Recipes

Bette's Diner Crepes

This basic crepe batter works well for both sweet and savory fillings. Made in a blender, it's quick to prepare in advance.

At Bette's, we mainly use these crepes to make blintzes, cooking them on one side only, then rolling them around a cottage cheese filling with the uncooked side facing out. With six pans fired up at once, one cook can turn out fifty or more blintz wrappers in just twenty minutes. It's quite a sight. We make these at night for the following morning, turning them out onto cotton towels, then stacking them as they cool.

• 3/4 cup cold water
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 cup cold milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour

Place all ingredients, in the order listed, in a blender. Blend at top speed for about 30 seconds. Scrape down lumps from the side of the blender container with a rubber spatula. Blend for 15 seconds more. (If you don' t have a blender, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and beat with a wire whisk or electric beater until well blended.) Cover and chill the batter for at least 1 hour.

Heat a crepe pan over medium heat and wipe it with oil. Spoon in enough batter to barely cover the pan, tilting the pan to coat the bottom and part way up the sides evenly. Turn the crepe over when the edges begin to pull away from pan and the bottom is lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Continue cooking to brown the side lightly, about 30 seconds more. Remove the crepe from the pan and repeat the process, oiling the pan as needed and stacking the cooked crepes.

Excerpted from The Pancake Handbook, Ten Speed Press, 1993, 1994 by Stephen Siegelman, Sue Conley and Bette Kroening.

12 to 16 seven-inch crepes