When I was in high school, my mother (the gadget queen) had an electric crepe maker. You plugged it in, dipped the surface in the batter, and when the crepe was browned, you pulled it off. I remember being obsessed with making crepes, mostly savory dishes, filled with (now) retro fillings like tuna and chicken mixed with mayonnaise and topped with lots of cheese.

My Recipe Cards from the late 1970’s

Last year (I think), my sister Jennifer bought a crepe pan and declared crepes to be her new holiday signature dessert. Was it for New Years’, Jennifer? I don’t recall ever making sweet crepes though. Until now. This week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie is Butter and Rum Crepes, Fancy and Plain.

The batter is what you might expect for pancakes (milk, eggs, flour, melted butter) with some flair (sugar rubbed with citrus zest, dark rum and Grand Marnier). It needs to rest, so I made in the day before I wanted to make the crepes.

I’ll admit that I’m not very good at making regular pancakes. That’s Howard’s job (I was fired years ago). Making crepes is a bit more difficult. I had a hard time figuring out the right amount of batter to pour in and swirl around to get full coverage. I finally settled on using a quarter-cup measure, not quite filled, to scoop from the batter bowl and pour into the pan.

I used the non-stick skillet I use for omelets. Its sides are a bit high and sloping which made it hard to loosen the crepe for turning. A flatter pan might have been worked better for me. I found a rubber spatula worked well to separate those lacy bits from the pan before gently grabbing the edge to flip it over. You definitely need Nonna fingers for this one (that’s those experienced fingers that grandmothers have that don’t feel the burn of touching hot food). It took me most of the batch to get the technique down and feel comfortable. At least the mistakes were tasty.

Dorie suggested leaving the crepes plain (well, they are sprinkled with sugar, so not quite plain) or filling with lemon curd. I had a jar of lemon curd in the fridge, so I didn’t make it from scratch, though I do highly recommend the Lemon Curd recipe in AMFT. For variety, I filled some and left some plain.

To top off the dessert, Dorie gives a recipe for a warm honey-citrus sauce. What are you doing with your leftover sauce?

I liked the crepes. I certainly need more practice to be able to make these with confidence. Miraculously of all, Howard said he wanted a plateful of crepes. Go figure. There isn’t any component of this recipe that I would have predicted he would eat. He said “it was alright”. I don’t know if that’s the truth, or if he’s just gaslighting me.

To see how my Dorista friends made out, check out their links here.