How to Make Crepes
I recently learned how to make crepes from my mom’s boyfriend, Bill. Every year he has a crepe party for Easter. He sets up several “crepe stations” around the house and yard — an electric cooker, griddle, bowl of crepe batter — and a central table indoors, covered with different crepe fillings. The fillings range from savory to sweet: sauteed mushrooms, spinach, ricotta cheese, ham, chicken salad, pimento cheese (oh yeah duh, I ate that one!) to strawberries, whipped cream, mascarpone, peaches, Nutella, bananas, peanut butter, jelly. This year I was in charge of manning the exterior crepe station and it was so much fun, you guys! I got the hang of it quickly (it’s way easier than I thought it would be) and was just flippin’ crepes left and right alongside my trusty, bottomless mimosa.
So here’s what I think makes crepes so much easier than they seem like they ought to be: butter. And eggs. Mostly the butter. Like waffle batter, crepe batter is high in the butter and eggs department, when compared to the amount of flour in the recipe. Butter (and eggs to a lesser extent) doesn’t stick to pans. This is why such a delicate, thin pancake is really kinda of a piece of crepe to flip.
Get it?
I kill me.
In this crepe recipe, I’ve got some smoked salmon, spinach, and a caper-dill cream sauce that’s really fairly low in fat for as creamy as it tastes. I think the combination here makes a great breakfast, brunch or lunch crepe. Then, if you want, you can have a second crepe course and fill them with Nutella and strawberries instead or do a classic like crepes Suzette.
Some people like to make sweet crepes if they’re gonna fill them with sweets, but I prefer to keep it simple and use the same batter for sweet or savory crepes. If you are making sweet dessert crepes and you really want to make sure they’re dessert-y you can add 1 tablespoon of sugar to the following recipe:
PrintCrepe Recipe
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- Butter for cooking (a tablespoon)
- Batter:
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Fillings:
- smoked salmon, spinach leaves
- Caper-Dill Cream Sauce:
- 1/3 cup plain, nonfat yogurt
- 1/3 cup Mexican crema, creme fraiche, or sour cream
- 1 tablespoon capers, drained
- 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Make the crepe batter by whisking all ingredients together. Set aside for at least 30 minutes or refrigerate covered up to 2 days.
- Meanwhile, make your sauce by mixing all those ingredients together. Set aside.
- When you’re ready to cook, heat a griddle or an omelet pan (nonstick or stainless steel, lightweight is best) over medium heat with a tiny bit of butter, 1/2 teaspoon.
- Swirl the butter around and when it’s just beginning to turn golden, lift the pan off the heat with one hand.
- Pour in 1/4 cup of batter with the other hand and gently tilt the pan so that the batter covers the bottom, or makes a circle on the griddle about 6″ across.
- Put the pan back on the heat and cook about 1 minute.
- Flip the crepe with a spatula if using a griddle. If you’re using a skillet, it can be hard to get a spatula in there, so you can wiggle it out onto a plate and then flip it back in. Or use your fingers like I do in the video, but it’s hot and dangerous.
- Cook another 30 seconds on the other side, then slid onto a plate.
- Fill with a few slices of salmon, some spinach, and a tablespoon of sauce. Serve with more sauce on top. These are good hot and at room temperature.
Notes
To double the recipe: 1 cup flour 1 cup milk 1/2 cup water 4 eggs 4 tablespoons melted butter 1 teaspoon salt
More Savory Crepe Ideas!
Thinly sliced ham, grated Swiss + creme fraiche
Kalamata olives, diced tomato + basil
Cream cheese, black pepper + lemon zest
Spinach, sauteed mushrooms + Parmesan
Smoked trout, horseradish cream + red onion
Sweet Crepe Fillings:
Sweet crepes, especially those involving any kind of spread (Nutella, jam, etc) can be served folded into quarters instead of rolled.
Nutella, sliced bananas and/or strawberries
Strawberries (raw or stewed) + whipped cream
Mascarpone cheese, honey + fresh figs
Ricotta cheese, cinnamon, lemon zest + chopped dates
Any fruit jam or marmalade + whipped cream
Lemon juice and powdered sugar (just sprinkled over top of rolled or folded crepe)
Ice cream (Oh, zip it.)
