Crepes
 |
| Crepes... well sort of |
Crepes, the French classic, is nothing more than a very thin unleavened pancake. Crepes are usually filled with savory or sweet fillings and topped with a sauce of some type. There is a definite technique to crepe making that takes some practice. I had made crepes a couple of times before I was fairly confident with the technique. The recipe and I both agreed on how the crepes were to be constructed, drop a little batter into a greased pan and swirl it off the heat until the bottom of the pan is covered. Then return to the heat for a few seconds and flip. After a few more seconds both sides will be set and the crepe can be removed from the pan. I can just about guarantee that there will be some hiccups along the way. Don't worry they still taste great no matter how ugly they look. Which brings me to my attempt. As you can see my the picture it was not a pretty scene! No matter how much butter I put down I could still not get the crepes to not stick and bunch up. I even switched pans but to no avail. I have never had this problem with crepes before, I don't know if it was the recipe or if I was just having a bad day or what. I followed the recipe to the letter, even using a blender to combine the ingredients (more on this soon). I pretty much just mashed my crepes up with some peanut butter and syrup and went to town. They still tasted great!
 |
| Crepe Batter |
Now to the blender thing. The recipe calls for the use of a blender because the ingredients can be combined very fast, preventing too much gluten from forming. Gluten is the elasticy protein that gives bread its chew, not what you want in crepes. After blending the batter must sit for an hour or so to allow any air bubbles to escape. Air bubbles in the batter could cause a small amount of lift that would be unwanted for crepes.
I feel a little scatter brained on this post, somewhat like I did while I was making the crepes. I would try this recipe again as well as the other crepe recipes I have used to try to narrow down the cause of the problem.
Verdict: Would try one more time.
Crepe Recipe
Cornbread is synonymous with the cuisine of the Southern United States. It is often served as a side dish to traditional BBQ classics like ribs and pulled pork but its origins date back thousands of years. Cornbread is actually just about American (North American technically) as you can get. Native Americans have been harvesting corn for thousands of years and cornmeal cakes were a staple of many tribes' diets. Though the idea of cornbread is very old the version that we think of today is distinctly modern. Baking powder, the leavening agent of cornbread, was not invented until 1843 and was not widely used until the 1900s. Today there are several variations in ingredients and cooking techniques but any quick bread leavened with baking powder and containing cornmeal can be called cornbread. One of the most popular forms is baking in a cast iron skillet. The skillet is preheated so that the batter starts to cook right away, creating a crispy crust. I still have not got around to seasoning my skillet so I went with corn muffins. I still preheated the muffin pan but ,being aluminum, it did not hold heat like cast iron would have. By the time I had scooped all the muffins the pan had pretty much returned to room temperature. This recipe comes from The Joy of Cooking, one thing about this book is they often say things like, "2 or 3 eggs." This can be good if you are short an egg you know you can still get by but when the recipe isn't totally perfect it leaves you wondering if it would have made a difference. Overall the corn muffins were decent but I found them kind of dry. Also the recipe said use vegetable oil, shortening or bacon fat; having some bacon fat on hand I obviously used that. Disappointingly it was not noticeable in the final product. There are a lot of variables that could be the cause of the dryness so I will have to revisit this recipe at some point.
