Each year on the 2nd of February, French people celebrate ‘La Chandeleur’. It's originally a Christian holiday (Candlemas) but many people know it eat as the day they make delicious crepes.
As the beginning of February was the start of the sowing season, crepes were made with the extra flour and given to the pilgrims who were going to Rome to celebrate Candlemas (read more here).
In France they even sell crepe party makers that you place in the middle of the table for everyone to make their own.
When I moved to Ireland I was flat sharing and met many Erasmus students from all over Europe. It was like the French movie ‘L’auberge Espagnole’ (The Spanish flat) about this French student Xavier who goes for a year to Barcelona to study and meet many Europeans during his stay.
One of these students I met was Laurianne, a French girl from Toulouse who flat shared with Mr. FFID at the time. She made many of us happy with her crepes. Eight years later, she kindly accepted to share her recipe which is actually a recipe she found in a school book when she was in primary school.
These crepes are buttery, sweet and they have a special ingredient that gives them a delicious flavour: orange blossom water (‘Fleur d’Oranger’).
Orange blossom water crêpe recipe
The quantity she gave me is for about 25 medium size crepes.
Ingredients
6 eggs
375 g of flour
1L milk
4 tbs sugar
125g melted butter
2 to 5 tbs of orange blossom water to taste (I bought mine in Fallon and Byrne)
Method
Mix the flour and sugar in a bowl.
Dig a well and add the eggs, the melted butter and the orange blossom water.
Slowly add the milk to the mixture while whisking until smooth.
Let the mixture rest for an hour.
Preheat your crepe pan (or a regular one) on medium heat .
When the pan is hot, grease it with just a little cooking oil and wipe with a kitchen towel.
Pour about ¼(ish) of cup of the batter on the middle of the pan and swirl the pan so it spreads evenly.
Cook it for 1 to 2 min, basically until you see if the crepes is easy to flip or not, flip and cook on the other side for about the same time.
Do it again until you run out of batter, don’t forget to slightly grease your pan a couple a times.
It takes time to cook crepes but it’s worth the wait, this recipe isn’t the lightest but results in divine buttery moist crepes .
They can be easily eaten without any topping (it’s how I prefer them) but if you’re really naughty, eat them with Nutella , Chestnut spread, or homemade jam.
Joyeuse Chandeleur!