Hello, guys! As you well know, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Whether you are planning on celebrating Valentine’s Day with somebody else that you love, or building your own self-love (blog post about that coming up soon!), we wanted to share this crepes recipe with you so you could celebrate in style. Since Valentine’s Day is the Day of Love, and the French are known for being particularly amorous, we thought it would be best to pair Valentine’s Day with a post on how to make beautiful crepes. Doesn’t that sound like a lovely way to celebrate? We thought so!
As it turns out, crepes are a multicultural creation. In Russia they’re called “Blinchi”, and in Bulgaria they’re called “Palachinki”. Since Simeon is from Bulgaria, we know the Bulgarian variety. But our next door neighbor happens to be French, and not only did he give us a more than passing grade on our crepes, but he also gave us a very French tip. So our palachinki have a French flair to them as well.
They are not entirely unhealthy. One crepe, or palachinka, without the filling 2.3 grams of carbs, 2.3 grams of fat, 1 gram of protein, and only 35 calories. What you choose to put in your palachinka is entirely up to you. It can either be loaded with sugar (the way Kora likes them), loaded with fat (the way Simeon likes them), or healthily proportioned. That’s the beauty of it! You get to choose!
By the way, Simeon and Kora release a new recipe that supports their dancers’ diets on a monthly basis. For updates and sneak peeks of upcoming recipes, make sure to subscribe to their email newsletter!
How to Make Crepes Recipe
Ingredients
We portion out our ingredients on the basis of a ratio. At a normal sitting, Kora eats three palachinki and Simeon eats about four. Actually how many you can make depends on large part on the size of your pan, but Simeon and Kora usually make them about 8” across. The ingredients are simple. When making 8” wide palachinki, one egg produces about 4 palachinki.
So the ingredients are given as a ratio PER EGG:
¼ cup water
¼ cup milk
3 rounded tablespoons of white flour
½ tsp cognac
1 tbsp butter
Making These Beautiful Crepes
Beat together the eggs, milk, cognac and water in a bowl. While still mixing, add the flour one tablespoon at a time. Continue to mix until the batter is smooth and viscous. The thickness of the batter should be more than whole milk, less than a cake mix.
Take a flat bottomed pan and melt butter over medium-high heat. When the bottom of the pan is evenly heated, take a ladle-full of the mixture and pour onto the pan. I hold the pan in one hand and tilt the pan from side to side as I pour out the batter until the bottom of the pan is evenly coated with the mixture.
Allow to cook for approximately 1 minute, or until the batter on the up-side begins to solidify and the down-side starts to brown. Work the edges of the crepe up off the pan, adding a bit more butter to the edges if the crepe is sticking, until you can slide a spatula beneath the crepe. Carefully lift the crepe and flip. Allow to cook for another 20-40 seconds, or until the other side is just starting to brown.
Slide the crepe off the pan and onto a plate. If needed, recoat with butter and continue with the next crepe.
What to Put Inside the Crepes
This is completely personal. Simeon’ brother loves to fill them with Nutella and strawberries. Simeon’s favorite filling is ketchup, feta cheese, and mayonnaise. Kora’s favorite is apricot, rose hip, or fig jam and feta cheese. And pretty much all of us love honey as a single ingredient filling. But the truth of it is, there are no rules! Fill it with smoked salmon and eggs, or tomatoes and chopped dill, ricotta cheese and marionberry jam. Everything works! (But if you ask Simeon, he will insist that you try his ketchup/mayo/feta cheese version. Kora things it’s just weird.)
Did you like this crepes recipe?
What did you guys think? Have you tried making crepes? If you have an alternative or even a filling suggestion, let us know and we’d love to hear about it! And for more great recipes from a dancer’s playbook, make sure you subscribe to our newsletter! You’ll be able to access our library vault, the Quickstep Corner, where you can find all of our previously published recipes in one place!
