Last night, as it was raining kittens and puppies, I was in a major dilemma about feeding my need of something sweet after dinner (but then again it wasn’t just last night – I need sweets after every meal otherwise I go into a rage). With limited stuff at home because, admittedly, I haven’t been cooking at home for the past couple of weeks, or close to a month, hence I haven’t stocked up on ingredients. And our oven is busted too so that really leaves me with limited sweets to make. Thankfully enough one can make crepes with super basic ingredients. My previous attempt at making crepes was limited to reheating store bought crepes because the box was sitting in the freezer for years! With that all consumed I had to make my own crepes from scratch.

I researched for a couple of minutes for a simple recipe and found this. Simple enough. I peeked inside the fridge and saw 6 eggs and just enough milk for tonight’s dessert and tomorrow’s breakfast. Then off to the pantry. Ok, no flour so I had to use my trusty wholemeal flour instead resulting in “healthier than usual” crepes. The recipe called for the flour to be sifted so I willingly followed it while watching Ross and Rachel have a baby. Turns out I just wasted precious time sifting 1 cup of the wholemeal flour because the wheat couldn’t pass my sieve so I had to dump the whole thing into the bowl anyway. For the 2nd cup I just mixed it vigorously with the previously sifted flour et voila, no lumps. Then make a well and add in the eggs and whisk until blended. Is it just me or is it really hard to beat eggs and flour together in winter? After lifting weights at the gym 2 hours before I had no more energy to whisk the stubborn eggs and flour mixture. So I sat there, whinged and asked K to come help me.

Then time for the liquid (milk). I searched everywhere for the measuring cup and couldn’t find it. Turns out that the culprit who threw it out was Auntie J. Well in that case a mug would just have to do. The recipe says 2 1/2 cups of milk. I don’t know how much liquid a mug can hold. I’ve never even bothered to find that out before so now it was just a guessing game. K said she thinks 1 mug is more than enough for 2 1/2 cups. The batter looked too runny so I added more flour which I will later find out that it was not a good idea.

Finally after all that debacle I realised that I have not added any sugar. Was that right? I like my crepes a little bit sweeter on their own without the toppings and fillings so I just had to have sugar in it. Guess what? There’s no caster sugar in the house. What I found was icing sugar. Okay fine, no biggie, no caster sugar. I cooked and tested 1 crepe and it was thick and tasteless so I had to figure out where to get my sugar. Lo and behold, a maple syrup bottle in the fridge was staring right at me so I poured in a few dollops of maple syrup to the batter. That worked well, I must say. That and a little more milk to thin out my batter resulted in some very tasty crepes.

K loved the crepes on their own. But me? I needed something more. Well I really wanted to use up the butter that’s been sitting in the fridge for so long so I decided to make a few Crepe Suzettes. Now I’m back to my problem. No caster sugar. Lemon juice would be too sour without the sugar and luckily there were some oranges sitting on the table. I tasted a few drops and turns out they were sweet! My first Crepe Suzette of the night was made with just butter and orange juice. It was so-so but lacking something. I knew it was the sugar. I couldn’t resist it anymore so I ended up using the icing sugar with my butter and orange juice mixture. That worked well too. Oh wow, the things I learn when ingredients are limited. I was so pleased with the crepes I had 4 big pieces last night. Oh boy. Well Crepe Suzettes are traditionally flambee-ed as well with cognac or orange liquers but I did not plan on setting the house on fire so I skipped that part. I made a few extras and brought them to work for snacks. Popped them in the microwave for 30-40 seconds and they are just as good as freshly made.

Enough of my wonderful adventure with the French dessert, here’s the recipe (which I’ve altered a little bit from the original source):

Ingredients

Crepes (makes 15-20 crepes)
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 1/2 mugs (2 1/2 cups) milk
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
4 tablespoons butter, melted
3-4 tablespoons maple syrup

butter or oil for pan

Orange butter glaze (approximate measurements per crepe)
1 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoons icing sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice

Method

1. In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together flour and salt. Then make a well in the centre and add in eggs. Beat the eggs while incorporating the flour.

2. Then slowly add in milk while whisking the mixture until well combined. Add in vanilla, butter and maple syrup. Mix well.

3. Heat pan and brush it with butter or oil. Using a ladle, pour in about 4 tablespoons of batter into the pan and swirl the pan to make reasonably thin and round crepes. Cook for about 1 minute then flip to cook the other side. Transfer onto a plate.

4. To make the glaze, melt the butter and sugar in a pan on low heat. Add in orange juice. When the mixture starts to thicken and caramelise, put in 1 crepe and heat through. Add a little more orange juice if you like. Then flip the crepe and cook for another 30 seconds. The glaze should now be caramel in colour and sticky. Fold the crepe into quarters and transfer to a plate.

5. Serve and enjoy.