***note*** This post does seem quite frivolous in light of the events in Nice last night, however, I wrote and scheduled this earlier in the week.
This week’s Cook the Book Fridays recipe from My Paris Kitchen is a classic you’ll find all over Brittany – buckwheat galettes (crêpes made with buckwheat flour). These are savoury crêpes, not your Nutella-filled or sugar topped ones and are meals in themselves. When we took a trip to Brittany back in 2009, we indulged sometimes 2x a day 😉
When I am in Paris, I always stop by Crêperie Beaubourg…
or Breizh Café…
because to be honest, I don’t make a lot of galettes or crêpes at home so I like to indulge when I can get good ones.
David’s recipe was one I found challenging despite the fact that it looks fairly simple. Like David mentions, the first couple of crêpes/ galettes are always going to be “trials” that you can’t count on working out! I had my fair share of trial galettes I can tell you! I don’t have a cast iron pan here which is what I would want to use, I think (though his recipe does just call for a non-stick pan which I used) and I found it hard getting the balance between too thick and too thin in terms of the actual galette. My pan didn’t seem hot enough (though it was at the highest temperature) and my galettes (even the thinnest ones) took much much longer than 1 minute to get “dark brown” on the first side. I never got quite the lacy-ness which characterises the galettes, though my two attempts were very tasty! Now I have a big bag of buckwheat flour I am inspired to tweak the recipe (I am thinking more egg, maybe using milk instead of water and adding a touch of plain (all purpose) flour) over the summer. After all, the sky’s the limit in terms of fillings!
A version of David’s recipe for buckwheat crêpes can be found here, otherwise, get the recipe for Buckwheat galettes (crêpes) with ham, cheese and egg on p 135 of My Paris Kitchen.
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It does seem frivolous to think about the texture of crêpes in light of the tragedy in Nice. It is hard to get the crêpe right since different flour absorbs water so differently. Tweaking seems to be part of the exercise. Love your pictures.
I was also wishing that I had a cast iron pan for these. My non-stick pan did not quite seem up to the task, but eventually produced some workable ones.
I feel like I used to be pretty good at crepes, but thinking back, I don’t think I’ve ever done gallettes before, so perhaps that’s the difference.
I threw out my first three. They were definitely a challenge. Yours came out lovely. And I have to say, delicious!
Yes these definitely require some practice!!!
I had no trouble making the crepes, although I didn’t really know what to expect in the way of
color. David’s looked so dark but mine were pale. I thought about cheating and just frying an egg
to put on top, but that didn’t seem right.
Ha – I also thought about putting a fried egg on top too (sometimes that’s how they are served) – maybe next time!
Several years ago a friend gifted me with a crepe pan. I, of course, didn’t know there was such a thing. For some reason I moved it to Aspen 3 years ago and finally used it last week. It was non-stick and brand new. I had to use more batter than David suggested but it still worked perfectly after a miss or two. I do think the crepes can be improved upon (mine didn’t fold well) and will take Shirley’s and your suggestions to heart because I also have a BIG bad a buckwheat flour.
Ha – I think a few of us will be eating galettes for a while now! I envy your crêpe pan!!
Mine were lacy, but my pan was a bit small, so folding them was too much of a challenge. (Well, I think I over-filled them, to be honest.)
I hope your computer woes are solved soon!
I definitely think it’s a fine balance how much batter to use and how much to fill them… Thanks re: my computer woes – they won’t be fixed until I get home in a month but for now I do have a functioning computer so…
Mardi, so fun to see your examples – which actually makes me think “I don’t have to actually make those folds!”, which were my bigger challenge. I agree, these would be terrific when made by an expert. Quite tasty – though I don’t know how many of these I will make with my not-so-large bag of flour.
Well the folds are classic presentation so I *do* want to get that right…
The results are so varied. Yours look good, and I know you are up the challenge of perfecting them. My first one was OK, the others were nice and lacy, but all tore. I will need to practice too. Be safe.
Thanks Betsy – some practice is on my list of things to do soon 🙂
It is true that galettes are a little harder to make than they appear to be! Still, your look fabulous!!!
Thanks so much 🙂
I had trouble, too, for sure–never got that laciness and other issues I attributed to the lack of gluten. I know some people are suggesting that there are different “types” of buckwheat flour out there, which I’m sure could be a partial culprit. That said, yours still looks great!
On another note, enjoy your big walk–we traveled in that area during our honeymoon (I have family from St Jean Pied de Port) and delighted in talking to all the pilgrims. Everyone was so nice and it was neat to hear all the different accents.
Thanks so much – I am sure the walk will be quite the experience! And yes, I think the lack of gluten might be the culprit – I might try with a touch of AP flour next time..
Yes, so tragic about Nice. I just do not understand all of this!!. On another note, your crepes look fine and I bet they tasted great. Keep trying, mine were not lacy at all but I am sure with practice, they will be. I am sure I will get practice as my husband thinks I should make these all the time.
Well they are very versatile – you can fill/ top them with all sorts of tasty things, right?
I wound up switching pans after the first two went bad, neither one was cast iron or non stitck… but that just means I need to use more butter right? ? I agree that these were so delicious and definitely worth makingetting again in the spirit of practice!
For me, the crepes worked fine, it was the egg that I could not get the right consistency of! I love over easy, and while my yolk was still a bit runny, it was a bit too done by the time the whites cooked through. The finished product was very tasty though and I think I will practice some more with this one. Yours look excellent! And the ones at Breizah Cafe are a source of inspiration!
I recently had a crêpe here in France and they put the egg on FIRST then the toppings so the white and the yolk were perfect – I’m going to try that next!