What are you cooking?

 
From a professional to all beginners, crêpe makers and orange lovers, this is how I like my pancakes / crêpes suzette. This recipe comes in 3 parts: first we make the batter, then we make the crêpes, finally we make the orange syrup. The recipe itself is simple and very cheap for how exquisite it is. I will lay down all the details that I learned by myself over the years, but if you don't put your heart into it, magic will never happen. Alrighty then, let's cook!



For the batter:
1 Liter (34 fl oz) Milk
300g (10.6 oz) Flour
3 Eggs (medium sized)
3 teaspoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Butter
Pinch of Salt

Optional:
Orange zest (grated)
Vanilla extract

For the orange syrup: (one portion / 2 crêpes)
150ml (5 fl oz) Orange Juice (2 medium sized Oranges juiced)
4 teaspoons Sugar
1/2 Tablespoon Butter
Orange Zest

Optional:
30ml (1 fl oz) Grand Marnier (orange liqueur)
Vanilla ice cream... or even better orange flavored ice cream
Whipped cream? ... don't  

Part 1: The Batter

When you look at the ingredients for the batter described above, you will see that everything has a number 3 in front or can be divided by 3. This recipe makes 16-18 crêpes in my largest non-stick pan. You can use use a cast iron pan if you have it. I don't use it because of the hot handle it has as you cook the crepes. It's annoying to use gloves. You can start with 5-6 crêpes so this means you will use about 300ml milk, 1 whole egg and 100g flour with 1 teaspoon of sugar. Need twice the amount? Just double or triple everything when you invite your friends over. It's that simple

* Tip for beginners: Use 800-850ml of Milk for this recipe. Nobody uses as much milk as I do. I use 1 Liter to increase both the quality and quantity of crêpes. They become very very soft and there's a trick I will explain later.

These crêpes can be filled with all kinds of jams, chocolate, ricotta, fruit, ice cream... so I prefer to keep the sugar amount as low as possible, since almost all fillings have sugar in it already. I don't like to use orange zest in the batter because it doesn't add flavor. If you also want your crêpes to have orange flavor, the best option is to go for orange extract... not orange juice(never substitute cow milk with other... liquids)  

Tools you'll need: bowl for mixing, whisk and a sieve.

First, beat your eggs (*phrasing) with that pinch of salt. The result should be a foamy golden liquid.

 

Add some milk, depending on the quantity you want to make. Not too much milk. For this recipe I added maybe about >50 - 75 ml of the milk at this point, that you mix with the eggs. Next you mix that flour with the sugar. Add the flour mixture to your eggs and milk mixture.

!!! It must be a dense creamy mix because we need to create some elasticity. You can only do this when the batter doesn't have much liquid in it... meaning just enough to combine the ingredients but have a consistency that you can actually whisk.

 

Here it seems that I needed to add a bit more milk. Don't add too much. You can't remove liquid once incorporated into the flour.

 

Mix the extra milk(in case you needed to add it) and incorporate these ingredients present at this stage of making as well as you can.

 

Now comes the trick I mentioned. You need to develop some gluten in that dough. Otherwise, when you use more milk, it will be hard to flip the thin pancakes in your pan. They need to have some strength to hold them together, because they are very soft.

What you do is you whisk the batter in a circular motion(whisk pressing on the sides of the bowl in the lowest part) with a fast speed, like you were a mixer. Like with the eggs, but it will be harder now that we have added flour. It will be a workout. You really need to count how many times you go with your whisk to make the circles. You need to do about 100 at this stage. Count them, I'm not kidding It's very important to do this before you add the butter. If you do too many the crêpes will become chewy. If you do to less, it will be extra hard to flip them in the pan.

I repeat myself. Once the ingredients at this stage have been well incorporated, whisk the batter in a circular motion, against the sides of the bowl, as fast as you can, while counting up to 100. If it's too hard, take a break, or do it with your other hand to complete the number

At the end, here's how it will look like. It already looks like success and your forearm will tell you the same. I can't believe people go to the gym to exercise

 

Add the melted butter and vanilla or orange extract, then mix for about 50-70 times like described above, resulting with 150-200 total whisking cycles. I know it sounds dumb, but it works

 

Congratulations! Your workout is now over. You can see that batter actually holding it's shape a little bit because we created some elasticity into it. Good job!

 

All you need to do now is.. add milk. Smaller portions at first...

 

Mix until it all becomes smooth and sexy

 

Continue adding the rest of your milk, until all of it has been incorporated.

 

You've done a great job so far. We're only 1/3 of the way to Heaven, and you've just made a world class crêpes batter
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Good job editor... the parser is messed up and I can't edit out the extra markup at the end

Part 2: The Crêpes

After I have finished making the batter, I always pass it to a 2 Liter plastic water bottle(cleaned) through a sieve. It's easy to pour the batter into your pan this way. Because we have done such a great job so far there's not that much to sieve. I rest it at room temperature for 30 min to 2 hours. In the fridge you can leave it overnight.

