The most decadent French pancakes you’ll ever make.
I’ve been making crêpes—those thin pancakes that people mispronounce with reckless confidence—for as long as I can remember. Like my mother, I never followed a recipe. It was all intuition, burned fingers, and some expertly deployed swearing. No measurements, no rules, and certainly no two batches alike.
But as I’ve been working on this book, I decided to finally perfect them. The result is a soft, fragrant, deeply indulgent crêpe: slightly toasted on the outside, almost custardy inside. They taste like milk that’s been kissed by fire.
Ingredients:
- 3 eggs
- 150 grams of flour – 1 cup
- 1 1/2 tbsp sugar (I use the finest pure cane Caster sugar you can buy here)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- a pinch of turmeric
- 500 ml of milk – 2 cups
- 1 tbs melted butter
- sunflower oil
Ustensils:
- A good pancake pan you can buy here (not obligatory)
- A basic hand mixer you can buy here
- Mixing bowls from Duralex
In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs with the salt, sugar, and a little turmeric for enchacing the egg colour. Don’t worry, turmeric does not affect the taste in such quantities. Slowly incorporate the flour until you get a thick paste. At this point, your mixer will start struggling, so do it at a lower speed untill all the flour is incorporated. Slowly add the milk and the melted butter (make sure the melted butter cools down a little before adding it). I always add a little sunflower oil to the liquid batter.
This is a recipe with less flour and more milk. So this step is absolutely necessary. Leave the batter at room temperature for at least 30 minutes to activate and rest the gluten. It will also thicken your batter to a more desired density. heat your pan and add some sunflower oil. Reduce the temperature to medium low and use a ladder to add the batter. With careful, but fast and precise motion, dance the shit out of the pan until that batter is well spread. Let the crêpe cook for 1–2 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Use a spatula to gently loosen the sides. Then—and this is important—grab the edge with your fingers, slide inward toward the center, and flip it as fast and furious as possible. Like your life depends on it. Or, shall I say, like your finger tips depend on it. Because they do.
Hear me. This is a very important technical step. If your crêpe is not ready, it will break. If you grab it by the margins, it will break. Leave it for another 20 seconds after flipping, remove is and add it to a plate. After working all the crêpes, cover them with a lid or another plate. The crispiness will soften and you will end up with the most delicious and tender French pancakes you have ever had. They will taste like toasted heavenly milk, and you will never make them another way.
White Cherry & Amaretto Jam
- 500 g white cherries (about 3 cups)
- 150 g sugar (¾ cup)
- 25 ml lemon juice (about 1½ tbsp)
- 1–2 grams amaretto extract (adjust to taste)
In a Dutch oven or a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the cherries, sugar, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Stir often and gently mash a few cherries as the liquid reduces. Once it thickens into a loose jam, remove from heat and stir in the amaretto extract.
The lemon juice helps activate what little pectin there is in the cherries, but this jam stays on the soft side—lush and spoonable, not firm. Perfect for folding inside a warm crêpe.
To Serve
Fold each crêpe into quarters, like a classic crêpe Suzette—triangle-shaped, a little dramatic. Spoon the warm cherry amaretto jam right over the top, letting it pool and drip like it was born to. Finish with a light dusting of powdered sugar or, if you’re feeling generous, a few curls of cold salted butter on top. The heat from the jam will melt it into a glossy sauce.
They taste like milk and fire, almond and childhood, but grown-up.
