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The Recipe
Ham & Cheese Crepes
Serves 4
When I met my ex on a quiet rooftop in Singapore, I hadn’t banked on his mother’s crepe recipe being the best thing I got out of him. Read between the lines; teenage relationships with older french boys are inadvisable.
This may feel enormously too simple - in that it’s a crepe recipe - but I would challenge that this kind of hand-me-down is precious. I remember having a visceral reaction to eating these, like I’d struck gold. How is something so easy this good? I made the crepes countless times for my parents, then my first flatmates, then my subsequent partners, and so on. I carry my exes mum’s crepe recipe with me everywhere I go, from my time in Asia, to London, to down here in New Zealand, slightly tweaking the recipe as I go along.
I started and killed a WordPress blog at 17 years old, which consisted of the recipe for these crepes and a tortured diary entry. Crepes and I, we have history.
These buttery, crispy-edged, pockets of salty ham and melty cheese are delightful. They aren’t just a rotational breakfast recipe, they mark many slow mornings, complete with no alarm, no time crunch, and no responsibilities. They indicate all the languid moments that I’ve been afforded over the years. So with that, I hope they will do the same for you.






70g melted butter, slightly cooled
285g (2 cups) flour
1 teaspoon salt
480 milliliters (2 cups) whole milk
250ml (1 cup) lager/pale ale
3 eggs
300g, sliced ham (get the stuff straight from the deli section)
100g, cheese, sliced - I like a mild cheddar
Dijon, chives, sliced cornichons, & freshly cracked black pepper for serving
Beurre blanc (optional) I use the epicurious recipe
In a large mixing bowl, sieve in the flour (still fine without sieving but do it if you can) then whisk in the salt. Create a well in the centre and pour in the whole milk. Whisk the flour into the milk bit by bit until you reach the edges of the bowl and no lumps remain. Pour in the lager and whisk until combined.
Whisk in the eggs one by one then whisk in the butter. Cover the bowl tightly in plastic then chill the batter in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or up to 12 hours (you could make this the night before and pan fry in the morning).
Meanwhile, prepare all your fillings.
Heat a medium-large, non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Add a teaspoon of butter to the pan. When the butter is frothy and sizzling, either pour or ladle about 1/2 a cup of batter into the centre. Lift the pan off the heat and gently swirl it around to evenly coat the pan. After about 1-2 minutes, use a silicon spatula to lift the edges of the crepe from the pan and check if the bottom is golden and crispy. Then it’s time to flip. Flip the crepe over and a small teaspoon of dijon, some ham, and some cheese to the centre of the crepe.
Once the underside of the crepe is golden and crispy, pull the edges over to partially seal the fillings in. You can make whatever shape you want - the easiest would be folding both sides inwards like a pamphlet, or you can create a pentagon like I have. Repeat with remaining batter and fillings.
Serve with cornichons, chives, salt, pepper, and a beurre blanc.