Crepes with Strawberry Jam and Fresh Strawberries

I used to work with a woman who had every imaginable trouble visited upon her.  She was very sweet, kind and generous, and extremely hard working.  But nothing ever went her way.  Her son was sickly, her husband was something else, her parents unstable…  And she attended a funeral every week or two, and she was only in her mid 30s.  I used think it wouldn’t do to be friends with her because all her friends were dying.  She and I got laid off at the same time.  We knew the lay-offs were coming when our little company was purchased by a corporate behemoth, so that last summer when she kept saying over and over to everyone who stopped by our work area to chat that “It’s going to be a hard winter,” I never felt that she was talking about the weather.

I am thinking about her this afternoon.  After our couple stifling days last week, the highest temperature I noted this afternoon was 54° F, and that has already begun to fall.  We have had a day of light drizzle punctuated by heavy rains.  Yesterday it was a steady rain almost all day.  Driving past our neighborhood produce stand, I was surprised to see that they had fresh strawberries in.

The fields all around the stand that should be bright green with foot-high corn are just a mud flat.  One day last week I saw sea gulls standing on the edge of the water in that cornfield.  And the field behind that should be planted with pumpkins is barren and muddy as well.  The forecast for this week includes the phrase “cloudy and raw.”  Not exactly ideal June weather.

This year I am thinking it’s going to be a hard winter.

This is the time of year I start to get really excited about canning and preserving, compiling my list of what to make more of, what I don’t need so much of, what new things to try.  More dilly beans are definitely on the list, although we can probably stay the same with the dilly carrots.  More ginger-pear chutney (much more), and more peach preserves.  And as much strawberry jam as we can.  Like the dilly beans, we can’t make too much strawberry jam; we will eat all we make, no matter how much that is.  And this year, bread-and-butter pickles are on the list.  My grandmother made delicious bread-and-butter pickles, and although I have had a very delicate copy of her recipe (handwritten by herself decades ago) for several years, I haven’t undertaken to make them yet.  I am resolved that this will be the year.  She died 18 years ago, but there has never been a Christmas since my childhood when I haven’t pined for her pickles, emblems of the very merry Christmas parties she used to host.

I have always been hesitant to make pickles.  I make jams and jellies and conserves and chutneys and relishes and every other kind of canned good with reliable success, but not pickles.  My mother used to make terrible pickles.  Happily she stopped making them a long time ago.  I am not sure, but it was probably the year that my grandmother (her mother) came to our house to make pickles with her, to give her advice and figure out where she was going wrong.  I remember the two of them working in the kitchen together all day.  At the end of the day, my grandmother said to her, “I don’t know.  You do everything just the way I do, but yours are awful.”

It would have convinced me to stop making pickles.

In preparation for the first canning project of the summer, strawberry jam, I have begun cleaning out my pantry shelf, making space for the new jars.  Way in the back, in the shadowy recesses of the uppermost cupboard shelf, I found the very last jar of last summer’s strawberry jam.  (I might have pushed it back there on purpose, but you can’t prove it.)  And this being Sunday, and Sunday brunch being our favorite meal of the week, and there being fresh strawberries just down the road, I could think of only one thing:  crepes with strawberry jam and fresh strawberries.

I bought my first crepe pan several years ago.  I found it online at Williams Sonoma.  It was made from “blue steel” in France, and it was priced at a friendly $20.  It was beautiful when it arrived, and I promptly searched my cookbooks for a recipe.  I settled on one provided by Jacques Pepin in his book Everyday Cooking.  They were delicious, and I served that first batch with fresh strawberries and strawberry jam.  I have tried many other recipes in the years since, and I have served them with many other fillings, from lemon curd to blueberry sauce to gingered pears to brandied peaches to apples and cinnamon, and I must confess that they don’t get better than with the strawberries.

the green in the photo is a reflection of the plants in the window, not a part of the pan itself

I have never had a moment’s trouble with the crepes sticking to this pan.  I liked it so well, in fact, I bought a second one so I could produce them twice as fast.  (The second one I was able to purchase from a Williams Sonoma store; they had one stashed away in the back room, although none on display; it was worth chatting with the sales staff.)

Before I mixed the crepe batter, I sliced the strawberries and sprinkled a little sugar over them to draw out the juice.  I don’t want to sweeten the berries too much, as the jam is very sweet.  A little tartness from the fresh berries is a welcome counterpoint to the sweetness of the jam.  The fresh juice, however, is also welcome over the top of the finished crepes, so a little sugar is necessary.

For the crepes:

1 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 c. milk (I like to use whole milk here)

3 eggs

3 tbs melted butter

1 c. cold water

Whisk together the flour, salt, and sugar, then add the milk

and then add the eggs, beating until smooth.

Pour in the melted butter, whisking briskly until it’s fully incorporated.  The batter will be thickish at this point.  Add the water to make a very thin batter.  The advantage to using part water instead of all milk is that the finished crepe is a little more resilient and easier to turn.  Crepes made with all milk (or cream) are very tender and tear easily, making them much more difficult to work with.

The most important thing at this point is to make sure the crepe pan (or other shallow frying pan) is HOT.  The pan must be hot for the crepe not to stick.  I sometimes put a drop of oil on the pan before the first crepe of the day, but my pan is well seasoned so it’s not really necessary.  On my electric stove, I have found that if I put the temperature dial in the center of “medium” it is just right, and I let the pan preheat until it is ready to smoke.

Ladle a quarter cup or so of batter onto the hot pan (depending on the size of your pan) and quickly swirl the pan to coat the bottom with the batter.  After a minute or so, turn the crepe and cook the other side for half a minute or so.

You can do as most people do and make all the crepes at once, keeping them warm in the oven, or you can do as I do, and make one finished plate at time.

Be sparing with the jam as you spread it:  since the crepe will be rolled, you will find that you have a lot of jam in a small space no matter how little you put on, and it can quickly become oversweet.  Three crepes make a full serving, although sometimes seconds are required.  Top them with the sliced berries and fresh juice.

I always make these just for the kids and myself so I drink tea with them, but I can’t help thinking they would be very nice with mimosas.  If I ever company for brunch in June, I will have to try that.