Crêpes with Dulce de Leche and Toasted Pecans
By America's Test KitchenPublished on March 24, 2011
Time
55 minutes
Yield
Serves 3 to 4
Ingredients
Before You Begin
Crêpes will give off steam as they cook, but if at any point the skillet begins to smoke, remove it from the heat immediately and turn down the heat. Stacking the crêpes on a wire rack allows excess steam to escape, hence they won’t stick together. To allow for practice, the recipe yields 10 crêpes; only eight are needed for the filling. Dulce de leche, a thick, caramel-like sauce, can be found in the international aisle of most supermarkets.
Instructions
- Place oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet and heat over low heat for at least 10 minutes.
- While skillet is heating, whisk together flour, 1 teaspoon sugar, and salt in medium bowl. In separate bowl whisk together milk and eggs. Add half of milk mixture to dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Add butter and whisk until incorporated. Whisk in remaining milk mixture until smooth.
- Using paper towel, wipe out skillet, leaving thin film of oil on bottom and sides. Increase heat to medium and let skillet heat for 1 minute. After 1 minute, test heat of skillet by placing 1 teaspoon batter in center and cook for 20 seconds. If cooked batter is golden brown, skillet is properly heated; if it is too light or too dark, adjust heat accordingly and retest.
- Following photo 2, pour ¼ cup batter into far side of pan and tilt and shake gently until batter evenly covers bottom of pan. Cook crêpe without moving it until top surface is dry and crêpe starts to brown at edges, loosening crêpe from side of pan with rubber spatula, about 25 seconds. Following photo 3, gently slide spatula underneath edge of crêpe, grasp edge with fingertips, and flip crêpe. Cook until second side is lightly spotted, about 20 seconds. Transfer cooked crêpe to wire rack, inverting so spotted side is facing up. Return pan to heat and heat for 10 seconds before repeating with remaining batter. As crêpes are done, stack on wire rack.
- Transfer stack of crêpes to large microwave-safe plate and invert second plate over crêpes. Microwave on high power until crêpes are warm, 30 to 45 seconds (45 to 60 seconds if crêpes have cooled completely). Remove top plate and wipe dry with paper towel. Drizzle upper half of top crêpe with 1 teaspoon dulce de leche, followed by 2 teaspoons toasted pecans. Fold bottom half over top half, then fold into quarters. Transfer crêpe to second plate. Continue with remaining crêpes. Serve immediately.
Time
55 minutesYield
Serves 3 to 4Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Ingredients
Test Kitchen Techniques
Why This Recipe Works
We determined that the success of our crêpe recipe relied on some crucial crêpe-cooking tricks. Heating the pan properly was essential to our recipe. If too hot, the batter set up before it evenly coated the surface. If too cool, the crêpe was pale (read: bland) and too flimsy to flip without tearing. Using just enough of our crêpe recipe’s batter to coat the bottom of the pan was also important, as was the tilt-and-shake method that we employed to distribute it. To avoid singed fingertips, we loosened the crêpe with a rubber spatula before grasping its edge and nimbly turning it to the flip side to cook until spotty brown.
Before You Begin
Crêpes will give off steam as they cook, but if at any point the skillet begins to smoke, remove it from the heat immediately and turn down the heat. Stacking the crêpes on a wire rack allows excess steam to escape, hence they won’t stick together. To allow for practice, the recipe yields 10 crêpes; only eight are needed for the filling. Dulce de leche, a thick, caramel-like sauce, can be found in the international aisle of most supermarkets.
Instructions
- Place oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet and heat over low heat for at least 10 minutes.
- While skillet is heating, whisk together flour, 1 teaspoon sugar, and salt in medium bowl. In separate bowl whisk together milk and eggs. Add half of milk mixture to dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Add butter and whisk until incorporated. Whisk in remaining milk mixture until smooth.
- Using paper towel, wipe out skillet, leaving thin film of oil on bottom and sides. Increase heat to medium and let skillet heat for 1 minute. After 1 minute, test heat of skillet by placing 1 teaspoon batter in center and cook for 20 seconds. If cooked batter is golden brown, skillet is properly heated; if it is too light or too dark, adjust heat accordingly and retest.
- Following photo 2, pour ¼ cup batter into far side of pan and tilt and shake gently until batter evenly covers bottom of pan. Cook crêpe without moving it until top surface is dry and crêpe starts to brown at edges, loosening crêpe from side of pan with rubber spatula, about 25 seconds. Following photo 3, gently slide spatula underneath edge of crêpe, grasp edge with fingertips, and flip crêpe. Cook until second side is lightly spotted, about 20 seconds. Transfer cooked crêpe to wire rack, inverting so spotted side is facing up. Return pan to heat and heat for 10 seconds before repeating with remaining batter. As crêpes are done, stack on wire rack.
- Transfer stack of crêpes to large microwave-safe plate and invert second plate over crêpes. Microwave on high power until crêpes are warm, 30 to 45 seconds (45 to 60 seconds if crêpes have cooled completely). Remove top plate and wipe dry with paper towel. Drizzle upper half of top crêpe with 1 teaspoon dulce de leche, followed by 2 teaspoons toasted pecans. Fold bottom half over top half, then fold into quarters. Transfer crêpe to second plate. Continue with remaining crêpes. Serve immediately.
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