(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!