When I was in middle school – 6th grade, I think – we were all required to take a cooking class. Unbelievably, I still have the “cookbook” the teacher gave us (mimeographed in purple ink, of course.) I shared the contents with my sister a couple months ago. We both shared a great laugh about the WIDE variety of Jello recipes. Ah early 80s in Minnesota. Jello and fruit molds.
Beyond the outrageously funny recipes, there was one that made me smile. The principal (Mr. Johnson?) came in to our cooking class and taught us all how to make crepes. I remember his apron and laugh quite well. It was exciting to learn how to make something as “fancy” as crepes and to have the principal as the instructor? A HUGE bonus, that’s for sure!
I don’t think I continued to make crepes after a few experiments at home. I suppose I considered it more time consuming that it was really worth in the end.
And then my love, in my pre-diagnosis days, took me to a favorite restaurant of his. Everything – and I mean EVERYTHING – is served in a crepe. I don’t remember what he selected, but I do remember being slightly confused by my meal choices as I was accustomed to crepes being filled with fruit or scrambled eggs and ham. I finally settled on a curried-chicken crepe for dinner.
To be honest, it was a bit unremarkable. The seasoning was off and well, my stomach hurt after eating (hmmmm…wonder what that was… ). I wasn’t too keen to ever return to the crepe restaurant again. My love was a bit disappointed to have seen one of his inspired dinner choices bomb for me. And I’m sure he was even more saddened when I announced that I didn’t want to eat there again.
When I received Rebecca Reilly’s cookbook from my mom as a birthday present, I made crepes for the first time for my Love. And they are GOOD. (She’s got an excellent pie crust and more in this book too.) Using her recipes, I introduced my Love to the idea of crepes for breakfast (rather than dinner). They were a hit. They are now part of our regular weekend breakfast rotation.
Neither of us have eaten breakfast for ages. However, that is about to change. We are *trying* to be more diligent about our health and food selections. And we’ve joined a gym which we attend 3-4 nights a week. So far, so good (save for that damn Step class that just about killed me off!).
So now I need some speedy breakfast ideas for the work week/school year when I don’t have the time in the morning (nor the inclination) to make breakfast. This made my mind race back to Rebecca’s crepes. I wasn’t sure if I could store them in the fridge overnight and reheat in the morning or not. So I thought I would try.
Only problem? I’ve loaned my Rebecca book out.
Bah.
Starting over then. I began to surf. I found a great recipe here (in Spanish, FYI). I had to adjust it a bit to make less (it calls for a lot more milk) and convert some measurements. After mixing, the crepes were quick to cook and made for a tasty breakfast. Great, easy crepes.
Mind you, I have yet to try them with some curried chicken…. but that might be a little while for me. But hey, If you give them a taste test for dinner with savory fillings, do let me know!
In the meantime, give this recipe a whirl. You’ll be happy you did!
Gluten Free Easy Crepes
Recipe makes 10 crepes (depends on your pan size!)
Ingredients:
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup (or 50g) cornstarch
1 egg
2 teaspoons olive oil or melted butter
pinch of salt
Directions:
- Mix (I used a small whisk) all ingredients until very well blended.
- Spritz a pan (small, nonstick) with olive oil. Preheat the pan over medium-high heat.
- Pour 2 Tablespoons of batter into the pan while swirling the pan.
- Continue to swirl the pan – OFF the heat! – until th ebatter begins to bubble and there is no longer excess batter to swirl.
- Cook for 20-40 seconds (the first crepe takes the longest… this time is for the quicker crepes) or until steam is puffing out the sides.
- Quickly and with some care, flip the crepe and cook and additional 15-20 seconds.
- Continue until all the batter is used. (Depending upon your pan, you may not have to spritz it with oil between crepes.)
Serve with a wide variety of fillings: fresh fruit, scrambled eggs and ham, cream cheese, raspberry sauces, ham, turkey, avocado, sour cream, etc. I filled mine with raspberries and teeny cream cheese dollops and top it with fresh raspberry sauce. MMMM!
