Sourdough Crêpes
(Sourdough crêpes with real maple syrup, blueberries and red currants. Served with pastured pork sausage patties)
I love crêpes. I have never been a huge fan of pancakes, flapjacks or any other type of griddle cake. I think the reason for that being probably because most of the ones I had in restaurants growing up were probably made from a mix, and served with fake maple syrup.
(Image courtesy of ASKO Storhusholdning)
I started to really appreciate pancakes when I lived in Norway and enjoyed pannekake, a thin, crêpe-like pancake, served with butter and sugar mostly, and often jam. Sometimes with bacon on the side – which I liked to roll up in my pancake just to be weird. Where I lived in Trøndelag, you eat Norwegian pancakes rolled up. Although I have also seen them served folded up like a crêpe as well. This was a revelation to me, because I found myself looking forward to pancakes in Norway. I also enjoyed vaffler – Norwegian waffles, another breakfast item that I never liked in the US. But Norwegian waffles are delicious, light and chewy and served with brunost (a caramelized whey cheese) and jam, and a pot of strong coffee, black.
Image courtesy of Restaurant Leon
Now that I know more about cooking and ingredients, I know that European flours are very different from their American counterparts. For example, I learned from Julia Child’s Book, My Life in France, that French flour has a lot less gluten in it than US flour. So perhaps it was my gluten intolerance all along that kept me from enjoying American pancakes and waffles.
In the past year, as I have been baking with sourdough, I came across a delicious recipe for sourdough crêpes, that held my pannekake cravings at bay.
Sourdough Crepes. I was inspired to make these from another blog, Sarah’s Musings
I came across her blog post when I was looking for new things to do with my sourdough starter. With just two people in the house, I found myself struggling to use my starters every week. I have a whole wheat and a spelt starter. I usually make this recipe with my whole wheat starter, since I use my spelt starter more often.
Sourdough is a great way to start baking bread in a more healthful and traditional manner. Many people with gluten, or wheat intolerance (not Celiac’s), myself included, have found that it is easier to digest wheat products that are sourdough. We love serving these sourdough crepes with butter, berries, Brunost (Norwegian whey cheese), maple syrup or berries in syrup with either nitrate free bacon or pasture raised sausage on the side. Enjoy!
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup sourdough starter
2 eggs
2 TBS melted butter
¼ tsp salt
1/4- ½ cup milk
extra butter for cooking
METHOD:
Preheat your 8” or 10” cast iron skillet on the lowest temperature. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Once skillet is hot, add a tsp of butter to the pan and let it melt. Then add about 1/3 cup of batter to the pan. Tilt the pan in a circular motion to be sure the batter evenly covers the pan. Cook for about 2 minutes, and then carefully flip, cooking for about another 30 seconds. Repeat – don’t forget to add more butter before each crepe. I usually heat my oven to 200F, and place each crepe once it is finished on a cookie sheet in the oven to keep them all warm until they are all cooked and we are ready to eat.
I guess now I will be playing around with recipes for gluten-free crepes and pannekake! If you want to follow my Gluten-free adventures more closely, and see what I am eating, that I don’t post about, be sure to follow The Leftover Queen fanpage on Facebook!
Pam - October 3, 2010 at 11:51 am
One word…..AMAZING! Hugs!
Rosa - October 3, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Beautiful! Yes, unfortunately, our flour contains les gluten and we don’t have so many wonderful varieties…
Cheers,
Rosa
Amy - October 3, 2010 at 12:43 pm
I love the shape of your waffles. The only time I’ve had crepes they have been at chain restaurants and were too sweet. And I have no idea how to begin making them (if it involves flipping I will fail the majority of the time). Yours look delightful!
Faith @ lovelyascharged - October 3, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Hi! I just found your blog from today’s post over @ Kitchen Courage and this recipe was the most amazing first post for me to read! I just wanted to say that everything I’m reading about here looks so delish and that I can’t wait to see what else you pull together!
bellini valli - October 3, 2010 at 3:05 pm
I do love this idea Jenn. It gives us hope that we can enjoy anuthing with a little skill and knowhow to adapt it to our own needs.
tasteofbeirut - October 3, 2010 at 5:27 pm
I adore these crêpes ; your photos are so beautiful and make me want to eat a whole stack of them as soon as possible!
Simone (junglefrog) - October 3, 2010 at 5:46 pm
It seems we both had pancakes of a sort on our mind… 🙂 I love all types of pancakes really, although I do also seem to favor the european thinner kind above the american ones (which I baked this weekend) but do think they are both delicious! We call our pancakes ‘pannenkoeken’ which sounds a bit like the pannekake of Norway and they look pretty similar too!
Stella - October 3, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Yum! I still need to do a sour dough starter. I’ve got some kind of mental block over it. I just keep putting it off for some reason…
I’m going over to Kitchen Courage now. Ooh, ‘courage’?! I suppose I need some of that to get my sourdough started (smile).
5 Star Foodie - October 3, 2010 at 8:43 pm
Sourdough crepes sound amazing especially with those pretty blueberries and red currants! Excellent!
The Nervous Cook - October 3, 2010 at 10:10 pm
Crepes have always been so intimidating to me, but these sound great!
Rachel C- UntilTheThinLadySIngs.com - October 4, 2010 at 10:30 pm
That looks so good! Looking forward to a crepe recipe without gluten! maybe I’ll try one…
It’s interesting what you mentioned about European flours. I lived in the UK for a few months in 2006, before I knew I was gluten- intolerant. I did know at the time that I was unable to eat wheat. However, I had no problem eating wheat there- even pasta and beer- and I actually lost weight (the only time I was really able to until I gave up gluten in 2008). So yes, it’s definitely different. I heard that one problem is the way the US standardizes plants so that there is only one kind of wheat planted, over and over. In Europe, wheat strains differ in different places, providing more variety and less allergy to it.
I just subscribed to your blog! Looking forward to reading more posts!!
Amy @ Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free - October 5, 2010 at 12:56 pm
When you figure out gluten-free sourdough baking, let me know and I’m going to make your recipes. I am not yet a bread baker so gluten-free bread baking has always eluded me. 🙂
City Share - October 5, 2010 at 11:37 pm
Mmm. I love crepes. I grew up making those on weekends as a special treat. I think the eggy batter makes them much better than pancakes. The sourdough crepes sound especially good. I will check out your recipe.
D. @ Outside Oslo - October 5, 2010 at 11:45 pm
Those sound wonderful. Would you mind if I shared one of your photos with a link to this post on Outside Oslo? It’s in need of some good, Scandinavian cuisine!
Emily - October 7, 2010 at 2:24 am
Yum. I’ve never had a sourdough crepe before. They sound excellent!
I had no idea you lived in Norway. That is so awesome!
Toni Parker - October 11, 2010 at 11:16 am
I’ve been thinking about making crepes! My youngest son loves them.
How wonderful to live in different places, to experience different cultures and food!