Gluten Free and Easy: Crepes

Simple, Easy Crepes

When I was in middle school – 6th grade, I think – we were all required to take a cooking class. Unbelievably, I still have the “cookbook” the teacher gave us (mimeographed in purple ink, of course.) I shared the contents with my sister a couple months ago. We both shared a great laugh about the WIDE variety of Jello recipes. Ah early 80s in Minnesota. Jello and fruit molds.

Beyond the outrageously funny recipes, there was one that made me smile. The principal (Mr. Johnson?) came in to our cooking class and taught us all how to make crepes. I remember his apron and laugh quite well. It was exciting to learn how to make something as “fancy” as crepes and to have the principal as the instructor? A HUGE bonus, that’s for sure!

I don’t think I continued to make crepes after a few experiments at home. I suppose I considered it more time consuming that it was really worth in the end.

And then my love, in my pre-diagnosis days, took me to a favorite restaurant of his. Everything – and I mean EVERYTHING – is served in a crepe. I don’t remember what he selected, but I do remember being slightly confused by my meal choices as I was accustomed to crepes being filled with fruit or scrambled eggs and ham. I finally settled on a curried-chicken crepe for dinner.

To be honest, it was a bit unremarkable. The seasoning was off and well, my stomach hurt after eating (hmmmm…wonder what that was… ). I wasn’t too keen to ever return to the crepe restaurant again. My love was a bit disappointed to have seen one of his inspired dinner choices bomb for me. And I’m sure he was even more saddened when I announced that I didn’t want to eat there again.

When I received Rebecca Reilly’s cookbook from my mom as a birthday present, I made crepes for the first time for my Love. And they are GOOD. (She’s got an excellent pie crust and more in this book too.) Using her recipes, I introduced my Love to the idea of crepes for breakfast (rather than dinner). They were a hit. They are now part of our regular weekend breakfast rotation.

Neither of us have eaten breakfast for ages. However, that is about to change. We are *trying* to be more diligent about our health and food selections. And we’ve joined a gym which we attend 3-4 nights a week. So far, so good (save for that damn Step class that just about killed me off!).

So now I need some speedy breakfast ideas for the work week/school year when I don’t have the time in the morning (nor the inclination) to make breakfast. This made my mind race back to Rebecca’s crepes. I wasn’t sure if I could store them in the fridge overnight and reheat in the morning or not. So I thought I would try.

Only problem? I’ve loaned my Rebecca book out.

Bah.

Starting over then. I began to surf. I found a great recipe here (in Spanish, FYI). I had to adjust it a bit to make less (it calls for a lot more milk) and convert some measurements. After mixing, the crepes were quick to cook and made for a tasty breakfast. Great, easy crepes.

Mind you, I have yet to try them with some curried chicken…. but that might be a little while for me. But hey, If you give them a taste test for dinner with savory fillings, do let me know!

In the meantime, give this recipe a whirl. You’ll be happy you did!

Simple, Easy Crepes

Gluten Free Easy Crepes
Recipe makes 10 crepes (depends on your pan size!)

Ingredients:
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup (or 50g) cornstarch
1 egg
2 teaspoons olive oil or melted butter
pinch of salt

Directions:

  1. Mix (I used a small whisk) all ingredients until very well blended.
  2. Spritz a pan (small, nonstick) with olive oil. Preheat the pan over medium-high heat.
  3. Pour 2 Tablespoons of batter into the pan while swirling the pan.
  4. Continue to swirl the pan – OFF the heat! – until th ebatter begins to bubble and there is no longer excess batter to swirl.
  5. Cook for 20-40 seconds (the first crepe takes the longest… this time is for the quicker crepes) or until steam is puffing out the sides.
  6. Quickly and with some care, flip the crepe and cook and additional 15-20 seconds.
  7. Continue until all the batter is used. (Depending upon your pan, you may not have to spritz it with oil between crepes.)

Serve with a wide variety of fillings: fresh fruit, scrambled eggs and ham, cream cheese, raspberry sauces, ham, turkey, avocado, sour cream, etc. I filled mine with raspberries and teeny cream cheese dollops and top it with fresh raspberry sauce. MMMM!

Do you have any quick breakfast tricks for the work week? I would REALLY like to hear them! Any help and tips you can give me will be greatly appreciated. Heck, we’d better get organized! We’re gonna have a little one – or LC (Little Chan as named by Ginger!) to feed in the mornings soon – no more lazy, wake-ups for us! 🙂

Happy GF Eating –
Kate

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