Do you have any quick breakfast tricks for the work week? I would REALLY like to hear them! Any help and tips you can give me will be greatly appreciated. Heck, we’d better get organized! We’re gonna have a little one – or LC (Little Chan as named by Ginger!) to feed in the mornings soon – no more lazy, wake-ups for us! 🙂
Happy GF Eating –
Kate
Gluten Free Gobsmacked 
First of all, I really want to encourage you in your quest for adoption. My husband and I are also looking into adoption, but need to do more research before we take too many steps. Plus, being a one income family makes it a little difficult.
On to the question about good breakfasts for kiddos. My 2(almost 3!!)year old loves breakfast. Here are a some of her favorite morning eats(she tells me when she gets up that she wants a snack, not breakfast!).
-Yogurt with blueberries/strawberries/blackberries and chopped pecans
-Gluten free toast cut into strips with homemade honey cinnamon butter to dip it in
-GF Pancakes and turkey sausage(I make several pancakes and freeze them, taking one out at a time)
-Cottage Cheese and applesauce(or cut up pineapple) with a handful of Walnuts or Pecans
-Frozen Banana with peanut/almond butter and crushed rice chex or nuts(cut banana in half and stick popsicle stick in half, freeze for 30 minutes, spread with peanut butter and roll in nuts or chex then freeze!) It’s like a breakfast popsicle
-Plus the obvious muffins/croissants/cereal/Scrambled Cheesey Eggs/Waffles
I hope that helps!
wow, only cornstarch? I’ll have to try these out one of these days when I”m sick of mixing flours. maybe this will be sunday breakfast??
and speaking of breakfast, I am a HUGE fan of the yogurt “sundae” — I take 0% fageh yogurt and top it with fresh/frozen fruit, cereal/gf granola/crumbled rice cakes, and honey/maple syrup/pomegranite molasses. healthy, super delicious, and incredibly quick! and fun!!
I also like to do frittatas — a quick and easy thing that you can throw together on sunday night with whatever veggies or other leftovers are around, and that you can quickly heat up for breakfast (or lunch!) during the week.
Sarah Beth, your “breakfast popsicle” sounds INCREDIBLE
We make up Roben Ryberg’s waffle recipe, and triple it, then freeze the extras, and pop them in the toaster as needed. They make good sandwiches, too.
We’ve become quite addicted to the Trader Joe’s granola (and we don’t even have a TJ’s near us).
Cheesy eggs are also one of the boys’ favorites.
Yum. Oh, I once went to this lovely Creperie. Ahh. So good. Anyways, those look so yummy.
For breakfast, in my house it’s mostly cereal (different type for each person), and my dad has toast, but occasionally, we make Pancakes or French Toast. Or just a whole ton of fruit, with a bit of yogurt or our cereal.
Our weekday breakfasts for this summer have been mostly Rice Chex with a good helping of fresh fruit or fruit smoothies (with added greens). During the winter we rotate through the gluten free hot cereals: grits, GF oats, brown rice grits, kasha, and corn mush (again all with good helpings of fruit) Occasionally we’ll make huevos rancheros or scrambled tofu during the week, and Fridays are usually celebrated with buttery biscuits.
my $.02 tip for crepes: pour a LOT of batter into the pan. don’t measure it. just pour/dip/whatever you do, right on heat. POUR IT RIGHT BACK OUT AGAIN into the mixing bowl, the second it hits the hot pan. you’ll get the thinnest, roundest crepes EVER. 😉
also, NUTELLA and crepe. i haven’t checked the package, to see if it’s GFriendly, i’m sure vegemite isn’t, but vegemite-chicken-crepe is super yummy too. The Mall has a crepe only store now too. i look at it with disdain, the once a year i go to that monstrosity….sweet, savory and meat crepes. and that’s all. WEEEEEEIRD.
