Best Gluten-Free French Crepes

13 years ago

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I am not allergic to wheat, although with maturing, I can’t eat as much bread as I used to when I grew up in Europe! Since several of my friends and a number of my students are, I wanted to experiment with different recipes, types of flours, and starch and see if I could get close to the original texture. So if you have been diagnosed with Celiac disease or have noticed a frequent allergic reaction to wheat products, you can add this recipe to your gluten-free diet.

Gluten is a great source of protein and binding, so when preparing a gluten-free crepe, or pancake, the trick is to find replacements that can incorporate the binding and the light texture. When researching various gluten-free recipes, I was shocked by the various complicated wheat-free flour combinations I found. OMG! I don’t know about you but a recipe that uses 4-5 different types of flours, like potato, sorghum, powder egg replacer, cornstarch is way too labor-intensive and not flexible enough to accommodate what I may have in my pantry. Life is short, food should be fun, not a drag!

So I attempted to simplify the batter as much as possible and yet obtain the right consistency and texture. It took several attempts to get it right. The first one was a fiasco. The recipe called for potato starch, I could only find potato flour, not sure what happened but the batter ended lumpy and thick. As aunt Vula in the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding would say: “It no work!” I couldn’t find potato starch in any local store, so that recipe was a no go! But with perseverance, I got it to where it was virtually impossible to tell the difference. Call me a purist, but the look of the food also matters. Using buckwheat may be healthy and safe but your crepes take on a grunge/hippie look that is more on the pancake side than the delicate French crepe.