Sweet Lemon Crêpes- A Birthday Breakfast

This crêpe recipe comes from Jehnee Rains,the former pastry chef at Chez Panisse, who went on to open her own restaurant, Suzette, focused on crêpes   The bit of beer in the batter makes for a lovely, lacy crêpe. I'm no scientist, but I guess the bit of yeast in the beer is what does the magic! Check here for the rest of her crepe making hints here.

You can fill the crêpes however you like, for these I used a dab of apricot-peach jam, some good french butter, and a sprinkle of Lemon Sugar*

You really do need a crêpe pan for this to not be a frustrating mess.

(*lemon sugar= mix the finely grated rind of a washed organic lemon with 1/4 cup or so of coarse turbinado sugar)

Sweet Crêpe Batter
serves 4-6

2 cups warm milk
1/4 cup melted butter
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3 eggs
3/4 tablespoon oil
1/2 cup beer (any light lager beer will work)

Butter, Lemon sugar, lemon curd, or lemon marmelade

Melt the butter and heat the milk to warm, over the stove or in a microwave. Meanwhile, mix flour, sugar, and salt in  a large bowl with a whisk. Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour eggs and oil into the well and stir.  Slowly add the melted butter and milk mixture until batter becomes uniform in texture. Transfer batter to a blender and blend briefly, stop blender, open top and pour in beer. Blend again. (you can do this by hand, or in a stand mixer also).

 Set the batter aside, covered with plastic, for at least an hour, or up to 8 hours or overnight, if you can.

Pour about 1/4 to 1/3 cup batter onto a lightly greased smoking-hot pan, swirling the batter to create an even surface. Add a little more batter if needed. Little holes are okay while crêpe cooks — just 2 minutes on the first side (peek to see if golden brown color is there), then about 30 seconds on other side. Keep warm with sheets of parchment paper or paper towels in between each crêpe, in a low oven, about 200 degrees until serving.

Return crepe to pan, if made ahead, warm slightly, and place a teaspoon full of lemon curd, lemon marmalade, or a small piece of butter, and sprinkle with lemon sugar or turbinado sugar. Fold in quarters and arrange on plate. Garnish with a paper-thin slice of fresh lemon.