Princess Crepes

photography Elizabeth Messina

I think I've sent this recipe out more than any other recipe, so I couldn't believe it wasn't on the blog. This is a good recipe to make with children. They can stir, mix, and roll-up as soon as they are interested. About cooking with kids: If they want to start playing with measuring spoons and banging pots and pans as soon as they learn to sit up, then let them. By age one they'll want to start helping stir. At about age three they can do almost any part of it with you, if you are there supervising and assisting them. I realize it is an extra hassle to cook with kids. It is a bigger mess and takes twice as long. For me, someone who finds cooking to be an almost spiritual experience (I believe the current catch-phrase is to be "in flow") when I am alone, blasting my favorite music and cooking away, cooking with kids isn't quite the same "escape" or "in-flow" experience. But Katherine was determined. She wanted to cook from the time she learned to walk. She always wanted to crack the eggs. (One time, when she was about sixteen months, she cracked two dozen eggs all over the carpet when I was in the bathroom. I had to have the carpets cleaned immediately because nothing smells worse that rotten eggs!) But back to the positive, it is at this young age when kids want to mimic and copy everything you do that you can get them hooked on cooking. After age three they can learn that the stove is hot, the knives are sharp, and that they should be cautious when they are near those things. I don't recommend using sharp knives until age six. But, at age three, a child can use a dull knife to cut bananas or avocados. They can learn to cut-out cookies or anything soft. It gives them a chance to start getting familiar with the feel of a knife. Even when the stove is hot, they can still flip pancakes. Under parent supervision, my cousin Molly was frying eggs at age three! I feel like I can honestly say I was cooking at age three. I helped my mom bake bread and "helped" with anything I could in the kitchen. I was a mad scientist with ingredients out in my playhouse. My Katherine started making crepes at age three. I cooked and flipped them, but she helped measure, pour and mix. By preschool she was making them with me three times a week. By first grade, she could read and would get them all measured and ready without my help (she learned to read the words, milk, flour, butter and eggs as some of her very first words). Then, I just turned on the stove and helped with the final flipping. Flipping crepes requires that you kind of pick up the edge with your fingers and then get the spatula under it to flip it. That edge will not burn your fingers.

Again, as the intro to this recipe says, we started eating crepes three times a week when Melissa stopped eating eggs. My crepe recipe has more eggs in it than most. Now, have crepes about twice a week now, and then pancakes on Saturday. When we have pancakes on Saturday, I will make some kind of egg dish on Sunday. Either fried eggs, omelets, or, my favorite, soft-boiled eggs.

Stasia just told me over the phone last week that her triplet boys LOVE my crepes and that they help her make them at least once or twice a week. And guess what? The triplets just turned 3 a few weeks ago, so it is no surprise to me that they are at the perfect age to start helping with the cooking!

Princess Crepes

My daughter, Melissa, stopped eating eggs when she was about two. I thought she needed them, and was thrilled that she liked crepes. I make these two or three times a week for my two little princesses, Melissa and Katherine. They eat some of them for breakfast, and then eat the remaining ones cold for snacks in the afternoon.

Makes about 12 crepes

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups milk (Use whole milk or 2% milk)

1 tablespoon vanilla

3 eggs

3 tablespoon unsalted butter melted

1. In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar and salt.

2. In a large measuring cup, combine the milk, vanilla, eggs, and melted butter. Mix with a fork to break up the eggs.

3. While whisking rapidly, slowly pour the milk and egg mixture into the dry ingredients. Whisk until very well combined. I keep the whisk in the bowl and continue to mix the batter occasionally as I make the crepes.

4. Heat an 8" non-stick skillet to medium heat. Pour ¼ cup of batter into pan and tilt pan so that batter covers pan in a thin layer. Cook until the edges start to lightly brown, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Flip over and cook for a few more seconds until done. Then roll them up in the pan. Keep the crepes covered with aluminum foil until they are ready to serve.

5. I serve them with raspberry sauce and powdered sugar. My girls call the powdered sugar "snow."

Maili's Notes: This can easily be doubled for a larger crowd. I roll the crepes up to serve them. But if you want to use them for something else (ie stuff them for another recipes), then you can lay them out flat between pieces of wax paper and refrigerate them for 2 days or keep them in the freezer for up to a month.

MAILI HALME 
May 4, 2002