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Sunday, September 5, 2010

SMS: Mom’s French Pancakes

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My very first crepe experience was in Greece.  I know crepes are a French thing but there were crepe shops all over the place in all of the Greek cities we visited.  We tried them in a few cities there and they were all delicious.

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My wonderful fiancee enjoying a crepe in Corfu

When I saw that Jaime of Good Eats and Sweet Treats, this week's host for Sweet Melissa Sundays, chose "Mom's French Pancakes" as our recipe, I knew I wanted to bake along.  When I saw the other bakers said they were easy and tasty, I was even more sold on the idea. :)

I made the recipe word for word from the Sweet Melissa book and it came together perfectly. And it was a cinch to make!  Very few ingredients and it all goes in a blender.  The swirling in the pan is what gave us some difficulty...

We used a 12 inch pan just as the book says, but we have a very hard time getting it to swirl across the whole pan without leaving holes.

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Attempt #1

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Attempt #2

We gradually got a little bit better as we made more, but I halved the recipe and only got about 6 crepes, so by the time we started improving our technique we were out of batter.

When we got to the end, we wanted a nice looking crepe so badly that we took a circle cookie cutter and cut it:
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It made one itsy bitsy little crepe!  The butter is there for scale :)  It was a one-bite crepe.

Even if they weren't perfect looking, when spread with a little bit of strawberry jam and topped with homemade whipped cream, they were pretty tasty.  However, I did think the crepes themselves were a little on the bland side.  The jam and cream is what gave it all of the flavor.  Next time I might try adding a little bit of vanilla or almond extract?
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Thanks for picking this recipe Jaime!  See Jaime's blog, Good Eats and Sweet Treats for the recipe or buy the Sweet Melissa baking book for all of the recipes.  Jaime, this made for a very lovely Sunday morning breakfast. :)  Be sure to visit the other participating SMS-ers blogs to see how their "French Pancakes" came out!  

16 comments:

Nikki said...

these look great, i love the little one's edges - too cute. i will add vanilla next time, too for some extra flavor.
-nikki
www.makeandtakeblog.com

Chats the Comfy Cook said...

I think that was clever of you to cut the crepe out even though, it was tiny. It looks great and if you did not have the butter there, it would have looked normal but it would not have been so much fun to admire.

I solved the swirling problem, another way. I took a smaller pan and made them. That way, swirling was easy. They were plenty big enough and they filled nicely.

Lucie said...

Crêpes define my childhood! Nothing better than a fresh crêpe with sugar and butter inside! Yours look delicious--normally the swirling problem should go away after a few times once you get the hang of it!

Tiff said...

Your crepes look great and once they are folded up, you really can't tell if they are perfect or not!

Candy said...

Looks great! I was in Corfu for one day this summer and absolutely loved it and can't wait to go back. The people there were incredible and your photo brought back some wonderful memories

Shandy said...

Crepes do take practice, I was swirling away myself. I think your mini-crepe is adorable! You can add more sugar and flavoring to your crepe batter next time. My daughter loves her crepes practically dripping sugar. =)

Jaime said...

every time i make crepes, it always takes a bit of practice to get it right. i think it also depends on the temp of your skillet. your mini crepe is adorable! thanks for joining me this week! :)

Hanaâ said...

Sorry to hear you had trouble getting round crêpes. As for the "bland-ness"... I compared Melissa's recipe to my standby crêpe recipe and noticed that mine had vanilla in it so I added it. I also used a bit more salt than Melissa's (a big pinch for 1/4 recipe).

Ingrid_3Bs said...

I just finished leaving Jaime a comment...telling her I was going to give this a try. I'm going to follow your suggestion and add some vanilla or almond extract. Thanks!
~ingrid

rebecca @ beurrista said...

My kids would have loved the mini one!

I didn't try the recipe, but will add some flavoring to the batter, as per your recommendation.

Delirium~ said...

It looks like you swirled fast. Swirl slowly so that the batter can follow up with your movement. It also look like you could use a tiny bit more batter for each pancake.

In Norway we make pancakes like this all the time - thin (but the batter is sans sugar), and they are traditionally served with blueberry jam. Nobody makes thick american pancakes.

Gloria - The Ginger Snap Girl said...

Vanilla extract is a great idea! The hardest part was definitely the swirl. But once you get it down...these are so easy! Your baby crepe with the scalloped edges is so cute. :)

Julie said...

Love the edges on the little crepe, so cute! I only ended up with one good one. I was hoping to have at least two so one could be nutella.

Tessa said...

I have never eaten or made crepes, so I fear I would be new to "pan swirling" as well. Eh, sometimes it's how it tastes and not what it looks like right?

Eliana said...

Hmmmm - there is nothing better in the world than a crepe slathered with Nutella. YUM!!! Yours looks like it turned out just perfect.

Shaheen said...

Your home-made crepes look great, I've been meaning to have a go since I've come back from France. I've even bought back some buckwheat flour which are traditional to Bretagne that part of France where I was staying.

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