You Can Make Fresh Crepes From Stale Bread

Who doesn't love a delicious crêpe suzette or a savory salmon and spinach crêpe? This French classic is one of the easiest dishes you can make, requiring nothing but eggs, flour, milk, and some butter for your crepe pan. (Though, any flat-bottomed pan will do in a pinch.) And though people may argue about the perfect amount of eggs or milk you should use, at the end of the day there are 1,000 ways to make crepes, and you really can't go wrong with any of them.

But, there is one crepe recipe that might give you a bit of pause. As it turns out, you can skip the flour altogether and make crepes with a little bit of stale bread, some eggs, and milk. This is a great no-waste solution if you have some slices on their way out the door. Maybe you've got a rock-hard baguette that's been sitting out for a few days, or you made a massive focaccia that you simply won't be able to get through in time. Now you can turn them into an easy and delicious breakfast.

To make crepes with stale slices or loaves, simply blend together 100 grams of bread, 2 eggs, and 300-400 grams of milk, plus a dash of melted butter or oil as seen in this YouTube video. Depending on the strength of your blender, you may want to let the bread soak in the milk for a few minutes before blending. Then cook the mix over high heat in a flat pan with a bit of oil or butter, and add the toppings of your choice, whether savory meats and cheese or something sweet like cinnamon and sugar. It should also be noted you can use any type of bread for this purpose, whether fresh or stale, but stale bread lets you salvage it for a great purpose.

The resulting texture of bread crepes is rather interesting, because they will have more air pockets than a traditional crepe thanks to the yeast in the bread. This makes it somewhat similar to beghrir, also known as Moroccan pancakes, which are made with yeast, resulting in a somewhat spongy texture and perfect to capture your fillings you put inside.

Since you can use any type of sweet or savory bread for this recipe, feel free to get creative. Perhaps a rye bread crepe topped with crème fraîche, dill, and smoked salmon would be a tasty brunch item. Or, an olive focaccia topped with chunks of melted feta and sun-dried tomatoes. A simple baguette could be thickened up with a spoonful of mashed potatoes to make something like the Irish potato flatbread, farls.

Don't forget about the sweet side, too. Take that cinnamon swirl loaf and make a crepe out of it, then top it with melted butter or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. A chocolate babka crepe could be topped with a drizzle of chocolate syrup and some fresh sliced strawberries. And a simple baguette could be turned into a crepe topped with Nutella and slices of banana, maybe with a spritz of whipped cream. The possibilities are endless!