Crepes

Ross and I fell in love with crepes at the Bellingham Farmer's Market when we first moved to Bellingham 2 years ago (has it really been that long?!?!). In addition to vendors with fresh, local produce and artisan crafts, every market has hot and ready to eat food as well. That first summer, without fail, we would go to the market and get "Le Viking" - a buckwheat crepe filled with cream cheese, smoked salmon, and caramelized garlic onions. Uh- MAZING. And to top it off - there were dessert crepes too. 

Then our second spring and summer in Bellingham rolled around, and we were salivating in anticipation of those crepes... but the Crepes Guy never came back!!!! It was painful, we were in angst... we'd never tried any other vendor. I'd sort of just resigned myself to never having them again, but if there's anything I've learned over the past few months it is this: YOU CAN MAKE THEM YOURSELF. 

So we did, and started with dessert crepes for breakfast. 

Crepes from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman 

Ingredients: 

1 cup whole wheat flour 

Pinch of salt 

1 Tbsp sugar 

11/4  cups milk 

Splash of Brandy 

2 eggs 

2 Tbsp butter, melted and cool 

Desired fillings (mashed bananas, nutella, berries, yogurt. etc.) 

Plus oil for the pan and powdered sugar to sprinkle on top 

Mix together all the ingredients and wish until smooth. 

Now read carefully: the trick to a successful crepe is to let your pan heat up - and only pour on the batter when it is nice and hot. Spray a little oil on the pan, use a ladle to pour some batter in and use it to swirl the batter in the pan until it forms an even, thin layer. 

Very quickly (maybe a minute) it will dry out on top. Then flip the crepe and cook on the other side for about 30 seconds. It should brown only slightly and never crisp. You can stack them on a plate and fill them later, or multi-task and fill them as you go. 

Filling is super simple; just spread out the ingredients evenly, not too much, and then roll the crepe. 

I made some filled with warm mixed berries, and topped them with vanilla yogurt and sprinkled on powdered sugar. They were delicious! 

Next time - we're going to skip the sweet and try savory crepes with (you guessed it!) smoked salmon, cream cheese, and caramelized garlic onions.