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Crepes Or Pancake? No Crepes!

By Oluwamayowa Olatunji
27 October 2019   |   3:00 pm
Today, it’s all about breakfast. A bit of quick advice: never miss your breakfast, it is the most important meal of the day. Be it toast or pancakes or crepes, just put something in your belly before you go out in the morning. When I make crepes, people ask me how I make my pancake…

Crepes

Today, it’s all about breakfast. A bit of quick advice: never miss your breakfast, it is the most important meal of the day. Be it toast or pancakes or crepes, just put something in your belly before you go out in the morning. When I make crepes, people ask me how I make my pancake paper-thin. I reluctantly always give the full story about how it’s not pancake per say but it is called crepe. So to address the issue once and for all, here are the similarities and differences between both hearty dishes.

A crepe is a thin type of pancake that is either sweet or savoury. Most people think crepes is decadent and unhealthy but that is not true because they are thin and don’t weigh much so they are about 120-160calories, depending on the diameter. It is, however, the filling that matters most when it comes to keeping crepes healthy.

The major difference between pancake and crepe is the raising agent(baking powder and soda) in the batter. The absence of raising agents in crepe makes it flat while the presence of them in pancakes makes them fluffy and thick. Unlike pancake, crepes require less sugar making it less sweet in order to bring out the subtle egg flavour. Pancake can be traced back to over 30,000 years ago however, crepes was a dish created mistakenly by a fourteen-year-old assistant waiter Henri Carpenter in 1895 in France while he was preparing a dessert for king Edward VII way before he was king of England. This makes the dish attributable to France but there are other variations like the crespelle (Italian crepes). The fact that one can make a sizable cake out of crepes makes it more exclusive to me than pancakes. Here is how to make a basic French crepe that will serve four people.

Ingredients

  • 300g All-purpose flour
  • 240g Unsalted butter
  • 12. Egg yolks
  • 1000ml Milk
  • 4 pinches Salt
  • 4tsp. Vanilla Essence

Method

  1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat
  2. Add egg yolks to a bowl and start whisking. Add milk, salt and vanilla essence and whisk until well combined.
  3. Add melted butter and flour. Whisk thoroughly until smooth batter forms. Pour the batter in a measuring cup(depending on how wide your pan or griddle is).
  4. Butter the griddle or pan, pour out the batter and spread evenly across the pan. Then gently flip the crepe with the help of a spatula. When the crepe is done, fold in half and then in half again. Transfer the crepe to a plate. Fill with berries and fruits of your choice and drizzle chocolate or strawberry sauce or fill with ham and bacon with vegetables.

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