Well, whenever it is a birthday or special holiday that isn’t really a holiday…like Valentine’s Day, I like to show my family how much I love them by making a special breakfast!
One of my favorites (and theirs!) is Crepes! This is a specialty I have been making since I first got married and wanted to make something special for my hubby for his birthday!
I started out with some recipe I found way back when on one of those little recipe cards that comes in a box, then modified it to suit me! …I wonder what ever happened to that little card?!?!?!
These crepes are so simple and SO yummy….they are a simple basic crepe which has a creme filling sometimes filled with fruit and sometimes covered in fruit sauce, sometimes with whipped cream and sometimes not! That is what is so cool about these babies…get the basics down and then go to town with the extras!
CREPES
Basic Crepe recipe… (I make this times 3!)
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/4cup liquid (i use 1/2 milk and 1/2 water–or really any combination!)
- 1 cup flour
- 2 tbsp sugar (sometimes I use white, sometimes I use brown)
- pinch salt
- 2tbs melted butter
- sometimes I stop here…sometimes I add vanilla, sometimes I add some cinnamon, sometimes both!–all depends on what mood I’m in!
Whisk all of the above together.
Pre-heat a frying pan (it’s ok if you don’t have a specific “crepe pan”…I just use my regular fry pan)
I put just a smidge of olive oil in the pan–I have to say that this is one of the times that the spray olive oil works perfectly because you don’t want to overdo it with the oil!
Then pour about 1/2 to 3/4 of a regular soup ladleful of batter into the middle of the pan then just swirl the pan around so the batter spreads around the bottom…
Let cook for just a minute or two until set and then flip over with a spatula. Let cook just another minute or so and then start stacking them on a plate until you are done!
The Filling!!!
I usually use
- 1 package of cream cheese
- a little bit of heavy cream
- a spoonful or two of brown sugar
- cinnamon
- nutmeg (I LOVE the fresh ground…there is something special about the aroma of the nutmeg when you grind those “nuts” yourself!!)
Now I have to let you know that if you don’t have heavy cream, you can use sour cream also—(for example today I used 2 packages of cream cheese and a whole 16 oz container of sour cream!) –you could also use vanilla yogurt, ricotta or mascarpone…really whatever you like or have on hand that you can flavor how you like!
Whip all these things together –you can do it by hand but I use my hand mixer.
I also like whipping my own whipped cream as a topping but I guess you could use the canned stuff in a pinch! If you don’t know how to do this I’ll add it at the bottom so you know that too!!! 🙂
Anyway to assemble these crepes, just take a crepe, spread a spoonful of the cream cheese mixture across the middle and then here you have more options…
Sometimes I layer either some fresh or canned peaches or sliced fresh strawberries across the cream, fold them over and put on a dollop of whipped cream.
Another option is to just put the cream, roll up and top with strawberry sauce.
Strawberry Sauce
1 small sauce pot, one bag of frozen strawberries and honey.
Put the strawberries in the pot, turn on medium and let them start to cook down. Once they have become mostly melted, squeeze in a squirt or two of honey and let it all cook down completely. Of course you can also add some cinnamon to this too if you like or just leave it plain.
You can leave the strawberries chunky or you can mash with your potato masher or blend with your blender stick or put in a regular blender if you want it smooth. I have done it every way you can! They are all GOOD!
Homemade Whipped Cream
Take one container of Whipping Cream (also called Heavy Cream) pour into a bowl, add a tablespoon or two of either regular white sugar or powdered sugar (some people really prefer the powdered sugar but I have had success with both) Some people add a bit of vanilla. I don’t always, but I have and it is good. See what you like yourself.
Whip in your stand mixer or with a hand mixer on high. Whip until peaks form…just be careful once you get to the peak point, shortly thereafter if you keep whipping, you will get butter!!! So keep tasting ( a horrible job to have! 🙂 ) ….and that’s it!!! The best whipped cream in the world!
With this basic idea of a recipe, you can be creative and make it your own. These crepes are great for breakfast and nice also as a dessert.
They are a little time consuming only because I only make one or two crepes at a time if I can find both of my pans at the same time!!! Haha!!! But…they are DEFINITELY worth the effort. I guess when you think about it they aren’t much more time consuming than making pancakes.
SO…Please enjoy these and have fun making them for your birthday breakfasts or Valentine’s day or whatever!
Peace,
♥Dorina
Dorina's Blog 