Last night I made crêpes for the first time in a long time. I’m glad my sister had the idea; I’d been feeling uninspired and this turned out to be such a perfect meal. I used my housemate Nicole’s handwritten recipe for the crêpes themselves:

Nicole’s Crêpe Batter

Nicole’s notes say “2 hungry ppl, 4 sorta hungry ppl” — consider doubling! The crêpes keep really well, you can refrigerate or freeze.

Ingredients:

  • 1 C flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp butter, melted
  • 1/2 C milk
  • 1/2 C water
  • 2 eggs

Steps:

  1. Whisk flour + eggs
  2. Add milk + water
  3. Add salt + butter, beat until smooth
  4. Cook on medium-high heat

(I didn’t actually see the steps when I was making these, I just threw everything together in whatever order made sense at the time.)

The batter was a little on the thick side, so I added some extra liquid. The internet said beer is a good addition to crêpe batter, which seemed like an excellent reason to crack open a seasonally inappropriate summer ale and stir in a few tablespoons.

The internet also said you should strain the lumps from your crêpe batter, which is for insane people. This batter was a bit lumpy & not a soul complained.

Crêpe technique is a little tricky if you’re used to making pancakes; you want to get the batter super thin. You can swirl it around in the pan a bit — I found I got the hang of it after a few weird-looking (but still tasty) ones.

I cooked up the crêpes in the afternoon and stored them in the oven, with parchment paper between each one. Before dinner I set the oven to 200° for as long as it took to prep the fillings.

Fillings:

  • brussels sprouts + onions, roasted (made ahead)
  • onions, caramelized (leftover)
  • spinach, chopped
  • cremini mushrooms, sliced
  • Field Roast smoked apple sage fake sausage
  • goat cheese
  • parmesan, shredded

Everything but the cheeses got thrown in a skillet (first the mushrooms, then the spinach, then everything else). Once the fillings were heated through and the “sausage” was a bit browned, it was time to pile everything onto crêpes, top with cheese, and enjoy.

Alongside a simple salad, this made for a fantastic dinner! The variety of textures & flavors in the filling was really satisfying. Bonus: it was quick to assemble, since I’d made the crêpes themesleves + prepped some of the veggies earlier in the day.