Julia Child's Crepes

I had extra milk and eggs the other day, so I decided to make crepes using a recipe from Recipezaar.com. It came out just alright... a little bland, a little rubbery, it got a half-hearted "mmm" from Brad.

Determined to make better crepes, I thumbed through Mastering the Art of French Cooking and found Julia's version. It was much better--lighter, crispier, and more flavorful.

I didn't have any filling ingredients, so I made "crepe pancakes" with a pat of butter and a drizzle of maple syrup on top. My friend Fran (who is from France) later told me that I could have sprinkled sugar and lemon juice in place of a filling. Who would have thought? I'll definitely be doing this next time.

Here's Julia's version...

Crepes Fines Sucrees (Light Batter for crepes Suzette)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup cold water

3 egg yolks

1 Tb granulated sugar

3 Tb orange liqueur, rum, or brandy

1 cup flour (scooped and leveled)

5 Tb melted butter

An electric blender

Put the ingredients in the blender in the order they're listed above. Blend for a minute at top speed, covered. If there's some flour stuck to the sides, just scrape it off and blend for three more seconds. Finally, cover and let sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.

When you're ready to cook, rub a skillet with butter or oil and put over heat until it smokes. Remove it from the heat and pour 1/4 cup batter into the pan. Tilt the pan so the whole bottom is covered in a thin layer of the batter. Return to heat for 60-80- seconds, then loosen the crepe. If the edges are a light brown, it's ready to be turned. Brown for another 30 seconds on the other side.

Note that this is my abridged version of the recipes on p. 190 and 648. The cookbook version goes into much more detail, so be sure to pick it up if you haven't! :)

The batter