Time for a break (and some crêpes)
Until yesterday we can safely say that my PhD was taking up most of my waking hours, and I had entirely accepted that until the submission day, I would only be working, even over the Christmas break, whether I liked it or not.
But yesterday I lost one of my most beloved relatives, and I have to admit that now, I couldn’t care less about the PhD. This implies, of course, that I couldn’t care less about the blog.
I reckon that as the goal of this blog is to show what it is like to be doing a PhD, this post is a very good example that sometimes, even when you’re fully dedicated to your work, things can happen that put everything into perspective. And it’s OK. It’s more than OK.
My last blogpost of the decade is a Christmas gift to you all, readers, my very own crêpes recipe, a tradition shared with my friends and family.
Preparation: 15 min
Cooking: 2 min per crêpe
Ingredients:
150 g of flour
50 g of cornflour
1 pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of oil
50 cl of milk
2 tablespoons of rum
2 tablespoons of orange blossom water
4 eggs
15 g of vanilla sugar
5 g of baking powder
First, mix the flour, cornflour, baking powder and vanilla sugar in a mixing bowl, and make a little well in the middle.
Then put the eggs, salt and oil in the well, and whisk everything together. Add the milk little by little.
Finally, add the rum and orange blossom water.
Pour a wee bit of oil in a crepe pan and stretch it. You do not want drops of oil! Heat up the pan until it is very hot.
When it is ready, pour a ¾ full ladle of batter and skilfully turn and shake the pan so that the batter quickly covers the whole surface. You want the crêpe to be really thin, but still think enough not to break.
When the edges start to come loose from the pan, use a spatula to carefully detach the whole crêpe. Now, if you are feeling brave, give a strong shake to the pan so that the crêpe jumps in the air, turns over, and lands back on the pan, raw side on the pan. If you are feeling cautious, simply use the spatula to return the crêpe. Let it cook on that side for another 5 to 10 seconds depending on its thickness.
Finally, put the crêpe on a plate. To keep the crêpes warm as you cook them, pile them up on a plate on top of a saucepan filled with boiling water.
Time to eat! Fill them as you like, sweet or savoury, rolled or folded, be creative!
An idea from Brittany: melt salted butter in a little bowl. Pour that butter on the crêpe. Cover the butter with sugar. Fold. Enjoy!
Sincerely,
-Bérengère
