Crêpes for Carnaval

Crêpes Ménagère

Sift together 1 cup flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Add 4 eggs and mix well with a wire whip. Add 1 ¾ cups milk and flavor with a little orange, vanilla, or rum. Mix all together until they are smooth. Put just enough butter in a hot skillet to grease it and when it has melted, pour in enough crêpe batter to cover the skillet thinly. When the crêpes is set and brown on the underside, turn and cook it until brown on the other side. Arrange the crêpes as they come off the griddle on a hot serving dish and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Or serve them with maple syrup or honey, or spread with marmalade or jelly and roll up.

Crêpes

Sift together 2/3 cup flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, and a pinch salt. Beat together 2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks and add them to the dry ingredients. Add 1 ¾ cups milk and stir all together until smooth. Add 2 tablespoons melted butter and 1 tablespoon rum or cognac. Let the batter stand for 2 hours before using.

To cook the crêpes, put a little butter in a hot skillet, just enough to grease it. When the butter is melted, pour in a thin layer of crêpe batter, rolling the pan slightly to make the layer thin. It should set and become brown in about 1 minute. Then turn it over on the other side and cook until golden-brown. The pan should be quite hot because the quicker they cook, the more tender and delicious the little pancakes are. Fold or roll them up, arrange on a hot serving dish, and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.

For a mixture that is not quite so delicate but which is easier to handle, use 1 ½ cups milk and 3 eggs and 3 egg yolks to the amounts of other ingredients given in the above recipe.

Crêpe Variation Number 1

Sift together 2 cups flour, 6 tablespoons sugar, and a little salt. Add 6 eggs and mix well with a wire whip. Add 1 cup milk and 1 cup cream. When everything is well combined, flavor with orange, vanilla, or rum. To cook, follow the directions given above.

Crêpe Variation Number 2

Sift together 2 cups flour, 6 tablespoons sugar, and a little salt. Add 2 whole eggs and 3 egg yolks and mix well with a wire whip. Add 2 cups milk and when all is well combined, fold in 3 stiffly beaten egg whites. Flavor with vanilla, orange, or rum. To cook, follow the directions above.

Crêpes with Pineapple

Make up the batter for crêpes. Drain canned pineapple rings and slice each piece crosswise to make 3 thin slices. Place them on cheesecloth or towel to remove surplus moisture. Put a very thin layer of crêpe batter—enough to make a crêpe slightly larger then the pineapple ring—in a very hot, lightly buttered skillet. When it is set and brown on the underside, place one of the thin pineapple slices on it. Pour another very thin layer of crêpe batter over it, turn the crêpe and brown on the other side. Again, it is necessary to work rapidly. Arrange on a hot serving dish and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Crêpes with Confiture

Make the crêpes slightly larger than usual — about 6 inches across. When done, spread with jam or marmalade and roll them up. Arrange in a heatproof serving dish, sprinkle with sugar, and put in a very hot oven or under broiler heat until the sugar is caramelized.

When it comes to making crêpes Suzette, there seem to be about as many recipes as there are people who make them. But certain characteristics common to them all are that the batter is made quite thin and the cakes themselves are never very large, about 5 to 5 ½ inches across; the sauce is always rich with butter and flavored with orange; and flaming brandy is he final flourish. You can buy special equipment for making them at the table; it's a chafing-dish kind of utensil having an alcohol burner under a flat pan on which the crêpes can be cooked and which is then used in making the sauce. Often the crêpes are cooked in the kitchen and only the sauce done at the table. Or everything can be prepared in the kitchen and the finished dish brought flaming to the table. In most restaurants the headwaiter cooks the sauce on a side table set close to where the guests are eating so that they can watch him. He reheats cooked crêpes brought to him from the kitchen and usually makes quite a ceremony of it. In homes where crêpes Suzette are served, many hosts like to do it this way, too. More power to them!

Crêpes Suzette

Follow the recipe for crêpes, making them about 5 to 5 ½ inches across. Place them on a hot dish to keep warm while preparing the sauce. To make the sauce, take 4 lumps of loaf sugar and rub each one on the skin of an orange in much the same way you would grate the rind. Put the sugar on a plate with 3 tablespoons sweet utter and crush all together with a fork, mixing until all is creamy. Put another 2 tablespoons butter in a chafing dish or in a flat pan and add the juice of 1 orange, a few drops lemon juice, and ½ cup either curaçao, Cointreau, Benedictine, or Grand Marnier. When this comes to the boil, stir in the sugar, butter, and orangerind mixture. Place the crêpes in this sauce, spooning it over them so they will be well-sauced. Fold each crêpe in quarters, like a handkerchief. Sprinkle with ½ cup hot brandy and ignite. Serve with the sauce over them.