Basic Crepes

As a kid I think crepes were the first ever dish I made following a recipe.  They were called pancakes in the book I had and the book was Every Girls Handbook. My mom had presented it to me during the summer break of 7th grade I think. We were in Pune then and my Dad had just introduce me to sailing then.  The book had a hobbies section which included sailing and I had been thrilled.  I had been in a sail boat before as a kid , but that summer he’d taught me to sail. I had loved learing to tie the various knots  and steering the boat with the tiller. 

Every time I make crepes it reminds me of the book( I still have it) and the summer I learn’t to sail.

I had this recipe saved in my Mastercook labelled as a Good Eats recipe.  When I do get the time to watch this is one of my favourite cooking shows.  the recipe is simple but I did make a few changes to it. The recipe called for melted butter, I used olive oil instead and I also increased the water from 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup.  Another difference is that I mix the oil into the batter and don’t oil the pan.

Ingredients

• 1 cup allpurpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup water
• 3 tbsp Olive oil

Method

• Put all ingredients together in a blender and blend well.
• Put the mixture in the refregirator for an hour to allow the bubbles to settle down.
• Heat a pan with raised edges on low heat.
• Pour a laddle of the batter into the pan and spread it quickly by rotating the pan.
• It should make an nice thin even layer of batter in the pan.
• Let it cook for 30 seconds and flip over cook for 10 seconds more and remove from heat
• Lay it in a flat plate to cook.
• Repeat process with remaining batter.
• Serve it with sweet or savory fillings or just plain with pickle as we would in India.

Notes

• When I first made this as a kid I did not have a pan with edges, so my mom taught me to spread the batter like dosa. You pour the batter in the center of the pan using a flattened laddel and then with flat end of the laddel you quickly spread out the batter by making a spiral starting fron the center.
• It might take a couple of tries to figure out the exact amout of batter required to coat the pan evenly. The original recipe called for an ounce of batter. 
• Another technique I use when I am not being too lazy is pour more than the required amount of batter in the pan and after coating the pan pour of any excess batter back into the remaining mixture. This results in a nice even  crepe.  The side of the pan where the batter was was poured of needs to be scrapped with a spoon or spatula. If you do this by removing the pan from the heat and them spreading the batter, the batter won’t start setting and you can lean the edge nicely. Return it to heat and allow the  crepe to set. Will take a bit longer as it had been romoved from the heat.
• I usually use a stainless steel pan for making the pancakes. you can use a nonstick pan too.
• Be careful and gentle as you flip the crepe, as it is very thin it can tear easily. It comes off easily though if you go slow.
• I have heard it also being called the Maida Dosa by some of my friends.