In our household, we do not think of crepes as a delicate French dessert but rather an inexpensive breakfast for dinner with amazing lunch leftovers, for school or work (big “yaaay” for divided containers). Making crepes might seem like an intimidating long process but in reality it doesn’t take longer than preparing a casserole. I usually make crepes during a few hours meal prep I do a few times a week. Just like with waffles. While each crepe is cooking, I can work on other dishes. I find preparing large batches of food therapeutical. Although no matter how much food I make, I end up cooking every day…
Big time saving tip: make satisfying stuffed crepes so all your hungry big and little people have 2 or 3 and are full. Using whole wheat flour is absolutely possible and necessary to fill up bellies with fibre. That way 21 stuffed crepes will go a loooooong way for you.
Any 3rd world country citizen is a master of stretching its food, trust me. Stuffed crepes is a great example as you can use up all your fruit and pantry leftovers. My mom and grandma always made sweet or savoury stuffed crepes. But they rather rolled them than folded. Any way works.
I used Olga’s Flavour Factory’s (sweet Russian blogger who is about to have a baby) recipe for the crepes, swapped white for whole wheat flour (spelt would be great too) and adjusted the amount of liquids. Batter should be very runny. So runny that it can flow easily all over skillet and cover it completely to form a crepe. Makes sense, right?!
Then to make a crepe, hold hot skillet in the air above the stove. Pour batter in the middle and quickly tilt skillet around until a crepe forms. The key is to be quick and it usually takes a few crepes to get a hang of the process.
Then you wait for golden and dry edges to appear, and flip with a thin spatula. Cook for another 45 seconds and your crepe is done. Don’t worry about dry parts and edges. As crepes sit in a stack they will soften. Even more, once you fold and cram stuffed crepes in a dish together. Depending on the skillet you use, you might or might not need to spray it with cooking spray before each crepe.
My mom stuffed crepes with coarsely grated peeled apple. I really went with what I had on hand and decided to make crepes more filling and serve for dinner instead of an after school snack. Adding chia seeds was genius because they added crunch, fibre, healthy fat and kids wouldn’t even see or taste them. Plus they absorbed fruit juice in the filling so it won’t be dripping.
For the mango apple filling I coarsely grated ripe mango and it was so easy to just work around the pit. Make sure to peel your apples as kids do not like grated peel, trust me. It contains a lot of nutrients, so I added it to a green smoothie I was making that day. And later on my kids drank it anyways LOL.
As crepes are cooking, I stack them neatly on a dinner plate. Then just spread the filling evenly all over the crepe, fold in half and then again in half. Stack in a baking dish and refrigerate for a few days.
Last week I became a proud owner of a 6 lbs bucket raw unpasteurized honey just for $30. It is almost organic and comes from a farm just 15 minutes away from my house. I went to stock up on meat and my lovely farmer Karen had this honey for sale. Lately, I have been debating a lot what is better: organic honey, raw honey, local honey or honey from Costco?! It seems hard to get everything at once and since Canadian $ isn’t that good, my Amazon purchases from the US had to downsize a bit. I went on and on asking Karen about what happens to her honey. Mainly, I am just so curious about where our food comes from, probably because we are so detached from the process of growing it. The verdict for my honey was that it is collected by bees from wildflowers, that are not sprayed, that my cows and chicken eats. Then it goes straight into my bucket. Karen’s neighbours probably spray but this almost organic unpasteurized honey with more nutrients and vitamins is pretty darn good enough for me.
Where do you get your honey and what do you know about honey that I don’t know?:)
P.S. If you live near by, I encourage you to visit Karen for local raw honey and grass-fed meat @ Karen’s Koop 28203 Lougheed Highway, Maple Ridge, BC. Call her for hours @ 604.462.1001.
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs
- 3 1/2 cups any milk (I used unsweetened almond milk)
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 tbsp butter, melted
- 3 tbsp raw honey or maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 3/4 cups whole wheat or spelt flour
- Cooking spray (I use Misto)
- 1 medium ripe mango, peeled and coarsely grated
- 3 medium apples, peeled and coarsely grated
- 3 tbsp chia seeds
- 3 large ripe bananas, mashed
- 1 cup strawberries, chopped (I used frozen)
- 3 tbsp chia seeds
- Dash cinnamon
- Dash pure vanilla extract
Directions
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs. Add milk, water, butter, honey, salt and whisk to combine. Add flour and whisk again until thoroughly combined. Batter should be very runny, not like a pancake batter. You can prepare it in advance and refrigerate overnight.
- Preheat medium (10") non-stick skillet on medium heat and spray with cooking spray. Hot skillet is very important for successful crepes. Hold skillet in the air, pour 1/4 cup batter in the centre and quickly tilt it to distribute batter evenly all around. The key is to be quick and it usually takes a few crepes to get a hang of the process. Cook for 2 minutes or until dry golden edges appear. Then using thin spatula flip and cook for another 45 seconds. Repeat this step with remaining batter. Depending on the skillet you use, you might or might not need to spray it with cooking spray before each crepe.
- While making crepes, prepare both fillings in separate medium bowls. Just mix ingredients with a fork.
- Spread 1/4 cup filling around the crepe, fold in half and then in half again. Any remaining filling or plain crepes can be enjoyed on its own. Serve warm with yogurt, honey, maple syrup and fruit of choice. Whatever you like. Makes great lunch leftovers!
Notes
Crepe recipe source with minor adjustments Olga's Flavour Factory