A batch of herb crepes is a nice ingredient to have on hand for use in a variety of savory dishes like these green chile crepes.
These crepes are light and thin, made with whole wheat pastry flour, eggs, and milk or milk substitute. The process itself can be a little time consuming, but once you have a stack of crepes, you can keep them for a few days and use them in several different ways.
So how would you use these crepes? How about as a breakfast crepe with bacon and eggs, or a dinner crepe topped with green chile and cheese, mushrooms and greens or ham and spinach. If you choose, you could finish off the dish with a sunny-side up egg. You could also use them in the same way you might use tortillas to make quesadillas. I like to place a piece cheese on half the crepe, fold it over, and heat on a griddle until the cheese has melted. This is great served with a cold soup.
No matter how you choose to use them, I know you’ll enjoy them.
Originally, this recipe was included in my Herb Crepes with Roasted Chile recipe. Since I use herb crepes for several types of dishes, I decided to separate them out of the original post and give them their own page.
A batch of herb crepes is a nice ingredient to have on hand. These crepes can be used several different savory dishes such as a dinner crepes with green chile and cheese (recipe above) or mushrooms and greens.
It takes about 10 minutes to whisk together the batter but you should let the batter rest for 30 minutes. It's not absolutely necessary, but the resulting crepes do come out a little lighter. The crepes can be made up to 3 days in advance and refrigerated until ready to use.
"*" See Kitchen Notes for more information about this recipe.
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour*, sifted
- 2/3 cup unbleached flour, sifted
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 1 ½ cups milk*
- ½ tsp crushed, dried Mexican or Italian oregano*
- Butter or margarine or oil, for lightly coating the crepe pan before adding the crepe batter
- Whisk the eggs in a large bowl.
- Sift the flour, salt and oregano into a small bowl. Whisk to combine.
- Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the eggs and whisk.
- Add some of the milk, whisk, more flour, whisk, more milk, whisk. Continue until all of the flour and milk have been incorporated into the eggs.
- Let rest for about 30 minutes.
- To cook the crepes, slowly heat a crepe pan or 8 to 10 inch, nonstick skillet over medium low heat. When hot, coat with a touch of butter if needed.
- Add a scant 1/3 cup crepe mixture to the pan and gently swirl to coat the pan with batter. (If the pan is too hot, the crepe mixture will sizzle and splatter. Turn the heat down a bit.)
- Cook for 45 to 60 seconds until light brown. Flip and cook about 30 seconds or until crepe starts to puff and brown on the other side.
- Place on a paper towel and cover to keep warm. (I use a tortilla warmer with a paper towel inside.)
Continue making crepes one at a time until you use up all of the batter. You might need to let the skillet cool for about 15 seconds between crepes if it starts getting too hot.
Flour – Whole wheat pastry flour is best IMO. It yields a lighter crepe.
Milk – I have replaced the 2% milk that I normally use with non-sweetened almond milk and see very little difference in flavor or texture.
The Herbs – Just about any herb can be used. I find that dried dill or tarragon make a nice tasty crepe. You could also use a combination of herbs. I have found that dried herbs work best because you can crush them into a powder for better distributed.
Number of crepes – The number of crepes you end up with vary. It depends on the size of the crepes and the thickness. With an 8 – 10 inch crepe pan and a scant 1/3 cup batter, you end up with about 12 – 14 relatively light and thin crepes.
Leftover crepes – To store leftover crepes fold a papertowel over the stack of crepes and store in a plastic bag or airtight container. Seal and refrigerate. They will keep up to 5 days.
Below are some recipes in which I use these savory crepes. The herbs used might be different for each recipe or even replaced with a red or green chile powder; but everything else (ingredients and process) are the same.
