Categories: Food

Rye Crepes

If you’re up for a family-sized batch of rye crepes, this is your recipe. It’s basically a doubled version of the crepes I included in Super Natural Every Day. They’re made from a blend of rye flour and all-purpose flour, and over the years we’ve filled them with a wild assortment of delicious fillings. I’ll talk through some favorites down below!

Rye Crepes: The Recipe & Method

To make rye crepe batter you combine the flours with egg and then gradually thin the batter with water. Strain it and allow the batter to rest for 30 minutes. Gather your fillings in the meantime, and you’re ready to cook some crepes! A couple notes related to the recipe.

Straining the batter: Making crepe batter is a breeze. The one step that caused some push-back in the original recipe was straining the crepe batter. This step gives you a silky smooth batter to work with and if you have the appropriate strainer, it’s no big deal. A lot of people didn’t have the “right” strainer or couldn’t be bothered. So yeah, a quick blitz with an immersion blender isn’t exactly the same, but it’s a fine alternative. It will still get you where you want to go.

Rye flour ratio: When I was working on this recipe back in 2010, I tested a range of flour ratios to find the best balance between whole grain flour and (rye) and all-purpose flour, and landed with the amounts shared in the recipe here. I found that bumping the rye up more than this yielded flabby, heavy crepes. They took too long to cook and this resulted in steamed crepes. You can experiment, but I think this blend, and recommend it as a starting point.

Crepes: Make Ahead

You can pre-cook crepes ahead of time if you like. This is convenient if you’re preparing to feed a bunch of people at once. Stack cooked crepes between sheets of parchment paper, then reheat in a lightly buttered pan and fill with toppings when you’re ready to eat.

Rye Crepe Fillings

There are a bunch of great filling suggestions down in the comments, so if you don’t see something inspiring here, poke around down there a bit. As far as fillings go, there are so many options. I like to set up a zone of toppings and fillings and then go for it. Resist the urge to overfill.

Cheese: I love a thin layer of grated Gruyere, or a bit of crumbled goat cheese. Small amounts of stronger cheeses is the strategy.
Potatoes: A forever favorite filling – thin slices of panfried potatoes along with a homemade pesto is simple and amazing.
Hot Sauce: Consider spiking your crepe with a favorite hot sauce or salsa.
Cooked seasonal vegetables: Slice them thinly and arrange them sparsely inside each crepe. Things like grilled or roasted peppers, broiled farmers market carrots or shredded cabbage.
Sweet crepe fillings: For dessert crepes, these love to be made with grated chocolate, smashed berries, a smear of your favorite jam, or a generous drizzle of honey. A goat cheese and honey crepe is amazing topped with some snipped chives.
Put an egg on it: Add a beaten egg to your crepe pan and toss a cooked crepe down on top of it. Once the egg sets flip, sprinkle with grated cheese and any other toppings you like, fold in half and enjoy.