I am French and I make every Sunday crêpes for breakfast. The crêpes are great (I am told :)) but I rarely manage to get a homogenous batter. First, the batter (NSFW :))
The clumps are not simply flour-based, my guess is that this is the butter clumping with flour, helped by the liquid (milk or milk + water, or milk + sparkling water).
I think this is the case because once I pour this liquid + white stuff on the pan, they disappear (= melt) and the resulting crêpe looks good (below the recto and verso):
The usual order I make the batter is:
- egg + a bit of sugar
- some flour to make a paste
- melted butter
- some more flour to make the paste
- some milk, baking powder, liquid vanilla
- some more flour
- some more milk
→ the point is to keep a homogenous paste, which would then finally be diluted by the milk.
So I end up with the amount of paste (the consistency is of a very heavy cream) I believe will be good for the day and I slowly dilute it with milk.
And I end up with the white stuff.
Is there a more optimal order to get a homogenous batter? I sometimes get one but never remember what I changed in the order.
Just to clarify: the crepes are great once they are done, it is just that handling the batter is not easy when I have to somehow get some liquid and some of the white stuff each time.
Best Answer
You really don’t want a “paste”. What you’re seeing is gluten formation. In combining flour with a small amount of liquid and repeatedly stirring, you’re essentially making bread dough and then watering it down.
Combine and mix the dry ingredients. Combine and mix the wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.