"crepes" news and stories

Wander around Paris, and you're bound to find some of the best street food on the planet. Sidewalk crêperies are the boon to every tourist with a brain addled from trying to match noun and verb in the native tongue without scrambling for the phrase book yet again. Whisper-thin delicate pancakes filled with combinations of ham and creamy cheese or, as in this photo, chicken and spinach, are an answered prayer.

In Brittany, they invented the art of the crêpe, and typically make savory versions with buckwheat flour, which gives them tang. But all-purpose flour works just as well. To make your own bit of Brittany, try this chicken-and-spinach crêpe recipe from Kitchen Daily.

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Fat, fluffy pancakes and waffles are pretty straightforward, but the crèpe is more delicate and takes a deft hand to get it right -- thin, light, and golden brown. Add fruit and a combination of farmer cheese and cottage cheese, vanilla and sugar, along with lemon zest and raisins, if you like, and you've got a cheese blintz. Vancouver blogger vancityallie makes hers using a Julia Child recipe, along with her own recipe for an ultra-smooth filling, which uses cream cheese in addition to cottage cheese.

By the way, the origin of the word "blintz" is Yiddish for "pancake." And during the Jewish celebration of Shavuot, which began last night at sundown, blintzes are very much on the dairy-based dessert menu. For more on the Jewish blintz tradition, see this post.

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Happy National Crepes Suzette Day!

Ironic that one of the most famous crepe dishes -- which flambés and fuses zest with butter and Grand Marnier -- was created in error, when waiter Henri Charpentier was attempting to prepare a dessert for the Prince of Wales in 1895 at Monte Carlo's Café de Paris. Confessed Charpentier, "It was quite by accident as I worked in front of a chafing dish that the cordials caught fire. I thought I was ruined... [But] it was, I thought, the most delicious melody of sweet flavors I had ever tasted."

Experience them yourself with this classic recipe, upon which commented Charpentier, "Thus was born and baptized this confection, one taste of which, I really believe, would reform a cannibal into a civilized gentleman."

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Crepes are easy and versatile, and can be filled with both sweet and savory fillings. Here's a no-fail recipe.


Clementines are a wintertime treat, usually arriving at the store in charming wooden crates or net bags.