In France, today is National Crepe Day, also known as La Chandeleur, and in the truly American tradition of latching onto holidays where there is a promise of good food and fun -- why not, it works for Cinco de Mayo and St. Patrick's Day -- we're joining the celebration.
The holiday, originally Virgin Mary's Blessing Day, became known as National Crepe Day due to the tradition of making and sharing the delicious and surprisingly simple crepes among family and friends. Legend has it, if you are able to flip the crepe with one hand while holding a gold coin in the other, you will be rich for the following year.
So we're not French and we've never actually made a crepe from scratch, but times are tight and we could always use a little extra scratch, so we thought we'd give the flip a try.
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup water
2 large eggs
1/8 teaspoon salt
butter for greasing the pan
Combine milk, flour, water, eggs and salt until smooth. Ideally refrigerate for two hours. Heat small pan, an omelette pan works great for this. Pour a small amount of batter, less than 2 tablespoons and tilt to coat the pan. Cook until golden brown and dry on top, about one minute.
Now for the flip...
We don't have a gold coin handy, so we substitute a half dollar.
We flip and - catch! After the flip, we cook the crepe one more minute while planning how we're going to spend all that dough. Whether you find yourself in the money, or not, the crepe is richly delicious, served with butter or your favorite fruit spread.
Too flipping hard? You can still join your fellow frenchmen and celebrate the crepe at Cibo for sweet varieties or head over to Nine/05 for a savory version.
