This Electric Crepe Maker Finally Took the Guesswork Out of My Crepes
Bye-bye crepe pan!
Unlike their super fluffy cousins, the magic behind a stack of freshly made crepe pancakes is their thin and almost see-through consistency. While the very best crepes are the perfect combination of crispy edges and a buttery, speckled interior, getting them to be that way can take years of practice and patience. In fact, more times than not, getting a stack of identical-looking crepes usually comes down to the pan you’re using to make them.
While traditional crepe pans and small skillets can do the trick, using them often involves a lot of butter or oil. I would know; most of my childhood memories are filled with snapshots of my mom sweating over a sputtering pan as she tried to make crepes (or palačinke as we call them in Croatian) for my sister, father and me to enjoy as an after-dinner treat. Though my mom’s crepes always came out fine, I remember her constantly needing to re-grease her pan with vegetable oil. This often resulted in our entire house smelling a little bit...funky. The crepes never came out all that uniform either — some were perfectly round, others, not so much — and clean up was a bit of a mess too. We found removing the little bits of batter that had gotten stuck to our crepe pan impossible to scrape off without damaging its smooth surface.
In an effort to make this process simpler, I gave Chefman’s Electric Crepe Maker & Griddle a try. Since it has a nonstick aluminum surface, the crepe maker only requires you to pre-moisten it once with an oil-based cooking spray before you begin making your crepes. This completely eliminated the odor factor that I had experienced as a kid. It also saved me a lot of time because I didn’t need to stop and re-oil the pan every time I made a new crepe like my mom had been forced to do in the past. What once took her an hour, if not more, took me about 15 to 20 minutes.
Using the wooden batter spreader and spatula that came along with the crepe maker also helped me achieve a uniformity I had never had before when I was using a crepe pan. Not only were my resulting crepes perfectly round, they had just the right spongy consistency to hold on to all the various jellies, jams and chocolate spreads I used to fill them.
The crepe maker’s super precise temperature knob also helped in this regard too; once the crepe maker's temperature light turned green, I was ready to pour my batter (similar to a waffle iron). Clean-up was also a breeze — all I had to do was wipe the crepe maker with a damp cloth once it had adequately cooled down and pop it back in the box.
So, if you’ve been on the fence about investing in a crepe maker, take it from me: you’re going to want to get yourself one of these. Not only will you be left with a picture-perfect and delicious stack of crepes as a result, you can even use it to make hash browns, omelets and regular ole pancakes too. How’s that for a brunch with all the fixings?!
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