Category: Crêpes and Pancakes

Baking · Chocolate · Crêpes and Pancakes

Homemade Crêpes

What Jessica Baked Next45 Comments

Soft and fluffy traditional French Crêpes are quick and easy to make from scratch. This 4 ingredient recipe is one to have ready for Pancake Day!

Originally posted in February 2015, recipe and photographs updated January 2023.

When I’m craving homemade soft, buttery and fluffy crêpes this recipe ticks all the boxes for me.

These crêpes are incredibly easy to make as the batter can be made in a blender or just in a mixing bowl with a whisk. The batter also doesn’t require chilling before cooking, but it can also be made ahead of time.

I enjoy serving my homemade crêpes with chocolate hazelnut spread, Chantilly cream and berries, but the neutral flavour of these means you can serve and top them with anything that takes your fancy!

With Shrove Tuesday approaching next month, I’m sharing one of my favourite pancake recipes.

Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day is a day we celebrate and eat lots of homemade pancakes. The reason is that it uses up butter, eggs and other items that are given up for Lent.

I have very fond memories of Pancake Day growing up. We ate plate after plate of pancakes, all with different toppings!

I love big, fluffy American-style pancakes equally as much as I adore crêpes, and this Nigella recipe has never let me down – it’s a recipe I’ve made for years.

This is the kind of dessert I could eat forever and I would be happy. I love a thin crispy pancake packed full of warm Nutella, that really is dessert heaven for me!

These crêpes make an awesome weekend breakfast. They’re light, airy, and delicious with the warm, oozy Nutella spilling out.

Crêpes are great served with savoury fillings such as ham (a vegetarian option is also brilliant too), cheese and mustard. Another favourite of ours is lemon juice and sugar, it’s such a fresh and sweet flavour combination.

The list and choices are endless!

You can even make a Crêpe Cake too! Layer each crêpe, spread with your choice of filling and continue going until you’ve used all your crêpes up – you will probably need to make a double batch of this recipe to make enough crêpes for a cake.

Bookmark this recipe to make right away or next month for Pancake Day! You might also like to try my popular Fluffy American Pancakes or Fluffy Vegan Pancakes too!

I made a double batch of this recipe, and that made plenty of crêpes for dessert one night and breakfast the next day. We can’t get enough of these and they use very little ingredients, which is an added bonus!

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Homemade Crêpes

How to make traditional French Crêpes! These thin pancakes are great served with your favourite savoury or sweet fillings.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 6
Author What Jessica Baked Next

Ingredients

  • 30 g butter (salted or unsalted)
  • 150 g plain flour
  • 325 ml milk
  • 1 egg

Instructions

  • Melt the butter and allow it to cool slightly.
  • In a blender or mixing bowl blend/whisk the flour, milk and egg until combined. Now add the melted butter and combine until you have a smooth and thin pancake batter. If there are any lumps in your batter, pass through it through a sieve. At this point you can chill the batter for up to 2 days before using - I always allow my batter to rest overnight, but this is optional.
  • Heat a small amount of extra butter in a small pan (the pan I use is approx. 20cm / 8-inch in diameter). Once melted carefully wipe away any excess butter. Take roughly 2-3 tablespoons of the pancake mixture into the pan and swirl around until a thin, crisp pancake forms covering the base of your pan. It will only take about a 1 minute to cook on one side. Now flip over and cook on the other side for about another 30 seconds until lightly coloured. Once cooked place on some parchment paper and keep warm in the oven - placing a layer of parchment paper in between each crêpe to avoid them sticking together.
  • Repeat the above step with the remaining batter. Fold or roll the crêpes and serve warm with a choice of fillings and toppings.
  • Crêpes will keep once cooked, covered for up to 3 days. They can be frozen, wrapped well for up to 3 months - when ready to serve, thaw in the fridge overnight and reheat in the microwave in 20 second bursts until hot.

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Breakfast · Crêpes and Pancakes · Vegan

Fluffy Vegan Pancakes

What Jessica Baked Next1 Comment

Easy and simple vegan pancakes. Top these fluffy pancakes with anything you like from chocolate, cookie/peanut butter, fruit, jam or syrup!

