If you would like to be very 'French' today, then make your family some crêpes for tea. Today is le chandeleur, the catholic holiday of candlemas, and today we make crêpes or pancakes like there were no tomorrow!
My children love to make crêpes for themselves and for their friends, they are so easy to rustle up from scratch, and delicious with sugar, jam or nutella, although my favourite is sugar and lemon juice.
If you want a more grown up version you could try the delicious traditional French dessert crepes suzette, cooked in orange juice and flambéd au cointreau.
Here is my favourite recipe, I find it makes enough for 6 people.
ingredients
4oz or just under 1 cup flour
pinch of salt
2 eggs
275ml/10fl oz milk
50g/2oz butter
1 medium orange, grated zest only
1 tbsp caster sugar
150ml/5fl oz orange juice (from 3-4 medium oranges)
1 medium orange, grated zest only
1 small lemon, grated rind and juice
1 tbsp caster sugar
3 tbsp Grand Marnier, Cointreau or brandy
50g/2oz unsalted butter
a little extra Grand Marnier, for the fun bit
Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl, make a hollow in the centre and break the eggs into it. Whisk the eggs well until all the flour is moistened. Gradually add the milk, whisking all the time, until the batter is smooth and there is no more flour left around the edge of the bowl. Now you can add the orange zest and sugar.
Melt the butter in the pan, and pour most of it into the batter mix. Using a piece of kitchen paper, smear the remainding butter over the pan, you'll find it best to do this before each pancake.
To start cooking the pancakes, you'll need the pan to be very hot. I always start with a mini pancake, one for the pan as my children say.
Now ladle a small amount of batter into the pan, cook the first crêpe for less than a minute on each side. You want them slightly tinged with golden brown, but not overcooked so they are too dry. If you want to pick up speed it's easy to cook the crêpes in two pans simultaneously. The crêpes should be very thin. You should be able to make between 12 - 16 crepes.
It's better to keep the crêpes warm, I keep a plate on top of a saucepan of hot water and slide the pancakes onto the plate as each one is finished. If you are making the crepes for a dinner, you can do this stage ahead of time, then just make the sauce at the last minute.
To make the sauce, mix the orange juice, lemon and orange zest, sugar and Grand Marnier. Melt butter in the pan, then pour in the orange sauce to warm through. Place the first crêpe into the butter and fold it in half then into quarters so it is a nice neat triangular shape. You need a large pan for this step because you aim to end up with all the crepes folded in the sauce.
This is the moment to flambé the crêpes . The easiest way is to pour some of the Grand Marnier or Cointreau into a metal ladle, and hold it for a short moment over a gas flame, when its really warm put a match to ignite it. Pour the contents of the ladle over the crêpes and take the pan to the table to share between individual plates.
Spectacular!! - if this one doesn't earn you a round of applause, nothing will!
PS Don't forget , last day for the Diane James Home giveaway!!
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