Ingredients
Serves 4
Crepe batter
(Makes 8–9 crepes)
1/3 cup (40g) plain flour
2 large free-range eggs
3/4 cup (190ml) whole milk
Pinch salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil or melted butter
1 tsp natural vanilla extract
(omit for savoury crepes)
Butter, softened to grease pan
Apple and Cinnamon Filling
1kg green apples, peeled
¼ cup (55g) caster sugar
50g unsalted butter
1/3 cup (115g) honey
Pinch of salt
Ground cinnamon
1–2 lemons, cut into small wedges
Very vanilla ice cream or pouring cream or vanilla yoghurt
Batter for Pandan Crepes
1/3 cup (60g) plain flour
2 large free-range eggs
½ cup (125ml) coconut milk
¼ cup (60ml) whole milk
Pinch of salt
¼ teaspoon pandan paste
Butter, softened to grease pan
Coconut Filling
1 cup (45g) desiccated coconut
½ cup (125ml) coconut cream
110g dark palm sugar OR
the pale Thai kind is also fine
Generous pinch of salt
Salty coconut sauce (optional)
1 cup (250ml) coconut cream
¼ cup (55g) caster sugar
½ teaspoon salt
Method
Crepes with Apple and Cinnamon
This is one of my all time favourite desserts because it’s one of the first things my mum taught me how to make. In my uni days, it was pretty much the only dessert I had on offer for dinner guests. I much prefer them to your regular pancakes as I love the texture of those gorgeous folds of thin, silky crepe, made even silkier with whatever sauce you’ve paired them with. And in my opinion, it’s a classic every cook should master.
I also love them because they are so versatile in terms of what you choose to fill them with, sweet or savoury.
For crepes:
Pop a non-stick frying pan on a low heat to begin warming.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, eggs, ¼ cup of milk, salt, oil or melted butter and whisk until silky smooth. Add a little more milk and whisk until nicely incorporated. Mix the remaining milk in with a ladle to avoid incorporating too much air into the batter. The mixture should be quite watery.
If the consistency is right, the batter will split into droplets when poured from the ladle in a slow stream, but if it forms a smooth band of liquid, your crepes will end up too thick.
Heat a 20–23cm non-stick frying pan over medium heat. To test, ladle a droplet of batter into the pan, if it sizzles and instantly bubbles, it’s probably a bit too hot. Just grab the pan and making sure no one is around you, madly wave it around to cool it down a tad. Return to the stove, and with some paper towels, smear butter over the entire surface of the pan. Ladle a ¼ cup of the batter into the pan, roll it around to cover the surface. You have to work quickly, as it will begin to cook instantly. When the crepe is perfect, the edge will crisp up and become golden. At this point lift up an edge with a butter knife, then with both hands, carefully pick it up and swiftly flip it over. Cook it for literally a second on the other side, then flip it onto a plate. Repeat until all the mixture is used. You should end up with crepes that are about 1mm thick and translucent. If they are too thick, it means you are either pouring too much mixture into the pan and letting the excess settle instead of pouring it out, or your batter needs thinning with more milk.
Apple and Cinnamon Filling
To prepare the apples, cut them into quarters, slice seeds and ends off and further cut the wedges into 3–4 slices.
Sprinkle the sugar into a large frying pan on high heat and wait for it to begin to caramelise. When it starts to turn golden, toss the butter, apples, honey and a pinch of salt into the pan, lower to medium heat and cook until the apple reaches the desired texture. I prefer mine with a bit of crunch, so I basically wilt them then turn the heat off, but if you like your apples softer, cook them a little longer bearing in mind the residual heat will take them further still.
You certainly don’t want baby food mush.
Scoop a good amount of the apple mixture onto half a crepe, sprinkle with some of the cinnamon, a squeeze of lemon and fold over once.
Serve with a scoop of very vanilla ice cream or a jug of pouring cream. For breakfast, a scoop of vanilla yoghurt instead of ice cream is absolutely delicious.
Pandan and Coconut Crepes
A Malaysian favourite I’ve been making since I was 9. The first crepe I ever made was one of these peculiar green ones!
To make a pandan crepe, follow the plain crepe method above but note there is no melted butter or oil as there is enough oil in the coconut milk, and the vanilla extract is replaced by the pandan paste. If the coconut milk used is thicker than usual, you may have to thin your mixture down with more milk.
To make the coconut filling, combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and cook on a medium heat until the sugar has completely dissolved and the mixture is moist and sticky without any liquid. Remove from the heat and spread out on a plate to cool before using.
To make the salty coconut sauce, combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool.
To assemble the crepes, scoop 1 tablespoon of the coconut filling onto the middle of the crepe and spread it out to an elongated shape. Then fold the crepe in half, and fold in the sides and roll into a long parcel like a spring roll.
You may serve all the parcels on a single plate piled up on top of one another to share or as individual serves of 2 parcels per person with 2–3 tablespoons of salty coconut sauce drizzled over them.