A light recipe for French crepes, and why the French eat crepes for Candlemas

Level: Easy
Total Time: 1h 50min

The “Chandeleur”, or Candlemas, is celebrated in France on the 2nd of February. This day is a day to gather as a family, light candles, and eat French crepes! Not surprisingly this is a rather popular tradition. The celebration originates from a Catholique event. It is exactly 40 days after Christmas and the day Jesus was presented to the temple for the first time. Traditionally families would receive a blessed candle in the church to bring home for purification and for luck in the upcoming year.

Pope Gélase the 1st initiated the crepes tradition. He distributed cereal crepes to the pilgrims that came from Roma for the celebration. The crepes also became linked to other symbols and superstitions. The round shape and golden color would illustrate the sun and it became a way to honor and celebrate the arrival of longer and lighter days. It was important that the first crepe to be cooked would be turned over by throwing it up in the air while a gold coin was held in the other hand. That crepe was then hidden away in a closet for a year in order to assure a good harvest.

The French have two categories of crepe recipes: one salt and one sweet. The salt version is made with buckwheat flour and is served with toppings like meat, cheese, vegetable, etc. while the sweet version uses white all-purpose flour and is served with toppings like jam, chocolate, or caramel. You will also find a lot of different additional ingredients in the mixtures depending on regions or family traditions. It can be cider, beer, orange blossom extract, and vanilla etc.

This recipe is from Jennifer Chevassu who is my precious French translator for Salmon & Frogs. She used to watch our kids on Wednesdays (when French schools are open only half-day) and she often prepared the most delicious sweet crepes for their afternoon snack. So one Wednesday I made sure to stick around to learn how to do it properly;-) She shared her secret (low sugar, low fat!) recipe and it has become our regular ever since. I invested in a crepe pan and it does make a difference, but you can use a standard pan as well.

Enjoy the crepe party!

THE TIPS TO SUCCEED

1: Make sure to leave the mixture to rest for an hour before cooking it. The flour will swell and the crepe is much less likely to tear.

2: You can skip the orange blossom extract, but I really recommend you don’t. The taste is so much better when it is included!

Let’s get started

Ingredients

• 300 g All-purpose flour
• 2 tsp Vanilla Sugar
• 1 pinch Baking Soda
• 600 ml Milk (or until it is like a thin fluid soup)
• 3 pcs Eggs
• 70 g Unsweetened apple puree (This replaces the butter!)
• 1 tbsp Orange Blossom extract
• 2 tbsp Olive oil

How to do it?

Add the flour, vanilla sugar, and baking soda into a bowl.

Pour in half of the milk and whisk well until fully blended and there are no lumps. You can do this my hand as well as using a machine. Both works just fine.

Continue to mix and add one egg at a time and then the apple puree.

Add the remaining milk until the mixture has the texture of a thin soup.

Finally add the orange blossom extract and let the mixture rest for 1 hour.

Place the olive oil in a small bowl and use a crunched sheet of kitchen paper to dip in the oil and then smear the pan very lightly in between each crepe.

Cook the crepes at medium/high temperature on both sides until golden and keep them warm in a dish covered with foil.

How to serve the French crepes?

Serve the French crepes with your favorite topping, Nutella, jam, caramel, sugar or chestnut puree.