Discover

(Redirected from Crêpes)



A '''crêpe''' (pronounced IPA /kreɪp/, French /kʀɛp/) is a type of very thin cooked pancake usually made from wheat flour. The word, like the pancake itself, is of French origin, deriving from the Latin ''crispa'', meaning "curled".

Contents

Description

Preparation

Mille Crêpe

Crêpes for special diets

Bodybuilder's crêpe

See also

External links

Description

Crêpes are popular throughout Europe, and in some other parts of the world. The common ingredients include flour, eggs, milk, butter and a pinch of salt. Crêpes are usually of two types: ''sweet crêpes'' (''crêpes sucrées)'' made with wheat flour and slightly sweetened, and ''savoury galettes'' (''crêpes salées)'' made with buckwheat flour and unsweetened. While crêpes originate from Brittany, a region in the northwest of France, their consumption is nowadays widespread in France. It is said that crêpes were born in this region because they couldn't grow enough wheat to bake bread due to the poor land. Crepes can be compared to the African injera, the Spanish tortilla and the Indian dosa.
Buckwheat came to Europe from Southwest Asia and also spread to Eastern Europe, where a similar meal called ''blintz'' also developed. In Brittany, crêpes are traditionally served with cider. In Italy it is ''crespella''. In areas of Central Europe, the meal is called ''palačinka'' (Serbian, Czech, Slovak, Croatian and Slovenian), ''Palatschinken'' (in Austria), ''palacsinta'' (Hungarian), all these terms being derived from Romanian ''plăcintă'' (Latin ''placenta'' meaning "cake"). Interestingly, an actual Romanian "plăcintă" is actually more similar to a quiche than to a crepe, and the Romanian word for crepe is ''clătită''. In Danish it's ''Pandekage'', in most German regions it's ''Pfannkuchen.'' In Macedonian it is called ''petulica''. In Dutch ''pannenkoeken,'' derived from the words for ''panna'' (latin 'bread') and ''cake.'' The Polish version is called ''naleśniki.'' In the Spanish region of Galicia, they're called "filloas", and may also be made with pork blood instead of milk.

Preparation

Crêpes are made by pouring a thin liquid batter onto a hot frying pan or flat circular hot plate, often with a trace of butter or oil spread out evenly across the pan's surface. The batter is spread evenly over the cooking surface of the pan or plate either by tilting the pan or by distributing the batter with a special spatula. The thin layer then thickens and needs to be inverted at least once so that it cooks evenly on both sides.
Common fillings for meal crêpes include: cheese, asparagus, ham, spinach, eggs, ratatouille, mushrooms, or various meat products.
When they are sweet, they can be a dessert. They can be filled with various other sweet items: jam, melted chocolate, dairy, ice cream, Nutella (a chocolate and hazelnut paste), bananas, berries, nuts, poppyseeds, cinnamon etc. Popular sweet toppings include sugar (granulated or powdered), maple syrup, lemon juice, whipped cream, fruit spreads, sliced soft fruits, etc.
A more elaborate French and Belgian crêpe is the Crêpe Suzette, a crêpe with lightly grated orange peel and liqueur (usually Grand Marnier) which is subsequently lit.
It is also a fairly common practice to roll or envelop them and then lightly fry, bake or sautée them, not unlike blintz, whose preparation is otherwise similar.
In France, crêpes were traditionally served on Candlemas (''La Chandeleur''), February 2. This day was originally Virgin Mary's Blessing Day but became known as avec Crêpe Day, referring to the tradition of offering avec crêpes. It is believed that if you could catch the crêpe with a frying pan after tossing it in the air with your left hand and holding a piece of gold on your right, you would become rich that year.
The world's largest crêpe, measuring 7 feet in diameter, was made and eaten by Sofia Romanowski on February 20th, 2007 at The Marina, a restaurant in Tallahassee, Florida.

Mille Crêpe

'Mille Crêpe' is a French cake made of many crêpe layers. "Mille" ("mil") means " a thousand," implying the many layers of crêpe. However, due to the amount of times crepes are folded, the same effect is often achieved, even with a single crepe.

Crêpes for special diets

The batter of the original French crêpe is usually made with white wheat flour when the crêpe is served as a sweet crêpe. It is made with buckwheat flour when the crêpe (rather called "galette") is served as a savoury crêpe.
A batter made of 100% buckwheat flour is gluten-free. This makes it possible for people who have a gluten allergy or intolerance to eat crêpes/galettes (as long as the other ingredients of the dish are gluten-free, too, of course).
It is also possible to make crêpes without eggs, and crêpes without milk.

Bodybuilder's crêpe

A common recipe practiced among bodybuilders is what is called a "Bodybuilder's Crêpe", traditionally made with whey protein powder, flavoring, egg white, and other popular ingredients such as cottage cheese, oats, and peanut butter. They are prepared the same way as normal crêpes are, but can sometimes cook much faster.

See also

★ Bánh xèo

★ Crêperie

★ Dosa

★ Galette

★ Kouign amann

★ Palatschinken

★ Pancake

External links

★ Crepe recipe with step-by-step pictures

★ How to make a crepe