Microwave Crêpes

Microwave Crêpes

I developed these crêpes when I realized our favorite family breakfast treat was inaccessible in my daughter’s dorm room kitchen.  She is a fantastic cook so I wanted to help her to enjoy crêpes even in her freshman year at school.

The recipes I found online were a bit too gummy in result, and created tiny crêpes, so I started from scratch.  Even after experimenting, they are, alas, missing some of the subtlety and crispness of a pan-made crepe, but are not a bad approximation when a stove is unavailable.  Relative to a standard crepe recipe I increased the proportion of flour and butter to tighten up the resulting crepe and help it "fry" a bit.  I also used my “dessert crêpe” approach of adding a little bit of sugar and vanilla for more flavor in the pancake itself, to compensate for the lack of browning in the microwave.

Utensils Needed:

• Microwave Oven
• Dinner plate with flat center, raised edges
• Parchment paper

Crepe Ingredients (makes 7-8 crepes):

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• pinch salt
• 1 tablespoon melted butter (unsalted better, salted OK)
• Powdered sugar for garnish (if desired)

Directions:

1. Whisk together milk, egg, flour, sugar, vanilla and salt in bowl (pro tip: use your measuring cup as your bowl, measuring the 1/2 cup milk in first and save yourself one item to cleanup).
2. While whisking, add melted better until well combined.
3. Let sit for 5-10 minutes to allow flour to absorb liquid, re-whisk 5 seconds when ready to use
4. Cut parchment paper to about the size of the plate and place onto center of plate.  Use your fingers to push/fold paper to get as flat a surface at the bottom of the plate as possible.
5. Pour 3 tablespoons batter into center of plate.  Use back of spoon and/or tilt plate to even coating.
6. Microwave on high 1 minute (may require slightly more or less depending on the power of your oven).
7. Crepe will be set but (unfortunately) will not brown in the microwave.
8. Carefully slide edge of knife along edges of crepe to loosen, then invert crepe and peel parchment from crepe.
9. Repeat process (parchment can be re-used) until all batter is gone.
10. Fill crepes with favorite fillings, fold or roll, sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

  

Filling Ideas:

• Beurre-Sucre (Sugar and Butter) - our family favorite, microwave-able filling recipe below.
• Nutella & Banana - cut banana into small pieces, spread 2 tsp nutella over crepe, add banana pieces, fold or roll.
• PB&J - spread 1-2 tsp peanut butter and 1 tsp jelly, fold or roll

Beurre-Sucre Filling Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoon unmelted butter (salted better, unsalted OK)
• 2 tsp sugar
• (Note: lots of other fillings can be used, see directions below)

Beurre-Sucre Directions:

1. Place butter and sugar into microwave safe small bowl.
2. Cover bowl loosely with paper towel to catch splatter, and microwave 45-60 seconds, enough time to both melt and spend about 10 seconds bubbling to “cook” some of the sugar.
3. Sugar may clump, so carefully stir into butter after removing from microwave (butter will be hot!)
4. Spread 1-2 tsp onto crepe, fold and serve.