Pumpkin crêpes/Lessons learned from Le Creuset

A while ago I made regular crêpes with pumpkin-maple filling and pumpkin-butter sauce. Those were incredible, but very rich.

I had pumpkin in the fridge, that I hadn't done anything with... so I thought pumpkin crêpes.

I took my crêpe recipe and removed one egg and replaced it with about four heaping tablespoons of pumpkin. And this is what it looked like once modified:

Pumpkin crêpes:

• 1 cup unbleached white flour
• 1.5 cups soymilk
• 1 egg
• 4 heaping tablespoons pumpkin
• 1 tablespoon oil* (upon later reflection on my handwriting I am fairly certain this is supposed to be a teaspoon)
• pinch iodized sea salt

Whisk vigorously until no lumps exist.

Now, here is where the experimenting began. I opted to use my new Le Creuset skillet, and I knew it would cook faster than my cheap-o cookware. It also said in the manual to have some butter or oil in the skillet when preheating it. So, I added a little bit of butter. I was concerned it was too little, so I added a teaspoon of oil. The result ended up being WAY too much.

By the third crêpe, I had a sliver of butter in the pan for every two to three crêpes, and the heat reduced to almost medium, on the low side, and the crêpes were cooking just as fast as they did in my old frying pan if not faster.

For filling, I mixed some cloves, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon (or did I forget the cinnamon?) in with the last cup of pumpkin. We're talking about a 1/4 to a 1/2 teaspoon of each depending how much you like that spice. I then added 1 tablespoon real maple syrup.

They turned out very fluffy. And tasty.

Lessons I've learned from my Le Creuset skillet:
1. A little 'fat' goes a long way.
2. The heat needed to cook food is significantly lower than with my no-stick pans.
3. The handles gradually get hot. The little one first, then the big one.
4. My pot holders and oven mitts are so old and worn they don't protect from heat.