Originally, I wanted to make Dutch Baby Pancakes. But my oven broke down on me which has been sad. I was trying to pivot into a different kind of dessert to make without an oven. This idea of non-oven desserts came from a best friend of mine. So, I came across Crêpes Suzette when I was watching Claire fromtheBonAppetitTestKitchen making them on It’s Alive. Crêpes Suzette is an interesting style of having these french pancakes as a dessert with a citrus twist. 

Though she incorporated hers with sourdough starter, I just made regular ones with the Bon Appetit recipes. This recipe will give you about 8 crêpes with maybe 1-2 first failures. As a non-alcohol drinker, I skipped the flambé and any orange liquor in the original recipe. But typically Crêpes Suzette has Grand Marnier in it for flambé. Furthermore, I did tweak the amount of sugar here because it was rather sweet for me. I highly recommend serving it with either vanilla ice cream or some fresh whipped cream. The cream will help sort of balance of the orange caramel-like sauce. 

Ingredients 

Basic Crêpes (makes 8 Crêpes)

• 2 Large Eggs
• 290ml Whole Milk
• 60g Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 145g All-Purpose Flour
• ¼ tsp Kosher Salt
• 28g Unsalted Butter, room temperature

Crêpes Suzette sauce 

• 80ml Fresh Orange Juice
• 2 tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
• 90g Sugar
• 40g Unsalted Butter, room temperature
• ⅛ tsp Kosher Salt
• 1 tsp Orange zest
• Lemon Zest (optional)
• Orange peel, thinly sliced

1. Over medium heat, brown your butter in a saucepan.
2. In a blender, combine the eggs, sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. Blend the mixture till its smooth. You can mix it all in a bowl but a blender will make things easier. 
3. When the mixture is smooth and frothy, add in your all-purpose flour and salt. 
4. Stream in your browned butter into the batter. Continue to blend until it’s well-incorporated. Let the batter chill for at least an hour. 

5. After an hour, check on your crêpe batter. If you find it to be too thick, add splashes of milk to thin it out. Otherwise, you’re ready to cook some crêpes.
6. Grease a medium-sized non-stick skillet with some butter. 
7. Use a ladle to scoop your batter onto your skillet and swirl your skillet till you have a thin layer of batter. This will take a couple of tries for you to get the right thickness and technique. 
8. When you see some browning on the edges, you can flip the crêpe. Fry your crêpes till you see some nice browning on both sides before removing it from the skillet. 

9. Once you’re done with your crêpes, set them aside to allow them to rest. Be sure to fold your crêpes into quarters.

Now, time for your sauce!

1. Mix the orange and lemon zest with the room temperature butter and set it aside. 
2. In the same skillet over medium-low heat, add your orange juice, lemon juice, and sugar. Stir the mixture till all the sugar dissolves. 
3. Then, slowly stir in your butter in small doses. You can use a whisk to make sure that it’s incorporated before adding more butter. 
4. Add in your salt and thinly sliced orange peels. The orange peels are totally optional but it acts as a nice garnish when served. 

5. Let the sauce simmer for about 5 minutes whilst continuously swirling it. 
6. When your sauce has thickened, add the folded crêpes, and let them soak in the sauce. Transfer them onto a plate and serve with a nice scoop of ice cream on top. Instead of doing this, you could also just pour the warm sauce over your crêpes when you’re serving.