 

Heat your pan to medium high gas/ fire. As you become more skilled at this, you will find the right flame and will always cook the crepes perfectly. Feel free to adjust the volume of the fire more to medium or to high as you see necessary. Crepes cook fast. Turn off your phone and ignore any distractions, otherwise you'll burn your house down

Once the pan is blazing hot, pour the batter...

 

I stop once it fills about 50% of the bottom of the pan. Then, put the bottle away, take the pan in your favorite hand, and with a gentle but firm wrist movements cover the bottom of your pan with the liquid batter. You do a circular motion, or more... like you would have a ping-pong ball in your pan and you want to move it in circles around the shape of the pan.

 

Set the pan back on the stove...

Now, very important! You might need to oil the pan a bit, at least on the first one or two crepes. When I use the pan for something else, it always happens that the first crepe sticks, then the rest are fine.

When you are a beginner, you can always add a little bit of oil with a soaked paper towel... just to gain some confidence. You wouldn't want this to happen

 

You have successfully spread the batter on the pan and you wait for it to cook. If the batter is done correctly and the fire has the perfect heat, magic shapes will start to appear [/size]

 

When it's ready to turn, you will see the edges slightly golden a bit. Depending on how hot the pan is, these will become golden or even darker brown pretty fast. Better be careful...

 


Another tricky moment here. You need to flip the crepe. Sometimes the edges will start to peel off the edge of the pan, but most times this will not happen. If you're not so enthusiastic for the feel or burning fingers, please use a spatula to release the crepe from the sides. Confidence is key. You need to be fast. Release it from more sides if you see it necessary, so you can flip it. It's the only time it can stick to the pan, so take your time. With patience you'll develop the skill and you can do it like this:

 

Turn it upside down so that it cooks on the side with the bubbles

 

Maybe for 15-20 seconds, no more and then flip it back. The crepe no longer sticks to the pan so you can either flip it with your hands or just use the pan. To flip crepes in a pan, you do need to use your elbow more than your wrist this time. Pick up the pan, bring it closer to your body and with a quick forth and back motion(little bit on vertical and horizontal, something circular again). If you do it right, even if not perfect, the crepe will at least land back on the pan. You'll get a feeling for it with practice.

If you want to practice flipping crepes, use a folded kitchen towel and play with the flipping part before you start making the crepes.

 

Repeat until you have finished all the batter you made

 

Your heavenly desert is now 2/3 on its way

Part 3: The Orange Syrup

I must mention that I used too much sugar and butter for the one portion I've made. Please use your imagination and remove half of the sugar and butter you see inside the pan... or double the quantity of orange juice you use... making everything perfect for 2 portions.

You can make some slices of orange, without skin, like it was described here . The only extra thing to do once you cut off all the skin, is to use a sharp knife to now cut along side the white skin of the orange slices to get only the pulp part without extra skin. This is optional.

 

Put the sugar and butter into your cold pan. Set the heat on medium-low. Wait for everything to melt and use a fork to mix it around a bit.

 

It should look like so

 

As soon as it gets a golden color or slight brown, add your orange juice (150ml in my case, it should've been ~300ml for a less orange lollipop and more fresh orange taste).

 

You see that you now have caramel candy that you need to melt in the orange juice. Use the fork to do that... gently, circular motions where you see caramelized bits.

 

All melted? Turn the fire to low heat, remove the zest(I burnt it ) and add your folded crepe.

 

Cook on each side for about a minute, then use your fork to fold it again to a triangle. Gently poke it and move it to your plate. Do the same with your second large crepe and decorate with the syrup and orange slices. Bon Appétit!

 

 

 

I can't make videos so here's a different twist to the recipe. Bruno is my favorite chef after Marco Pierre White

I was searching for something else and this one popped up. The demonstration is similar to how I make my dough. I wish I had a pan like that

Enjoy



"For a 30x40 homemade baking tray you will need:

340g Type 0 flour (300w, 11-12g protein)
1g dry brewer's yeast (2g if fresh)
238g first water
27g second water
8g salt

Mix flour, baking powder and the first part of water for 2 minutes, cover with a lid and leave to rest for 15 minutes at room temperature.

Resume by putting the salt and half of the second water and knead for 6-7 minutes by hand with the "Spampatti" technique, bumping into the bowl.

Add the last drop of water and knead again for 4-5 minutes until the dough is elastic, cover with a lid and let it rest for another 15 minutes at room temperature.

Turn the dough over on the table and make a fold every 5 minutes (total twice).

Place in a bowl and refrigerate at 4/6 degrees for 18/24 hours.

Make the loaf and let it rise for 3-4 hours (it must double), roll out, season and cook at 250 ° for 12-13 minutes.

Pizza doesn't need words."

Love it when kids make traditional/ancient hand mixing methods as "Spampatti" technique...

 

Preparing the butter slab and the tangerine syrup glaze... not much sleep tonight.

The weather is perfect Resting the dough outside ... because no room in the freezer