Description
My grandmother made these crepes for us every Christmas morning, then my mother did, then I did for my children, and now I make them for my grandchildren. It took me several years to ‘tweak’ the recipes that were shared with me to arrive at the one that tastes most like what I recall as my grandmother’s.
Sometimes I use various fillings, and even had a family member use them for a dessert bar at a ladies’ retreat. Enjoy!!
Ingredients
- ½ gallons Milk Plus 1-2 Cups More As Needed For Thinning
- 2 sticks Butter, Divided
- 15 whole Extra Large Eggs
- 1-½ teaspoon Table Salt
- 2 Tablespoons Sugar
- 3-¾ cups All-purpose Flour
- 1 quart Half-and-half
- Fresh Or Frozen And Defrosted Strawberries, Sour Cream, For Serving (optional)
Preparation
Divide the 1/2 gallon of milk into two saucepans and heat one to barely warm, the other to really warm, but not scalding. Do not heat the other 1-2 cups of milk – that is for thinning the batter later, and only if necessary.
Melt 1/2 of one stick (1/4 cup) of the butter in the microwave for about 30 seconds, or more if needed.
In the large bowl of a stand mixer, add eggs and mix on low speed while slowly adding the barely warm milk. Add salt, sugar and the 1/2 stick of melted butter.
Add the flour and remaining hot milk alternately in thirds. Batter is somewhat complete, but must ‘rest’ covered in refrigerator for a minimum of 1 hour, or even overnight.
Before making crepes, melt the remainder of the 1st stick of butter and set aside.
Pull the batter out of the refrigerator and let it sit out to come almost to room temperature. Mix in only 2 tablespoons of the melted butter. Blend batter thoroughly to blend the thicker batter that has settled to the bottom. There will be some melted butter floating on top. Leave a large spoon or whisk in your batter to continually mix after you make every few crepes.
Heat 12″ non-stick pan/s heated thoroughly to medium – that will yield 9″ crepes. Slightly coat the pan either with a tiny bit of the melted butter or vegetable spray. Holding the pan handle with one hand, pour in 1/4 – 1/3 cup of batter – rotate the pan around in a swirling motion to completely cover the bottom of the pan with a thin layer of batter, then place pan back on th burner to cook. If batter is too thick to make a sort-of thin crepe, use some of the additional milk to thin it out. Do not make it too thin. There will be some “drip mark, hills and valleys” as the first batter poured cooks before you get the rest of the batter into the pan. That is fine and will add to the overall beauty of your crepe.
Watching closely, after the top of the batter is set, use a spatula to lift and peek under an edge of the crepe to make sure there are some nicely tanned areas, then gently flip your crepe over to get color on the other side. These colored areas provide most of the flavor so your crepes don’t taste like cooked milk and flour.
When the crepe has finished obtaining wonderful color on the 2nd side, flip it directly onto a clean tea towel to cool. You may spread out 2 or 3 tea towels. As the subsequent crepes are added to the towels, the first will have cooled and can be stacked onto a platter. As you use your ‘batch’ of batter, add more of the melted butter slowly when you notice the floating droplets of butter have disappeared from your pan. This adds flavor as well as helps them not stick.
To prepare for baking, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Roll up the crepes like little burritos – folding 1/4 of the top down, then two sides in and finish rolling. I prefer fatter rolled crepes so sometimes I roll two together. Line your rolled crepes up in a single layer in glass baking dishes or roasting pans with high sides that have been sprayed with vegetable spray. (At this point the crepes can be covered with foil and refrigerated or frozen for one or two days.)
When you are ready to prepare: Cut the 2nd stick of butter into small pieces and evenly lay them over the top of your crepes. Pour enough half and half in to almost cover the crepes, but not completely.
Bake uncovered for about 45 minutes, until you see that the liquid is bubbling in all areas of your pan. These items are already cooked, so they only need to be heated throughout completely.
The crepes are wonderful just as they are, but we traditionally serve them with sour cream, and defrosted frozen strawberries.
