Summer Berries - Crepes!

The best way to save money on produce is to buy it while it's in season locally. It used to be that you could only buy produce when it was in season, but with modern technology and transportation, it is possible to purchase just about any type of produce all year. When you buy produce in the off-season, you are not only paying for the produce itself, but you're also paying for the cost of having it shipped from another country. Additionally, since it comes from such a great distance, it is not as fresh and tasty as local produce would be in season.

One thing I love about summer is all of the summer berries. While berries tend to be some of the more expensive fruits, I've found that stores often put them on sale for less than $1/lb - which is my buying price for produce. When I can get berries on sale, I enjoy making crepes.

I used to occassionally make crepes for dessert. However, I sort of forgot about them for a while until I saw them highlighted as the recipe of the day on allrecipes.com. We were visiting my husband's large family (22 people to be exact!) of which each member has their own unique likes and tastes. That's why these were such a great dessert for us - they allowed each person to customize their dessert to their liking. And all the kids had a ton of fun assembling their masterpieces!

I based my crepes off of a recipe on allrecipes.com, but tweaked it just a bit. Here is my version:

Crepes

4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/3 cups milk
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 cup flour
2 Tbsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

Place all ingredients in a blender and cover with lid. Mix in blender for 5-10 seconds, or just until mixture is combined. It is important that you do not overmix the batter, as mixing too much will over develop the gluten in the flour, making the crepes very tough and chewy. Let the mixture rest in the refrigerator for one hour.

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-low to medium heat. Pour enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan.

Tilt pan to ensure that the entire bottom of the pan is covered in batter.

After a minute or two, they will begin to looka little dry. At this point, carefully flip it over.

The second side won't take as long as the first side. Cook just until the crepe begins to brown a little bit.

Fill the warm crepe with desired fillings, roll up, place seam-side down, and add desired toppings.

Photo by David Parker

Below are some suggestions for crepe fillings/toppings. You can customize your crepes based on preference, what's on sale, and what you already have in your pantry and/or refrigerator.

• Sliced strawberries
• Blueberries
• Raspberries
• Chocolate "Mousse" (I made a cheater mousse by making a box of instant chocolate pudding and substituting heavy whipping cream for the milk.)
• Whipped Cream
• Mini Chocolate Chips
• Bananas
• Cinnamon Sugar
• Chocolate for Drizzling (I melted chocolate chips with enough shortenng to make it thin enough to drizzle.)
• Nutella
• Peanut Butter
• Powdered Sugar
• Apples

The crepes can be made ahead of time and frozen. I placed a sheet of wax paper between each crepe, wrapped them all in saran wrap, and placed them in a zip-top bag before freezing. To defrost, I put the whole stack of frozen crepes in the microwave until they were thawed and warm.