I’ve taken our favourite Fluffy American Pancakes and veganised them. If you’d told me when I posted that recipe it’d be possible to make batch of pancakes similar to those without dairy or eggs, then I wouldn’t have believed you!

Since the start of the year, I’ve tested out various vegan pancake recipes, but this one is the best yet and I’m stoked to finally share it with you. These pancakes are just like American-style pancakes or British-style scotch pancakes, they’re incredibly light and fluffy.

My favourite thing about making pancakes is definitely the toppings! I love topping these pancakes with lots of different things. The last couple of times I’ve made these we’ve served them with fresh blueberries, strawberries, passionfruit and tinned peach.

The pancake batter is easy to make and it takes very little time to have ready. You’ll prepare this batter by whisking together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar and salt) then whisk the plant milk, vanilla and oil and add that to the dry ingredients. Once you’ve added the wet ingredients to the dry, you’ll want to be cautious and JUST whisk until you have a thick batter, no more than that. A few lumps is absolutely fine, but don’t over mix!

This next step is optional, but I always leave my batter to rest for 10 minutes before continuing further with the recipe. Allowing the pancake batter to sit ensures you’ll have the fluffiest pancakes ever, so it’s really a step not worth skipping!

When you’re ready to start cooking the pancakes, take a large frying pan and place over a medium heat. Add a small drizzle of oil to the pan and allow that about 30 seconds to heat up. Once the pan is hot enough, take two dessertspoons of the pancake batter and place it directly into the pan, don’t spread just let the pancake naturally spread itself. Cook gently on one side for 2 minutes, then once bubbles have appeared on the surface, flip it and cook the other side for another 1-2 minutes until lightly golden.

The recipe makes roughly 10 generous sized pancakes, more than enough to serve my hungry taste testers in one sitting!

Get ready to enjoy a plate or stack of these best ever vegan pancakes! You don’t need any dairy ingredients or eggs to whip up a batch of utterly amazing and gloriously fluffy pancakes, this recipe proves just that.

(Makes 10)

Ingredients:

250g self-raising flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 tablespoons caster or granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

300ml plant milk – I use soya milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for frying

Method:

  1. In a large mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt until combined. In a bowl or jug mix the plant milk, vanilla and oil until well combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and gently whisk until you have a thick batter – a few lumps in the batter is fine. At this point I like to leave the pancake batter to sit for 10 minutes (this helps get fluffy results) but you don’t have to do this.
  2. In a frying pan, heat a small amount of oil and then once the pan is hot enough take two dessertspoons of the pancake batter and cook for about 2 minutes on the one side until bubbles appear on the surface. Now flip and cook the other side for a further 1-2 minutes until lightly golden. Repeat with the remaining batter.
  3. Serve the pancakes warm with your choice of toppings. Pancakes are best eaten on day of making, but they’ll keep for a day extra.

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Breakfast · Crêpes and Pancakes

Fluffy American Pancakes

What Jessica Baked Next2 Comments

Follow this recipe to make the BEST, ultra fluffy and delicious American pancakes. Start your weekend morning with these amazingly soft, light and scrummy pancakes topped with butter, syrup and fresh berries. It’ll take just minutes of your time to rustle these up and everybody will beg you to make pancakes every single weekend…

I’ve loved pancakes for as long as I can remember and growing up pancakes were something we ate for breakfast at the weekend. Since my childhood, times have changed as I’m no longer a student and work most weekends. So these days pancakes at the weekend aren’t something we have as often as I’d like, but when I have a weekend off we certainly make sure to indulge!

A stack of warm homemade pancakes covered with golden syrup and butter is the epitome of sheer heaven for me. When your usual weekday brekkie doesn’t cut the mustard, a batch of pancakes will definitely lift your spirits and excite your tastebuds!

I pretty much love all types of pancakes, thin and crisp and the thick, soft and fluffy American-style pancakes that are hard to beat. I’ve tested batch after batch of pancakes since landing on this recipe – trying out different quantities of buttermilk, yoghurt, sour cream and milk and several batches of pancakes later I have finally discovered the perfect pancake.