Do-Ahead Crepes!
If you want, you can make up a stack of crepes the day before, put them on a plate and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate up to 24 hours. Reheat them quickly on a griddle. Et Voila!
And if that isn’t enough, here’s 5 more crepe fillings to try!
21 Comments
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Another good sweet filling would be cottage cheese and fruit 🙂 Roll it up and add a little bit of cool whip to top it off. Yum! Thank you for sharing this recipe Hilah!
Oh cottage cheese! Thank you, Laura. That would make a great healthy breakfast crepe. 🙂
Is there an easy way to make these gluten-free?
I’ve used the Pamela’s Gluten Free Pancake and Baking Mix before for other stuff. Do you think it would work, in place of the flour in this one? Or should I just try it and report back?
Do you think the crepes would freeze well? Maybe put a piece of wax paper between each before freezing, so they don’t stick together?
Looks delicious!
Hey Miguel!
I think that would work fine. Another thing you could try is using half GF mix and half buckwheat flour. Buckwheat crepes are very popular in Russia and have a nutty flavor that is really nice.
Crepes can also be refrigerated (stacked on a plate, covered in plastic) for 24 hours and reheated on a griddle or frozen (tightly wrapped). Thaw frozen crepes overnight in the fridge or on the counter for a few hours, then peel apart and reheat. Wax paper shouldn’t be necessary, but might help guard against tearing.
Please do report back on what you do and how it goes! Thank you!
For filling, mix farmer’s cheese, cream cheese, an egg, sugar, and a little salt — a blintz!
Is it the filling that makes a blintz vs a crepe? I’ve wondered. To me, blintzes are always sweet, is that right?
Sweet cheese-filled blintzes are the most common, but we’ve gotten (frozen) potato blintzes and I’ve seen blintzes filled very similarly to your salmon and dill cream recipe. The main differences between your crepes and blintzes is that the crepe is rolled around the filling like a burrito, then sauteed again until browned on both sides.
Aha! Thanks for clearing that up!
I really must say that it wouldn’t hurt if the crepes had some color to them .
Fry them just a little bit longer,you only need to have a nice color on the side
that will be showing.
And don’t be stingy with the filling people !!
Thanks Yvette! I like them really soft, but they do look prettier with a little brown. Either way!
Hi Hilah
When you get the ingredients together you set the warm water aside because its to hot but you dont show when you added it
This is to make the Crepes
Hey Danny!
The water is added with the rest of the ingredients. Just whisk it in. That part of the video got cut out. oops!
awesome!..this is so much easier than the other recipes I’ve looked up. I love your website!!
Thank you, Amelia! I hope you have fun making crepes!
hi Hilah,
this looks soooo Delicious..
i”ll definately try this..
Thanks, George! Let me know how it goes for you!
I remember learning how to make crepes back in French class in high school. We got extra credit for bringing in the ingredients, so my mom gave me some margarine. We did not know it had to be butter, but the teacher proclaimed to the class the French would be mortified, as she used the stick of margarine. So I definitely remember there needs to be butter in the crepes. I think I tried to make them one time after that, but I really did not bother because while they are beautiful and taste great, pancakes are just easier to make. However, if some French chef wants to show up at my door and make me some crepes, I would be so inclined to accept his offer. Maybe I will try it again.
Ahahaha! This story makes me laugh and also want to cry, Julia. I would have been so embarrassed! I guess the margarine crepes turned out okay, though?
Hope you do try making them again. It took me years to work up the nerve, but once you get the hang of it, it’s really pretty simple.
Thanks for writing!
Oh that French teacher always had a reason to complain about something. The crepes were still good, but I want to try your recipe. When I do I will let you know how it turned out.
A week ago, my wife and I were finishing up a cruise with friends. The last port was Cannes. At a stand by the boat harbor, she and I had a delicious lemon juice and sugar crepe and a delicious Grand Marnier crepe: photos here.
Looks like a great time! What a cute crepe truck!