Sourdough Einkorn Crepes
I’ve made these Sourdough Einkorn Crepes several times now and they’re a serious winner in my house. They offer an unusual yumminess with the sourness from the fermentation, and I like that the overnight proofing process eats a lot of the sugar and digests some of the gluten. They’re a nice deviation from our normal (boring) breakfast routine.
I think crepes are traditionally served filled with fruit, but they can really be filled with anything. I prefer savory scrambled eggs with veggies. The kids prefer basically dessert for breakfast, with just butter and cinnamon sugar. Though I wouldn’t want that to be a regular breakfast contender, it’s definitely fun every once in awhile.
The dough is prepared the night before the crepes are served, with a proofing time of about 8-10 hours. Fortunately the souring process is pretty forgiving, so an extra hour more or less is truly fine. I make the dough during my evening kitchen cleanup routine when I’m feeding my starter, usually right before bed. It only takes a few minutes to mix it up, and then the fermentation work happens while you sleep!
The next morning, they definitely require a good amount of cooking time while frying the crepes individually, so they’re not a regular breakfast contributor in my house. But they are super fun for the occasional treat on Saturday or a day off.
Sourdough Einkorn Crepes
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup fed einkorn sourdough starter
- 1 cup organic whole milk (raw is even better)
- 2 cups all-purpose einkorn flour
- 3 pastured/organic eggs, scrambled in a separate bowl
- 1/4 cup organic sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 cup melted grass-fed butter (Kerry Gold is my favorite)
- extra butter for greasing the pan
- your choice of fillings
Instructions
THE NIGHT BEFORE:
- On the evening before you want to make crepes (or about 8-10 hours before you want to serve them), prepare the dough in a large glass bowl by mixing the fed sourdough starter, flour, and milk with a fork. The dough will be wet and sticky. Make sure to use a larger bowl to allow room for rising and for mixing the rest of the ingredients in the morning.
- Let the dough sour overnight for 8-10 hours. I proof my dough in the oven with the light on, but if you have a fancy oven that has a proofing option, use that instead.
THE MORNING OF:
- In the morning, remove the dough bowl from the oven and mix in the eggs, sour cream, vanilla extract, and sea salt. A spatula works best for me.
- After those ingredients are fully incorporated, fold in the melted butter with a spatula. It's important to add the butter separately, especially if you are working with cold eggs. Otherwise, the butter will harden on contact with the eggs. The dough will be very runny and thin.
- Time to make some crepes! Preheat a 9-10-inch nonstick frying pan (I really like the ceramic pans like THIS ONE) on medium-low heat with a bit of butter.
- Pour 1/4 cup of the dough into the pan, spreading it out with a spatula to create a thin crepe. This is definitely a trial-and-error experience. I posted pictures below to try to illustrate the process as much as possible. I have found that the first crepe is harder to get spread out evenly because the butter makes the pan a little too nonstick (without the butter though, the crepes are harder to work with).
- Let the crepe fry for 60-75 seconds, depending on your stove and heat, until you see bubbles on the edges.
- Flip the crepe to the other side and fry for another 30 seconds or so.
- Remove the crepe from the pan and put on a plate (I like to place a paper towel on the plate to catch condensation).
- Repeat the process until all the dough has been used. Depending on how much dough is used for each crepe, the recipe will make about 10 crepes. I found with my pan that it was not necessary to re-grease the pan, but that is dependent on the type of pan I suppose.
- Serve the crepes plain or rolled up with a filling.
SOME FILLING OPTIONS INCLUDE:
- Spread butter and cinnamon sugar
- Scrambled or fried egg and your choice of toppings
- Sauteed veggies
- Fresh fruit
- Get creative!
As I said above, these sourdough einkorn crepes are more of a labor of love compared to our normal breakfast fare. So worth the effort though, as they are a delicious break from the usual suspects. I’ve posted pictures below to try to illustrate my process, but you’ll develop your own way of doing it too.
Have you ever tried freezing these and thawing them when you want to use them? Just curious if this would work or if the texture would be off?
Ashley, no I haven’t – but that’s purely because they don’t stick around long enough for it to be an issue. My guess is they’d do just fine. Please let me know if you try!