French Pancakes

I have two bookcases in my kitchen that are filled with cookbooks, as well as a few more shelves and stacks of culinary themes and food history and even a few etiquette books in the rest of the house. At least 100 of them are vintage-era dating back to the late 1800s through the 1960s. I find cookbooks one of the more relaxing of reads. Filled with possibilities and pretty pictures, they make no demands of me other than a visit to my local market. There is a certain charm about old recipes found between worn, food-stained covers. The notations in pencil made by the previous owner and random drips of batter and butter mark a recipe as a time-honored classic.

A few of my classics came from my mom’s kitchen. As I helped her purge the cookbook shelf in her cupboard, we filled a box of her favorite cookbooks and boxes of recipe cards to bring back to my home. One of those well-loved treasures was a soft-cover “Spin Cookery” booklet from 1966 that came with her Osterizer blender.  On a wrinkled page stained by egg yolk and milk, I found one of our favorite Sunday night treats from when I was a little girl. I remember Sunday nights as set apart from the normal weekly meals of roast and burgers. Mom would make creamed shrimp on toast or we would pull out the fondue pot and fry cubes of steak in hot oil. Her blender crepes were a spring recipe and fairly exotic compared to the regular Midwestern fare. Dad and I would go out to the garden and pick a bowl of juicy red strawberries, tiny raspberries, and dark purple blackberries. These yummy fruits would be folded into the crepes, then topped with whipped cream and a sprinkle of powdered sugar. Dessert for supper? Yes!

French Pancakes (Also known as Bubbi’s Blender Crepes)

Makes 8 7” pancakes

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1 ½ cup milk

1 T melted butter

1 cup sifted flour

½ tsp salt

Put all ingredients into a blender in the order listed, cover, and pulse or process on low until smooth. Heat a non-stick skillet, brush with melted butter, and pour in enough batter to cover bottom of the pan, leaving enough space to be able to flip the crepe. Tip and roll the pan if necessary in order to spread the batter thin and evenly. Brown on one side. When top is nearly set, flip pancake over. Keep warm on a pizza stone or tray in a 170 degree oven until all are made. These can also be served cooled for dessert.

Fill with fresh berries, Nutella, sliced bananas, whipped cream, fruit compote. Roll them up and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

The featured image is courtesy of Annie Nardone and is used with her gracious permission for Cultivating and The Cultivating Project.

Annie Nardone

Annie Nardone is a lifelong bibliophile with a special devotion to the Inklings and medieval authors. She is a Fellow with the C.S. Lewis Institute and holds an M.A. in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Christian University. Annie is the Director of Visual Artists for The Cultivating Project and columnist for Cultivating Magazine. She is founding board member, managing editor, and author for the apologetics quarterly, An Unexpected Journal. Her writing can also be found as travel blogger for Clarendon Press U.K., with published poems at Calla Press and Poetica.

She holds a MA in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Christian University, and is a Fellow with the C.S. Lewis Institute. Annie writes for Cultivating, Literary Life, and Clarendon House Books, and is a managing editor and writer for An Unexpected Journal. Annie collaborated on three books in 2022, published by Square Halo Books and The Rabbit Room. She recently designed a curriculum detailing the intersection of theology, the arts, and history and is a Master Teacher for HSLDA. She resides in Florida with her Middle Earth/Narnia/Hogwarts-loving family, and an assemblage of sphynx cats and feline foundlings.

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