Your crêpes are beautifully thin and delicate.
Show me your breakfast
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Your crêpes are beautifully thin and delicate.
Thank you. Berry sauce is hiding a multitude of sins!
Truly, my crepe game is utter crap. I've tried and tried to do the twisty-swirly pan thing, and it just never works for me, so I tried doing the smeary thing with the back of the ladle, that's only slightly better. I need one of those little wooden pushy things next, I guess.
Today's crepes were made in my 12" cast iron pan - no swirling that thing around, but it does a good job with the actual cooking. I ended up plopping in some batter, then pushing it around quickly with a spoon, which led to some rather...artistically-shaped crepes at the end.
^^^ We also had bacon, but that never lasts to the photo shoot!
And a strawberry! That's a little unusual with egg and bacon...
Thank you. Berry sauce is hiding a multitude of sins!
Truly, my crepe game is utter crap. I've tried and tried to do the twisty-swirly pan thing, and it just never works for me, so I tried doing the smeary thing with the back of the ladle, that's only slightly better. I need one of those little wooden pushy things next, I guess.
Today's crepes were made in my 12" cast iron pan - no swirling that thing around, but it does a good job with the actual cooking. I ended up plopping in some batter, then pushing it around quickly with a spoon, which led to some rather...artistically-shaped crepes at the end.
They look great. Better than I can do.
What is that?
JAS_OH1
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That was hubby's breakfast, I told him to hold on a sec while I shot a pic and he threw the strawberry on the plate. Made no sense to me, but I am not the one eating (who ate) it. Ha! I just noticed that it looks like the strawberry is actually sitting on the egg. It's not. I uploaded from my phone and didn't notice. That would be an abomination!
I don't know the proper French name, but here, it's just called a crepe spreader.
Its a tool, shaped like a T or like a push broom, and you plop in some batter, then you stand the spreader up vertically with the crosspiece centered on the batter puddle, and slowly spin it to spread the batter in a circle.
JAS_OH1
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Um, I just take the pan off the heat and tilt it around in a circle until the batter has spread to the edges of the pan? Maybe the spreader is the key to getting the thinnest, lightest crepes? Dunno.
JAS_OH1
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That's why I cook a whole pound at a time...but I actually didn't eat any bacon today and he was given 4 strips and didn't ask for more. That was actually some leftover from yesterday when I cooked a pound of it. He had 4 strips and I wrapped the rest in a paper towel and put it in a plastic bag in the frig. I just take out what I need and put it on a baking sheet in the toaster oven to warm up before serving. Big timesaver to cook a large amount at a time.^^^ We also had bacon, but that never lasts to the photo shoot!
When the kids were still living at home, I would cook 2 pounds of bacon at breakfast (to go with pancakes or French toast and eggs), and there were no leftovers. Amazing that none of them are chubby adults.
I've watched video after video, had a trained cook show me in person, and have made hundreds (if not thousands) of crepes, trying to get the tilt-and-swirl technique down, and I cannot do it.
I'll end up with elliptical crepes, oval crepes, half-moon crepes, crepes with holes in them, crepes with 80% of the batter on one side, but never a perfectly round, perfectly uniform crepe.
I did feel better several years ago, after watching Jacques Pepin make crepes. He didn't do any of the twirly BS, he just plopped in some batter, then used his ladle to spread it, and then he instructed that if you tear a hole, put a little batter over it, and if you didn't use enough batter, put more batter in, and if you used too much batter, pour the unset batter back out, and if you had ragged edges, cut those bits off.
All common sense stuff, but after watching French chef after French chef say there was one way, and one way only, to cook a crepe, and only one way for a finished crepe to look, it was a revelation of sorts.
That's one reason I love Pepin, he's a very practical cook. No ego.
Nope, electric.
It may be that I'm too picky with my expectations as well (see my posts regarding soft-cooked eggs
). After watching so many "proper" chefs say that "if a crepe isn't perfectly round, made with exactly 1/4 cup batter, with exactly the same thinness all the way across, with absolutely no rips or jagged edges, it must, in every case, be thrown to the dog, because that's all it's fit for, and you are a horrible, horrible failure as a cook and a human being," I've probably developed something of a complex over it. 
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