Vegemite is not GF, however Marmite is. And it’s classier.
or nutella + vanilla ice cream! ooh, now i’m inspired.
Kate, I didnt get to say it before when you posted about your increasing family, but I hope that everything goes smoothly for you. It is so much work and such a long road just to get to the point where you actually get the baby, I wish you total joy and happiness!! Good luck 🙂
I love love love crepes, what a great recipe you have here 🙂 I’ll have to give it a try! Yum 🙂
Kate,
I have seen a couple of recipes lately that call for crepes and thought I couldn’t make them. Well now I can give them a try when I have time:) Thanks for the recipe!
Yum again… I think I may need to make this this week!
I really want to try to make your lavash bread, I drool over it every time I visit your site… I don’t have a mixer though, do you think it’s essential? Or will rapid whisking do the trick??
Thanks!
I think you could easily whisk the crepe recipe. However, the lavash bread (or other GF breads) really need a mixer – hand held will be fine with the lavash bread. Beating the bread together for a few minutes helps the dough develop. I’m afraid I don’t have the forearm force to whisk together any doughs that heavy! lol – Kate
Eight Months ago my then almost 3 year old ended up in the hospital with the doctors fearing cardiac arrest and was found to be extremely allergic to dairy and highly allergic to wheat.
This morning I decided crepes sounded good and wasn’t sure which Gf flour would be best to use so I went searching. Never would have thought of cornstarch!
Great recipe. We substituted the milk with almond milk and dairy free margarine and it came out great!
My hat is off to people like you that take the time to post things like this for us GF newbies! My daughter has a new favorite :). Thanks so much!
Wow! I tried these tonight on a nostalgic whim and am just delighted! They are just like my Memere’s (grandma in Quebecois) and very light and fluffy. Some extra words of advice… use a buttery spray and a dash of cinnamon for a breakfast crepe (can also eat like a pancake with maple syrup btw). Also wonderful made with vanilla soy or almond milk as Kimmee discovered. Make sure you use a small pan… better yet, a proper cake pan BUT also a flat cast iron griddle or even a Hoe Cake pan (Paula Deen has some at Walmart) will work great. When you swirl the batter after it hits the pan, keep swirling until the batter no longer ‘moves’, then sit it back on the burner for a few minutes. When the edges get toasty brown and crispy, insert a spatula (or a butter knife or thin metal cake knife) under the edge, pull it back with your fingers, and insert the spatula all the way through and then flip carefully. Give it 30 seconds, have a peek, and if toasty on the bottom, they are done.
My fave is to stuff with cheesecake batter and then bake (cover with tin foil so the crepes dont get too brown or burn)… top with cherries or strawberries in syrup. A dinner fave – fill with all the fixin’s for chicken fajitas, and package it (fold it all up like an envelope) and top with salsa or guacamole.
I am loving eating gluten-free… Bon apetit!
I’ve just made these for breekie and I have to say they were so tasty. I added a little almond essence and seasoned with nutmeg and cinnamon. This recipe is, to my delight, uncomplicated unlike a lot of the GF ones you find(not requiring several different flours). I made thin and thick ones to see what both would be like, they were equally light. I’ll definitely be adding this recipe to my gf cookery book:) Thanks a mill.
Awesome crepes. I’m newly gluten free and also newly married, and when I ran across this recipe I jumped up and made it on the spot. My husband loves crepes with cream cheese filling, so he was pleasantly surprised when I set the plate down in front of him. He loved them, and our stomachs are very full of crepe dessert right now. 🙂 It was so easy, and it’s so blissful to have dessert again. Pretty soon I’ll have this thing of baking with odd flours figured out, but this is something I can make right now! Thank you for that recipe!
These crêpes are delicious! I lived in Brittany for a few years and yes, these can compete with any Crêperie and definitely with any non-gluten-free crêpes. Filled with peached & raspberry sauce, amazing. Thanks so much!
