Buckwheat crêpe in Brittany served with the
traditional apple cider.
Crêpes are popular throughout
Europe, and in some other parts of the world. The
word, like the pancake itself, is of French origin,
deriving from the Latin crispa, meaning "curled".
The common ingredients include flour, eggs, milk,
butter and a pinch of salt. Crêpes are usually
of two types: sweet crêpes (crêpes sucrées)
made with wheat flour and slightly sweetened, and
savoury galettes (crêpes salées) made
with buckwheat flour and unsweetened. While crêpes
originate from Brittany, a region in the northwest
of France, their consumption is nowadays widespread
in France. It is said that crêpes were born
in this region because they couldn't grow enough wheat
to bake bread due to the poor land. Crepes can be
compared to the African injera, the Spanish tortilla
and the Indian dosa.
Crêpes are made by pouring
a thin liquid batter onto a hot frying pan or flat
circular hot plate, often with a trace of butter or
oil spread out evenly across the pan's surface.
The batter is spread evenly over
the cooking surface of the pan or plate either by
tilting the pan or by distributing the batter with
a special spatula. The thin layer then thickens and
needs to be inverted at least once so that it cooks
evenly on both sides.
Most crepes are cooked on round electric
griddles with the batter poured from a ladle and spread
by hand with a wooden crepe spatula.
Crêperie
Island Creperie in Bradenton Beach,
FL USA
A crêperie, (from French crêperie)
is a restaurant that makes and sells crêpes.
It may be a takeaway restaurant or stall, serving
pancakes as a form of fast food or street food, or
may be a more formal sit-down restaurant or café.
Crêperies are typical of Brittany
in France; however, crêperies can be found throughout
France, Europe, and even Tokyo, the United States
and Canada. In the Canadian province of Quebec, crêperies
are especially abundant because of the French influence.
Wheat crepe rolled with fruit, left;
buckwheat galette rolled with egg, right.
Because a crêpe may contain
a variety of fillings, it can serve as both a main
meal or a snack. A crêperie will typically offer
pancake-based courses and customers may order pancakes
as starter, main course and dessert. Savoury courses
are usually served in the form of buckwheat pancakes
called galettes.
Island Creperie uses a French-made
"Crepmatic" device to spread the batter
Island Creperie's "Crepmatic"
spreads batter evenly.
Island Creperie's team
Crêpe
Day, (La Chandeleur)
In France, crêpes were traditionally served
on Candlemas (La Chandeleur), February 2. This day
was originally Virgin Mary's Blessing Day but became
known as Crêpe Day, referring to the tradition
of offering crêpes. It is believed that if you
could catch the crêpe with a frying pan after
tossing it in the air with your left hand and holding
a piece of gold on your right, you would become rich
that year.
