French recipe

Watch the salted butter melt on top of the recently baked warm crepe, add a spoon of sugar, role it, give it to your child, and watch his eyes closing from happiness. Crepe, pronounced KREP in French, is one of those simple pleasures that need almost no time to bake and feel like there’s a party at home ! In France, we bake them for breakfast, at snack time or for dinner. There’s hundreds of different fillings and a few batter recipes as well. Here is a basic recipe that will have great effect on your loved ones.  Also, make sure to always bake crepe on February 2, this is the French national crepe day. Yes! We have a national day for crepes, this is how important this is for us! Ingredients 4 eggs 4 cups flour 2 tablespoons salted butter 4 cups milk Process Beat the eggs vigorously in a mixing bowl. Add the milk, then the flour little by little to avoid lumps. Add the salt and the melted butter. Let sit for an hour before baking the crepes.  This is the basic recipe. You can now add some vanilla extract or a drop of rum for different flavors. Half a cup of beer will bring some raising effect.  If you use a pan, make sure to add a bit of oil every other crepe. The first one is always a mess, that’s normal!  If you use a crepe stone machine, then you won’t need oil.  Et voilà!!! Bon Appétit!!! Easy filling ideas Sweet fillings: Salted butter with sugar Sugar and lemon Salted caramel Nutella of course Banana with sugar and lemon Dulce de leche Vanilla ice cream… actually any ice cream! Salted fillings: Sliced ham and grated cheese Bacon and onion Bechamel with mushrooms and ham Smoked salmon and fresh cheese Goat cheese and honey

Growing in France, madeleines pastries are naturally part of my life. At my grand-parents’ houses, on both sides of the family, I would always look for this metallic box always filled with them. On my dad’s side, my grand-mother was the baker, while on my mom’s side, that was my grand-father! They both baked amazing madeleines, the only difference was that my grand-father would make sure to use all of the batter with no chance for me to lick the bowl !!! This is the type of boxes I would look for, always filled with good treats! When speaking about child memories with my friends, it seems it was quite usual to find these boxes in most French family’s kitchen ! So, when I started to bake as a kid, I got the recipes from both grand-parents and I discovered they were almost the same! Super easy to make and impossible to resist. So here is my grand-father’s one: Ingredients 3 eggs 150 g – 2/3 cup butter 180 g – 1 1/2 cups flour 5 g – ½ tsp baking powder 150 g – 2/3 cup sugar 1 pinch of salt Process Beat the eggs and sugar vigorously in a mixing bowl. Sift the flour and the baking powder on top and mix. Add the butter almost melted and the salt, mix until homogenous. Place the batter in the fridge for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 390 °F. Fill each mold up until 3/4 of it. Place in the oven for 15 minutes. Et voilà!!! Bon Appetit!!! A few tips My grand-mother told me the importance of leaving the batter in the fridge for at least 1 hour so that when you place the madeleine pan in the preheated hoven, the temperature difference creates the very characteristic hump of the madeleine. I use less sugar than in the recipe. For some reason I always have to reduce the quantity of sugar from my grand-parents’ recipes. Finally, the recipe says 20-25 minutes, but with 15 I find them spongier. Madeleines are perfect to eat anytime. It can be for breakfast, with coffee or tea. Every excuse is good to get one! If you love madeleines and if you find this recipe perfect for your taste, I can make a ceramic bowl with the recipe on it so that you can bake them as often as you wish without the need to look for the recipe on internet or in a book. And if you happen to know someone crazy for madeleines, this could be a nice gift idea!