- [Lena] I love crepes.
I mean, there's a lot to love about crepes.
- [Brunette Woman] Is it crape or is it crepe?
- [Lena] Wait.
- [Google Translate] Crepe.
- Cr, crepe.
So, I'm gonna try to make my own.
I did once make a rainbow crepe cake here with Lauren.
Cut to Lauren.
Cut to crepe cake.
It was rainbow.
It was dope, but difficult.
I wanna make a crepe that tastes really good on its own,
but also can stand up to any heavy savory ingredients
I might wanna stuff it with.
There's a very simple ratio for a crepe recipe that is
one part liquid, one part eggs, and half a part of flour.
I just put together a basic crepe recipe.
About a half a cup of skim milk, half a cup of flour,
and two eggs, and a little bit of butter for flavor.
And then we'll just add a pinch of salt.
You might be like, Lena, a half a cup of milk
and a half a cup of flour is the same thing.
I thought you said it was half a part.
This half a cup of flour weighs 50 grams,
and this half a cup of milk weighs 100 grams.
That is where those ratios come from.
I'm gonna start here with this basic recipe,
see if I need to make any tweaks,
maybe I need more liquid, more flour.
And then we can start doing the fun stuff
and subbing in some interesting ingredients
and seeing if we can make the best crepe ever.
I've got a cute little non-stick pan here.
I'm gonna put it over like a medium heat.
And then I'm gonna add some butter,
and then we'll pop in our crepes.
Just kinda swirl it around.
The first crepe's supposed to be ugly.
(laughs)
At least that's what I'm telling myself.
Waiting until it looks dry on top,
and then I'm gonna use a little offset spatula
to help me get it up and then I'll just flip it.
Alright I'm gonna take this one out.
It's cute, it's got some little bubbles.
But I'm gonna try to make another one.
Just as they say with pancakes,
the first crepe is always a little wonky-looking.
So I'm gonna try it again.
Still waiting for this to take,
oh it's taking on a little bit of color.
- [Chelsea] It's a nice crepe.
- [Lena] It's a nice crepe.
Now I get to taste the crepes.
I cooked this last one in a little bit higher heat,
and you can see it started getting a little more color
which I'm excited about.
So I'm just gonna fold these into little triangles.
That's the way I like to serve them.
It does already feel quite sturdy.
Got some elastic to it.
It's good, it's very classic.
I am not putting any sugar in yet,
but I would like to try with some,
I think it could help the flavor a little bit more.
I think I'm gonna start experimenting now.
I made my first round with skim milk,
so I'm gonna try it with whole as well,
as well as buttermilk, coconut milk, seltzer, and beer!
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Beer might be nice with it's like yeasty flavor,
it could also be disgusting, very possible.
But I'm very excited because we have one
of my favorite beers ever, Miller High Life!
Champagne of beers.
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- Beer?
- Beer, yes, why?
- My idea was that maybe that little yeasty flavor
would be nice, plus I've read that bubbles
make like a nice texture for the crepe.
- Hence the seltzer.
- [Lena] Do you guys wanna start with whole milk?
- I feel I should say, I have no opinions on crepes.
- [Lena] Okay.
- I have opinions on everything.
- Yeah. - We know.
- Too rubbery.
- [Lena] I mean they do need a little stretch.
- Well, I like whole milk,
I like being able to taste the fattiness of milk.
- Ooh, I smell it.
- Ooh, yeah.
- It tastes like beer.
You couldn't make a Nutella banana crepe with this.
(laughing)
- This would be-
- I really thought I was gonna like the yeasty-ness of it
but I-
- [Lena] It's hardcore.
- This would be amazing with like,
a melted cheese dip drizzle.
- [Lena] Yeah, beer cheese.
- Because it smells like beer cheese, yeah.
- [June] I like the buttermilk over the milk.
- [Lena] Really?
- Mhm hmm, it has a little tang to it,
which I think would pair really nicely with whatever topping
you wanna put on it.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause sometimes I feel like,
and maybe this is why I don't like crepes very much,
I feel like they have, it's just for the fillings.
- [Lena] Yeah.
- Like you're only eating it for whatever you filled
on the inside, the Nutella or whatever.
This actually tastes like something.
- Also it's beautiful.
- I think it's gonna taste quite a bit like coconut.
- I like the taste but the texture's a little wrong.
- [Lena] Yeah.
- It's tougher.
- You don't wanna put like Gruyere and mushrooms
in it probably?
- Yeah.
- [June] It smells nice.
So this is water, I guess?
- [Lena] Yeah, yeah basically.
- I like this texture a lot, no taste.
- [Lena] Really?
- I still think the buttermilk is my favorite.
- Yeah. - Me too.
- Overall? - Yeah.
- All right, let's do buttermilk.
- Buttermilk.
- Buttermilk it is.
- And more salt.
- That was very informative.
Very excited about my new bestie, buttermilk.
And, next round of testing, flours.
Ta-da!
I'm gonna give almond flour a try
for my gluten-free friends out there.
Cake flour.
Cake flour is a really fine flour
and I think it could give our crepes
a really soft, beautiful texture.
Cornmeal is just something I love baking with.
Flavor-wise, it's delicious,
I actually think buttermilk and cornmeal
could be a really good combination for savory or sweet.
And then whole wheat, because it's healthy,
it's good for you, it's got a nice nutty flavor.
I have high hopes for all these flours.
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As you can see, almond flour did not go well.
Clearly they're too thick.
The grains of almond flour were like tiny little bumps
on the pan, and then like the liquid ingredients
were just like surrounding it,
and it just like-
- It just didn't absorb.
