John Van Hoesen is VPR's Vice President for News and Programming.

The joy of crepes is not only in their taste and presentation. They are in fact very easy to make and when there are guests, they can hold until you’ve made enough for everyone. Then you can enjoy them too. And they’re very affordable.

Our friend Dominique from Les Trois Ilets, Martinique, makes a perfect breakfast and I once asked him for help in making the true French crepe. He held up three fingers and off the top of his head recited this recipe in his wonderful French-accented English.

“Three eggs!” he said.
Mix them with 225 ml flour until pasty.
Slowly stir in 500 ml milk.
Add 1 Tbsp. oil.
Add 1 tsp. vanilla.

Cover and let rest in the refrigerator overnight, although one to two hours is okay. The consistency should be more like whole milk than pancake batter.

Using an 8-inch pan on high heat, brush pan with butter. Ladle mixture into pan to cover about two-thirds of the area, then move the pan so the mixture covers bottom. The cooking will now go very quickly, just a minute or two.

Loosen the edges with a spatula. You can now shake the pan slightly and the crepe will be loose in the pan. Carefully use your fingers to grab the edges on one side of the crepe and flip. Cook remaining side for less time. Remove and place on wire rack. These can now be stacked with a towel in between each crepe. (Consider the first one of the batch the trial run and then you can adjust the time as needed.)

The first side that you cooked should be the outside of the crepe; it should be golden brown. Fill with your choice of fruit (on a recent weekend I poached then diced a few pears for the filling) and fold the crepe over the filling in the shape of a tube. Turn over so the fold is against the plate and sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar (or also, as I did with some diced strawberries for color). Hot maple syrup finishes the job.