Breakfast Crepes

I like my food to look pretty and breakfast is no exception. I know that plating will hardly cross your mind on those manic weekday mornings but trust me - this plate here comes together in minutes as every element on it can be made well in advance - all you need to do is assemble and gobble!

But, if all you have time for is a shower and a granola bar, then save this for a lazy weekend brunch.

I have never attempted crepes before. In-fact, as I was prepping the batter, I was almost certain I'd flop - soooo optimistic :-/ 

But no! This is truly a fail safe recipe. Give this a go and I promise you'll feel like a Michelin star chef.

As always, I modified The basic crepe recipe from Allrecipes.com to suit my taste and I halved it since it was my first time making it. 

This batter makes 4 medium sized crepes and takes about 20 minutes from start to finish. 

Make-ahead tip: Store the crepes in an airtight container in the fridge with a layer of parchment paper/foil between each crepe. The filling can be made ahead and stored in the fridge too.

Ingredients

Crepes

1/2 cup all purpose flour or maida

2 tbsp powdered or icing sugar you can add more or less depending on how sweet you like it

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup water

1 tbsp butter, melted I used salted

1 tsp vanilla essence

A pinch of salt

Filling

1 cup strawberries, chopped

1 banana, chopped

1 tsp powdered sugar

How to

Crepes

In a mixing bowl, combine milk, water, egg, butter and vanilla essence. Whisk this mixture until combined. Into this sieve in flour, sugar and salt. Whisk again till you get a perfectly smooth batter without any lumps. This batter should be thinner than a pancake or dosa mix.

Place a nonstick pan (preferably with a lip) on medium-high heat. Add a small amount of butter or a tablespoon of oil and swirl it around so that it coats the pan completely. Once the pan is hot enough (I test it by flicking a couple of drops of water into it - it should sizzle immediately) pour in a ladle full of the crepe batter with one hand and swirl the batter around in the pan with the other hand. This ensures that you get a thin crepe which is of uniform thickness.

Let it cook for about a minute. Once the surface of the crepe looks dry, run a spatula around the edge to loosen it. Carefully slide the spatula under the crepe, lift and flip. Less than a minute on this side and you're done! Stack the crepes on a plate lined with a tissue. This keeps the crepes from getting soggy.

Filling

I like to make my filling in the crepe pan. This way I avoid adding extra butter or oil. Add strawberries to the pan. Sprinkle a teaspoon of powdered sugar and cook them till they soften. If you like them mushier, cook them for longer. You can also make this in the microwave. Just nuke the strawberries and sugar in a bowl till you achieve the desired consistency.  As you can see, I like the strawberry jam a little chunky.

Assembly

This is how I prefer it. You can do it any way you like. Add a spoon-full of the filling and a few pieces of banana in the centre of the crepe. Fold the top and bottom of the crepe over this filling and turn the whole thing over. Add another spoon-full of the filling on top.

Dust with powdered sugar and dig in :)