we've been making crepes since emma was a wee baby. before we started on our traditional/WAPF diet, we would make them with regular white flour. then i started doing sourdough crepes (made with spelt flour), although i think aaron is still partial to the white flour variety. the kids and i like the sourdough crepes, and they're super quick and easy to whip up, as long as you have enough sourdough starter around. since our kids gobble them up like no other, i often have to double the recipe, which means i have to feed the starter enough flour so that i can actually double the recipe. i'm usually pretty good at planning ahead for that, but i do have days where i'm totally not prepared (okay, i may have those days a lot more than usual).
so, these grain-free crepes are totally yummy and awesome when i don't have sourdough starter around. seriously, we've made them three times in the past week and a half. maybe we need a crepe intervention. they're easy to make and actually don't taste much different than the regular white flour crepes.
why bother with grain-free crepes when you could just make it with white flour? well, white flour isn't exactly healthy for you, since they're a pretty refined product (even though nothing beats using white flour in chocolate chip cookies or crusty french bread...cheat days keep our family sane). and whole grains are kind of a funny thing for your tummy. they are difficult to digest, so if you do use a whole wheat type of flour then you need to either soak, sprout or ferment (sourdough) it to make it easier for your body to digest. i'm not going to go into the details of that in this post, but if you want to know more about how and why to properly prepare grains i recommend checking out the weston a. price foundation website or the healthy home economist for more information.
okay. let's bring it back to these crepes, guys! i'm officially making this my go-to crepe recipe when i'm not making sourdough crepes (or when aaron's not making crepes, because you know he'll just use the white flour...haha). i found the recipe here, but made some small changes. this is a very flexible recipe that can also easily be dairy-free, if you or a family member has a dairy allergy. i've tried making them using coconut oil, butter, regular milk, and yogurt (though you have to add a little extra water to thin out the batter a bit). i haven't tried using coconut milk yet, but i'm pretty sure it will taste just as good.
you should give it a try. and suddenly, everyday will be crepe day.
:: grain-free/gluten-free crepes ::
adapted from healthnutnation.com
yields: approx. 24 6 inch crepes
3/4 cup arrowroot powder
1/4 cup coconut flour
2 tsp. aluminum free baking powder
1/4 tsp. sea salt
4 eggs
2 Tbs. coconut oil (or ghee or butter) and some extra for cooking
1 tsp. honey (optional)
1. Mix ingredients together until well blended.
2. Heat your pan at medium heat, and add a small amount of oil or butter and swirl around. You may have to only do this once, but if you find that you're crepes are sticking to the pan, then you may have to add a bit of oil before each crepe is made.
3. If you're using a small, 6 inch pan (like an omelette pan), pour about 2-3 Tbs. of the batter onto the pan and gently swirl it until batter covers the bottom of the pan.
4. Once the batter is set, flip the crepe over and cook on the other side (about 2-3 seconds).
5. Take cooked crepe off the pan and put on a plate. I usually just cook and stack them on one plate, or you can serve it directly.
6. Fill crepes with your preferred fillings...sweet, salty, what have you!
**If you double this recipe you can keep some extra in the fridge to eat for another time. You can also make these ahead of time, although nothing beats freshly made crepes.