I made these tonight manicotti style and it was so good!! I just did a typical manicotti filling and red sauce and used the crepe instead of a noodle and it worked out great! My little boys devoured them! Thank you so much!
Finally a crepe recipe that is simple AND delicious! Thank you so much for sharing!
i’ve just tried it. i love it. thank you:))
Just made these with savory chicken filling for my GF mum 🙂 I was pleasantly surprised that I ended up with the best crepes ive ever made!!
The batter is super light and makes perfectly thin crepes, I substituted with lactose free milk and rice oil 😀 will definately make them again!! Thanks so much!!
Thanks for the great recipes! My favorite way to have crepes, gluten free of course, is the traditional way, with buckwheat flour. Have you tried them that way? I haven’t tried yours yet, but I’d imagine buckwheat is more nourishing than cornstarch (more vitamins and minerals etc.).
my daughter was just diagnosed with her 7th disease, just about to be married and out of the house, and i’m a stress-bunny in trying to help her own her life & her diet which was just thrust upon her (no wheat, grains, gluten). The crepes work great in many ways (sugar is also an issue with the diabetes) sweet and savory, or what we call MONTE CRISTO: ham, swiss and a little jam inside, rolled up and powdered sugar on top!
and some other ideas; are Greek Yogurt with a little honey or spices (I make my own from pumpkin pie, cloves, apple pie spice, cinnamon, garam masala, etc) and seeds & dried fruit thrown in. She can’t have oats but raw oats in yogurt takes out the acidity and is awsome.
If you can have corn, fresh homemade tortiallas fried with scrampled eggs is great and other veggies thrown in mexican style. (“Migas”)
I just made these, and they are INCREDIBLE! thanks so much for sharing. Sooooo good!
Wow, thanks for the recipe, Kate! My French class is having a crepe day, and they challenged me to bring in a GOOD gluten-free crepe recipe! Boy, will they be amazed! As the French would say, merci beaucoup!
~Alison
I just tried the crepes this morning. Pretty good, but I would not use olive oil again in the pan – would go with butter instead. I didn’t like the flavor of the olive oil – probably because after a while the heat changes the flavor and the crepes were a little greasy. I used a carbon steel crepe pan and it really doesn’t need a lot of oil/butter/Crisco. I might not need to use anything in the well seasoned pan since the crepes seemed to give up some of the butter in the batter.
I’m going to try these recipe proportions using some Orgran pancake mix to see what the difference might be, Time for me to experiment.
Yes – butter is a great idea. 😀
I think it depends on the flavor of the olive oil for me too.
Let me know how your Orgran experiment works!
You could use coconut oil in the pan…the non-coconutty tasting kind. I will be trying these today with coconut oil…
this was great and so easy! THANK YOU!
We loved this post! A great take on a classic! We will be looking forward to trying this out this weekend
These look so great and easy to make! I love finding a delicious GF recipe that uses only a few ingredients (that I actually own).
These look so great and easy to make! I love finding delicious, simple GF recipes that only use a few ingredients (that I actually own).
Love your blog. Great insight into freshening up an old classic
Has anyone had success in subbing out the egg for applesauce and the cornstarch for potato or rice starch? We have more food allergies then just gluten and dairy and are hoping we can make these still…would love suggestions!
Kiwe – I tried this recipe using rice flour instead of cornstarch and they worked GREAT. The only thing I would say is you do need to stir the batter before pouring, because flour is a little thicker than cornstarch, but the crepes are still thin and delicious!
Yuuummmy! They taste a little eggy on there own, but they taste really great with toppings. I recommend a strawberry jam and cream cheese spread, syrup and cinnamon sugar, or honey butter. I also added a little vanilla to my batter.
I don’t like rubbery textured food, so I cooked mine until it didn’t flop around. Then I kind of ate it like a pizza. Thanks for sharing this recipe!