- Yeah.
So this has more flour than any of the other ones
in order to be able to flip it.
- [June] Ooh, it smells sour.
- The buttermilk's in all of these by the way.
- [Chelsea] June are you sniffing?
- Yeah, no.
- I don't like the whole wheat.
- It's bitter.
- Yeah, it's a lot of things.
- It's so sour.
- With a bit of sugar, it might be okay.
- Why does it almost taste like sourdough?
- Yeah.
- Right?
- But it's also slightly gritty.
- [Lena] I'm gonna be honest, when I was cooking them,
I didn't like the way that they smelled.
But they look beautiful.
- Not as sour, a little more floury and bland,
and slightly sweeter.
As far as rubbery goes,
I think this is like an ideal rubbery stage.
- Mhm hmm.
- [June] You know, ugly but good.
It could be tasty.
- Yeah, I know, it's not a-
- [Lena] Crepe.
- It's not a crepe texture,
but it might be like a nice kind of pancake.
- It doesn't taste bad.
- I like it.
- But it's not a crepe.
- It's not a crepe.
- No.
- Okay I'm holding out for cornmeal.
- I'm excited.
- In my heart, I thought that would be my favorite.
- I know, I'm not sure but I'm excited.
- [June] Yeah it's very break-y.
- [Brunette Woman] It's also like sandpaper.
- Yeah, it's very like crumbly.
- Like an exfoliator.
- Yeah, what is going on with this texture?
(giggles)
- Not a crepe.
This is the crepe-iest of them all, the cake flour.
- Yeah, cake flour is my favorite.
- Okay, cake flour, buttermilk and cake flour.
Amazing!
Thank you guys so much, I'm gonna sleep on it,
tomorrow I'll serve you a fully complete crepe.
Day two, so excited.
Can't wait to eat crepes.
So today I'm going to test a few different types of sugars
to put into my batter and see which one I like the best.
We're gonna try honey, maple syrup, brown sugar,
and straight up granulated sugar.
Going back in with the melted butter.
I used it in the first round and it was really delicious,
so now that we've decided on our main elements,
I'm gonna start integrating back in.
I'm gonna do a tablespoon for half batch,
so that's gonna be two tablespoons melted butter
per a whole batch.
(upbeat electronic music)
Doing this last taste test solo.
Start with the most classic.
These are really soft and stretchy.
That's good.
Very subtle.
Really nice texture.
There's very little, it's a hint of sweetness,
it's not sweet it's just, it's there just to say hi.
It's not loud.
We had some more crispy-edged ones, which is kind of nice.
Mmm.
It's a lot more flavorful actually than the sugar one.
Yum, I think I like this one better than sugar.
There's something about the taste of the honey
that really brings out the butter.
I'm into it.
These also got a little more color which,
as we know, I like.
I've noticed that with this cake flour,
getting any color on the crepes is pretty difficult.
Mmm, it's nice.
Especially where it's extra crisp,
and you can really taste that like sort of caramel-y,
brown sugar flavor.
I'm a little worried that the maple flavor
will overpower all the other flavors.
Hmm, not overpowering.
You can taste the maple very slightly,
which I like.
I think honey or brown sugar.
I might have you taste them, and tell me what you think.
Brown sugar.
- [Chelsea] Mmm, it's good.
- That's like the first thing Chelsea has eaten all day.
That's honey.
- [Chelsea] This one's honey.
- Yeah.
- [Chelsea] You know,
I actually really enjoy the honey.
- Alright, well let's do the honey then.
I like it too, I like it too.
(laughs) Thank you Chels.
Final round.
So we have, cake flour, which is giving us our lusciously
smooth satiny crepes.
Buttermilk, which is giving us just a little bit of tang.
Butter, you know me, I love butter.
And then we've got eggs, honey as a little bit of sweetener,
and just a pinch of salt.
That's all you need to make my favorite crepes.
I've made a lot of crepes in the past couple days,
so I'm gonna share with you guys some of my tips,
things I've learned along the way.
I like to heat my pan just below medium heat.
When I start making my first batch I do butter on the first
one, and then for the rest of them, they're totally fine.
The first one's always a little bit, like,
it's not the prettiest in the batch.
And as soon as I pour in the batter,
I very vigorously shake the pan,
just to be able to fill up the entire base of the pan.
My final tip.
When you're looking to flip a pancake,
there are little bubbles around the edge.
For the crepes you'll see some of those bubbles,
but what you're really looking for
is for the surface of the crepe to be completely dry.
And as soon as that happens, just give 'em a flip.
I love using this little tiny offset spatula
to just get under a little bit of the edge
to allow me to come in with my fingers
and just lift and flip.
I know you can do them, I know you'll be great.
And that's all.
(upbeat pop music)
Ready to eat.
This morning I chopped up some strawberries
and mixed 'em with a little sugar,
pinch of salt, little bit of lemon juice,
and I have just like a little piece of lemon zest
in here as well.
And it just really brings out the flavor,
starts to soften them, makes them extra delicious.
I really like when they're served in quarters like this,
so folding in half, and then folding in half again.
Strawbs.
I'm just gonna put them all over.
Just whipped some heavy cream.
Beautiful.
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They're so tender.
So soft and silky.
These are my new faves, I have to say.
They truly are.
Thank you so much for watching.
Let me know in the comments if there's any tips or tricks
you have for crepes, I would love to hear them.
Also, let me know in the comments below
if there's anything you want me to make next time around.
I'm full.
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