crêpes are better than pancakes

This is such an easy recipe, and seemingly simple to make …yet it’s the men in my household who have mastered the crêpe. They stand there above the stove on most Sunday mornings, in Pj’s and crazy hair flipping thin discs into the air with ease. I get to make the whipped cream while someone else tackles the washing and chopping of fresh fruit. When I have tried to make them in the past they are very tasty, but they look like monsters complete with multiple heads and tentacles! “Oh look, mama, this one looks like an alien” my daughter will say. Is alien a step up from monster? Perhaps there is hope for me yet, but for now pie dough and crêpes just aren’t something I have mastered.

Ingredients (2 of everything for about 12 crêpes) :

2 cups of white flour
2 eggs
2 cups of milk (we use 2%)
2 tablespoons of butter

Directions:

In a large bowl pour in milk, add eggs and flour (you can also add a pinch of cinnamon if you want). With an electric mixer, blend the batter until there are no lumps, about 1 minute. Turn on your oven’s warming drawer (if you have one) to high and put a plate in there. Next, heat up a non stick pans on your cook-top to a medium-low setting (we usually have two pans going, it speeds things up). Melt 2 tablespoon of butter, swirl it around and add the excess to the crêpe batter. In your left hand hold the pan off the heat (if your are right handed swap these instructions around) and with your right hand pour about 1 cup of batter into the pan (we use a soup ladle). With your left hand swirl the pan a little to spread batter out flat and even. Cook until lightly golden and then flip it over (or if you are like me and cannot do that magical flip thing, a good old spatula will do!) and cook again until that side is golden too. Plop it into the warming drawer and repeat! Makes about a dozen crêpes.

NOTE: I thought I would mention that the first couple of crêpes usually don’t come out very nice -they end up in the trash! Don’t lose hope right away.

What is better: the pancake or the crêpe? Our family prefers crêpes because they are thinner and lighter and don’t make you feel like you swallowed a brick sponge when you get up from the table! What do you think?