Authentic French Crêpe Recipe

Looking for the best-most delicious-simplest-authentic-easy-french crêpe recipe? Search no more! I am no chef, but I learned from the next best: the French!

During my year abroad in Lyon, France, Paul and I would often travel to the countryside and stay a few days with his family.  His Mom and Dad (and Grandma) would fix us up the most delicious traditional French dishes; among them, crêpes! Or as we Anglophones would say-crepes.

Whether you are a Francophone or an Anglophone (or both) or whether you say cr-apes instead of the French pronunciation cr-ehp, you will find yourself totally IN LOVE with this recipe that I adopted from Paul’s mom’s recipe book!

French Crêpe Recipe

1. Large round frying pan, or crêpe pan
2. Mixing bowl
3. Serving spoon or small cup (or something to pour crêpe batter into pan)

Ingredients for an oh-so-yummy crêpe batter:

• 250 grams* of flour
• 4 eggs (beaten)
• 1/2 liter of milk
• 1 pinch of salt
• 2 tbl. spoons of sugar
• 50 grams of melted butter

*Here’s a helpful site for converting measurement units. 🙂 This recipe feeds 4 people. Double the measurements for additional bellies that need filling. Once made, the batter can sit covered in the fridge for up to 2-3 days.

Mixing the batter:

• First, get your mixing bowl and add the flour, salt, and sugar
• Next, pour the slightly beaten eggs into the bowl
• Slowly incorporate the flour into the mixture while stirring
• When the mixture begins to thicken, slowly add the milk
• Add the melted butter
• Stir until mixture is smooth (you don’t want your mixture to be American pancake thick, but you also don’t want it to be runny as water; find the perfect balance of both!)

Cooking on the stove:

• Turn the stove on medium-medium high heat
• Add some butter (or oil) to the pan when hot (then reduce to medium heat)
• Take a cup-sized portion of the batter
• Pour it into the pan starting from the middle
• Roll the pan around until there is a thin layer of batter covering the pan
• If there is additional batter left in the pan, pour it back into the mixing bowl to avoid making the crêpe too thick

You will see the crêpe’s texture change.  If done properly, the crêpe will ‘unstick’ itself from the pan, allowing you to easily flip it in the air or with the help of a spatula.

• Flip the crêpe and let sit for an additional 30 seconds – 1 minute
• Slide crêpe onto plate and serve with your favorite toppings

Sweet vs. Savory Crêpes

The most iconic version of a crêpe is usually served sweet.  But if you have a ‘salty tooth’ like me, then you’ll enjoy adding some ham and cheese inside that crepe from time to time.  Here are some ways you can make your crêpe to fit your taste.

Salty

• Make a classic jambon-fromage  (ham and cheese) crêpe by adding some hot ham and your favorite kind of cheese
• Add grilled chicken, spinach, and mushroom to make an impressive crêpe for your guests
• Add anything salty that you love, get creative!

Sweet – My top 3

• Sprinkle sugar and lemon juice to make this classic sweet crêpe
• Spread Nutella over half of the open crêpe before folding – I personally add bananas as well (my fav)
• Roll the crêpe, sprinkle powdered sugar and top with strawberries and whipcream. Yuumm!

For this past Thanksgiving (in Nepal) we made Pumpkin Crêpes as an alternative to the famous pumpkin pie.  They turned out to be delicious!

And voilà! Now you have all the tools and ingredients needed to make authentic French crêpes. Yes, it’s that easy!

Making crêpes is easy-peezy-lemon-squeezy (literally).  You’ll want to write this authentic French crepe recipe down and pass it on to your kids, it’s that good! This recipe comes from a French mother and cook, so you KNOW it’s going to be délicieux! Try it and let me know what you think!