You’re staying with friends for the holidays. They’re putting you up in a cozy bed and treating you like family. Here is one way to show your appreciation: Make crêpes for breakfast or an afternoon snack or light dinner. After all, a crêpe is just a really thin pancake that’s pliable enough to easily fold or roll around a filling, either savory or sweet. But when you serve crêpes to a friend, they always get that surprised look on their face like, “Crêpes! How festive! You went to all this trouble for me?!” But really they’re no trouble at all, especially if you turn to master teacher Jacques Pépin for advice. His method is straightforward and foolproof with a trick that will change the game for you forever. The pancake itself is made the same whether for a sweet or a savory application.
I was scrolling through TikTok, as one does, when I came upon Jacques Pépin showing his Crêpes Suzettes recipe. That whole sentence seems like it’s from another era, but what a comforting one. What I love about watching Jacques Pépin videos is that I always learn something. For this recipe, he makes the crêpes as if he’s made them his entire life, hundreds of times, which I’m sure he has. There is no blender and no putting the batter in the fridge to rest. He makes the whole thing in a bowl with a whisk.
The game changer is that first, he mixes the dry ingredients with the egg and just enough milk to get the batter going. The small amount of liquid allows him to mix vigorously and get a very smooth thick batter. Then, when the remainder of the milk is added, there are no lumps. That’s why you don’t need a blender.
I also looked to see what fancy crêpe pan he would use. None. Just a seven-inch pristine non-stick pan. This is the genius of Jacques Pépin. Yes, he taught generations La Technique, but he’s a realist and a home cook who made the thin pancakes for his daughter and her friends when they would come home from school. Those were filled simply with butter and jam, which are a quick treat to make.
But it’s not so much more work to make those Crêpes Suzettes. They aren’t filled at all, but cooked in a syrupy mixture of melted butter, orange juice, zest and sugar. He makes the festive dessert or snack easier by creating a citrus compound butter in the food processor with zest, sugar and orange juice. Then when you have a stack of crêpe ready (which can be made ahead), all you need to do is melt the citrus butter and start heating up the folded crêpes until they’re soaked with the sauce and ready for a judicious spritz of Grand Marnier and cognac and lit aflame. Fun!
Here is Jacque Pépin’s recipe for Crêpes Suzette.
Whatever happens with your Crêpes Suzette adventure, your hosts will tell the story forever.