Luckily this recipe doesn’t require many ingredients, but the ingredients it does call for you’re already likely to have in your kitchen including basics like flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, milk (or buttermilk/sour cream/yoghurt), a couple of eggs and butter/vegetable oil.

I’ve found it hard sourcing ingredients for my bakes over the last few months, but I’m making the best of the situation and I’m really pleased with all the food and recipes I’ve concocted during lockdown so far.

I should’ve been devouring American pancakes on a trip to Florida next month, unfortunately we’ve had to put that holiday on hold for the moment, but at least I can make these pancakes and enjoy at home while dreaming of a future trip…

The pancake batter is easy to make, very similar to making a cake. Just remember once you’ve added the wet ingredients to the dry, be gentle and don’t over mix otherwise your pancakes won’t be light and they’ll be tough, they also won’t rise as much in the pan as they cook. So just take extra care when mixing the ingredients together and you’re well on your way to making the best homemade pancakes.

You needn’t be an expert baker or cook to make pancakes. To start, mix either plain or self-raising flour and baking powder with salt and the sugar. For the wet ingredients, mix either milk, buttermilk, sour cream/natural yoghurt with a couple of eggs and melted butter or vegetable oil. I’ve found vegetable oil makes a lighter batter, but butter adds fantastic flavour.

These pancakes are even good the next day, I simply take however many I want (usually about 2 or 3) and reheat mine in the microwave until just warmed through. Then I top with anything I want and dig in!

Serve your pancakes with loads of different toppings. They’re so good warm with a generous drizzle of golden or maple syrup, spread with Nutella and topped with fresh berries. If you don’t have any fresh berries, if you have frozen mixed berries then simply pop those in a pan with enough sugar to sweeten to taste and then serve the hot berry sauce on top of your pancakes.

Pancakes aren’t just for breakfast, you can even serve these up for dinner or dessert. So whenever or however you serve your pancakes, I hope you love them!

(Makes 10-12 – Serves 4)

Ingredients:

270g plain or self-raising flour – I use cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder (omit if using self-raising flour)

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons caster or granulated sugar

260ml buttermilk or milk (I use buttermilk and add 2 tablespoons of milk to my pancake batter to loosen it slightly)

2 large free-range eggs

4 tablespoons melted butter or vegetable oil

Method:

  1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar until thoroughly mixed.
  2. In a bowl or jug, beat the buttermilk (or sour cream/yoghurt), milk, eggs and melted butter/oil until combined.
  3. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Gently whisk or fold the ingredients together with a spatula until you have a thick and slightly lumpy batter – you don’t want a completely smooth batter.
  4. Heat a non-stick frying pan on a medium-low heat. Place 2-3 generous tablespoonfuls of the batter into the pan and don’t spread out at all as the pancakes will spread out enough on their own. Only cook about 2-3 at a time as you don’t want to overcrowd the pan, cook each pancake for about 1-2 minutes until bubbles appear on the surface then flip and continue to cook the pancakes for about a minute or until golden.
  5. Keep pancakes warm in the oven as you continue with the remaining pancake batter or set aside to reheat in the microwave when ready.

You’ll know the pancakes are ready to flip because bubbles will appear on the surface. Make sure not to have your pan too hot otherwise the pancakes will burn. You can see from the picture on the right how the buttermilk gives the pancakes extra height and makes them super fluffy!

I sometimes add fresh blueberries to my pancakes, but you could also add chocolate chips/chunks

Recipe Notes: 

  • I recommend using cake flour as I find produces a really fluffy pancake.
  • I use buttermilk as I find it makes a super fluffy American-style pancake, but you can use milk if that’s what you have in. If using buttermilk, I recommend adding about two tablespoons of milk to loosen the pancake batter a little.
  • Feel free to add to your pancake batter anything from fresh or frozen fruit like blueberries, raspberries or if you love chocolate then add some chocolate chips.
  • If you don’t have a non-stick frying pan to cook your pancakes, make sure to add a little butter or oil to the pan before cooking your pancakes.
  • These pancakes are best enjoyed on the day of making, but they’ll keep for up to 3 days stored in an airtight container or on a plate covered tightly with clingfilm.

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