Brown butter crêpes with honey and fleur de sel
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Some rituals don't have a name. This one happens at least once a week in our kitchen, typically on Sunday mornings. There are certain smells that hold a memory before you can quite place it. Brown butter is one of them. Warm and nutty, it brings back childhood and kitchens from years ago.Crêpes have been part of our kitchen for more than twenty years, beginning during years spent living in France. There are a few versions we return to, but this is one of the simplest: brown butter, good honey, and fleur de sel at the end. Over time, these recipes have become part of our family rhythm. We hope they're the kind that get passed down—not because they're elaborate or precious, but because they're made often enough that one day, no one needs to look at the instructions anymore.
Ingredients
Serves 4 · Makes approximately 10–12 crêpes
2 cups whole milk, room temperature
2 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Pinch of salt
Pinch of sugar
Raw honey, for serving
Fleur de sel, for serving
Fresh lemon, for serving
Method
Brown the butter. Melt the butter in a small, light-colored pan over medium heat. It will foam, then begin to settle as the milk solids at the bottom turn golden brown. When the butter smells nutty and toasted, remove it from the heat. Let it cool slightly while you prepare the batter.
Make the batter. Whisk the milk, eggs, flour, salt, and sugar together until smooth. A blender works beautifully here and takes about thirty seconds. Stir in the browned butter, including all those toasted milk solids at the bottom.
Let it rest. Give the batter at least thirty minutes at room temperature. This gives the flour time to hydrate and the gluten time to relax, resulting in more tender crêpes.
Thirty minutes. The batter rests. So do you.
Cook the crêpes. Heat a nonstick crêpe pan or skillet over medium heat. Pour in just enough batter to thinly coat the bottom, immediately tilting and swirling the pan to spread it evenly. Cook for 60–90 seconds, until the edges begin to lift and the surface looks set. Flip and cook for about 30 seconds more.
Serve immediately. Lay the crêpes flat and finish with a generous drizzle of honey, a squeeze of fresh lemon, and a small pinch of fleur de sel.
Best eaten warm, with a fork and the unhurried feeling of a Sunday morning with nowhere to be.
The brown butter is everything. And yes, the resting time is worth it.
In Our Kitchen
A few of the things we use to make these at home:
The crêpe pan → here
The honey → here
Fleur de sel de Guérande → here