A PANCAKE SPECIAL
Crêpes three ways, lemon and sugar, ham and cheese + a blood orange suzette.
Welcome back to another How I Cook+!
It’s a pancake special this week, and we’ve got something for everyone.
I’ve got you covered with a fool-proof crêpe formula that has a few more ingredients than most you’ll find online, but for good reason.
There are 3 variations on the crêpe here. The classic lemon and sugar, for me the best. If you’re doing a post-work pancake day, whip up the comté crêpe for dinner. Need something boozy for a valentine’s dessert? Go for the blood orange suzette (after the brûlée last week that makes two traditional french desserts in a row…).
If I were you, I’d make all three.
Happy flipping!
B x
Pancake day!
Next tuesday is Shrove Tuesday. Also known as Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday or Pancake Day, and luckily for me and you, it’s traditional to stuff your face with something decadent. In Sweden, they eat cardamom laced, cream stacked almond buns called Semlar. Stateside, it’s a crawfish boil, king cake and margaritas on Bourbon Street, NOLA. In Brazil it’s Feijoada. In the U.K we eat pancakes.
For me, pancake day means crêpes, not diner-style fluffy buttermilk pancakes or ricotta hotcakes (both are delicious, but just aren’t for today).
Now I’d bet that 99% of you won’t be fasting over lent, and just fancy some pancakes. So let’s make some. Not too much rambling from me this week, it’s all about the recipes.
Crêpes 101
I have good news for you… Crêpes are really easy to make!
I know that some weeks this newsletter presents you with some tricky cookery but today we can put our feet up (a little). We’re going to start with a really easy crêpe recipe, simply garnished with lemon and sugar (the classic!) We’ll then graduate to a savoury crêpe, stuffed with sharp French cheese, hot mustard and ham - a perfect lunch. If you’ve a sweet tooth like me, be sure to try the suzette. It’s the trickiest of the three, but definitely the chicest.
Now, you could make a spartan crêpe batter with just milk, eggs and flour, but it’s Fat Tuesday, so push the boat out. I add a dose of melted butter before cooking and an extra egg yolk for a richer, more tender crêpe. When cooked, this batter becomes super lacy and crisp on the edges, with a custardy middle. I like to rest the batter for at least half an hour to allow the flour to hydrate. I find you achieve a crispier, lacier texture. Some would disagree. Food science king Kenji López-Alt doesn’t rest his at all, although I think he is just after a crêpe in a hot minute. You can read his interesting article on crêpes here.
You probably won’t nail this lacy pancake first try, and that’s to be expected. Everyone says the first pancake is sh*t, and that’s because it usually is. Be kind to yourself, wipe out that pan, and try again. Be ready to fail.
Pancake Pans
You can scoop up a crêpe pan (I did, purely to experiment with and write this newsletter, but any excuse and I’ll buy a pan), but it is absolutely not necessary. Crêpe pans have a very shallow lip with a steep taper, which make tossing pancakes a breeze.
Whilst you can toss with style with one of these, it might not be enough to warrant the cost. In short, unless you’re planning to make a ton of crêpes every weekend for breakfast, I’d stick with a good quality non-stick pan.
If you do fancy it, I bought this one, and it’s excellent.
Build your pancakes in the pan
Even if you’re cooking crêpes for a crowd, don’t cook loads of pancakes and stack them up, trying to keep them warm in the oven. It just doesn’t work.
Your beautiful, crispy crêpe will become flacid and limp. I like to add whatever garnish I’m offering (lemon and sugar/nutella/cream and jam) in the hot pan, folding as I go, and dish them out straight onto hungry plates ready to be devoured.
You might not eat all at once, but it’s far more delicious this way. You can also pretend your a short-order cook at a French crêperie, firing off orders, shouting “OUI” at your guests, which is fun.
Suzette!
I’m a sucker for a classic dessert, especially if it’s French, and I love crêpe suzette.
A casualty of the lost art of tableside service, suzette was once flambéd in the dining rooms of the fanciest restaurants by a waiter/penguin in tails. The drama!
The idea is simple. You make a bitter-sweet citrus syrup, add some crepes, allow them to soak up that delicious, orange-y nectar, add some fresh fruit, some citrus liqueur and then set it all on fire. How fun! Be careful not to burn your kitchen down, a dash of liqueur will do. Suzette is the perfect balance of bitter, sweet and sour, with a hint of booze for good measure.
It’s a really delicious dessert and one that too often is forgotten. I’ve used blood oranges as they’re very pretty, very tasty, bang in season and they had some at the shop. You can of course do this with regular oranges, too!
Silky Crème Chantilly
The perfect partner to your suzette is a delicate dollop of chantilly cream.
A good tip when you’re making crème chantilly (fancy sweetened whipped cream to the likes of you and me) is to add a dash of milk to the cream before whipping. In the U.K, we’re blessed with very good dairy. Our cream has a very high natural fat content which makes it 1. very, very delicious and 2. extremely easy to over whip*.
Too many times have I whipped double cream to a gorgeous soft peak, popped the bowl down, turned around to fix something, come back to my cream and found it a grainy, split mess. Adding 10-15% of the cream’s weight in whole milk lowers the fat content just enough to decrease the risk of splitting, but still maintain a good, whipped texture. Add a drop of vanilla and a touch of sugar and you’ll have a delightfully light, fluffy chantilly.
*Check the fat content of your cream via the label, if it’s around 50%, use this trick. Anything closer to 40% will be ok without!
