable oil
3 tbs honey or 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 sachet (10g) instant yeast
Method:
- Adjust oven rack to low position. Heat oven to 200 0C.
- Once temperature reaches 200 0C, maintain heat 10 minutes, then turn off oven heat. Mix flour, salt, and yeast in bowl of stand mixer fitted with dough hook.
- Mix water, egg, butter, and honey in a measuring cup.
- Turn machine to low and slowly add liquid.
- When dough comes together, increase speed to medium.
- Mix until dough is smooth and satiny for about 10 minutes.
- Stop machine two or three times to scrape dough from hook.
- Turn dough onto lightly floured work surface.
- Knead to form smooth, round ball, about 15 seconds.
- Place dough in lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap.
- Leave to prove in warm oven or any warm spot until dough doubles in size, for about 40 to 50 minutes.
- To braid the loaf , divide dough into three equal portions.
- Gently roll each portion into a 16-inch length.
- Braid the pieces together, then pinch the ends together.
- Tuck them under the loaf and place on a lined baking tray.
- Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in warm spot until dough almost doubles in size, 20 to 30 minutes.
- Heat oven to 350 oF. Place an empty loaf pan on bottom rack. Bring 2 cups water to boil in a small sauce pan.
- Remove plastic wrap from loaf. Place baking tray in oven.
- At the same time pour the heated water into the empty loaf pan, then close oven door. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes.
- Remove bread from pan and transfer to a wire rack.
- Cool to room temperature. Slice and serve.
10 comments
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May 3, 2010 at 2:54 am
Isabelle
Your crêpes look wonderful! I love the nutella zig-zag pattern on them! It makes me want to make some more. I haven’t had any since that time when I put the recipe up on my blog 🙂
May 3, 2010 at 8:30 am
anju
This time when i come down i think i should come and take lessons from you Prerrna. 🙂 Looks deliciously and you take lovely pictures.
May 3, 2010 at 2:36 pm
prerrnamirchi
It would be nice if a group of food bloggers get to meet and plan a cookout someday 🙂
May 4, 2010 at 12:24 am
Ashley
Yummy! Nutella is one of my favorite toppings. Thanks for sharing.
May 4, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Carine
Crepe!!! It is time that I make some!! Love the nutella pattern too 🙂 I wanted to try your petit pain au chocolat but I was too lazy! I don’t like to work with yeast! Not patient enough.
May 5, 2010 at 4:09 pm
prerrnamirchi
Hi Carine! I guess you can make dough for breads & buns and leave it to prove overnight in the fridge. The low temperature will slow down the rising time and you can easily shape and bake them the following morning for breakfast.
February 13, 2013 at 11:20 am
maya
im gonna make the crepe for my hubby tomoro for breakfast valentines day special treat for breakfast
February 14, 2013 at 6:04 pm
prerrnamirchi
happ v-day maya!!
June 12, 2013 at 9:28 am
Begum
Hi, this is fabulous…I’ve never tried bread baking before but is giving it a thought now….:)
June 17, 2013 at 8:32 pm
Twinki
Great. I must try this.