Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. To learn more about ’em, click here. Bonjour! Spring is by far one of the best times to travel to Paris. The weather is beautiful, the streets aren’t too crowded, and romance is blossoming everywhere. It’s too bad that Paris happens to be so far away… but I have a fun and easy date planned for you so that you can bring Paris right to your very own home! On the menu tonight: Create Your Own Crepes! Yum! I am not a gourmet French cook, but crepes are so simple, anyone can make them – I promise! There are a couple ways you can make crepes. The first is the traditional method in a pan and the second (which I choose) is using an Electric Crepe Maker. My mom gave me this for Christmas a couple years ago and it makes cooking crepes so easy. All you have to do is dip it into your batter, then when it is cooked, take it off. No skill required. I always use the crepe recipe in the booklet it came with and they turn out perfect EVERY time… well, except when I get distracted and forget to take one off and it gets a little too crispy. 🙂
If you want to make them in your large frying pan, it is pretty easy too! If you are trying to impress anyone, I would recommend maybe doing a ‘trial-run’ before your actual date – especially if you are inviting other couples to join you for this. Here is a Dessert Crepe Recipe I got from AllRecipes.com. It is rated 5 Stars so it is sure to be a success! 4 eggs, beaten 1 ⅓ cups milk 2 tablespoons melted butter 1 cup flour 2 tablespoons white sugar ½ teaspoon salt In large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, melted butter, flour sugar and salt until smooth. Heat a medium-sized skillet or crepe pan over medium heat. Grease pan with a small amount of butter or oil applied with a brush or paper towel. Using a serving spoon or small ladle, spoon about 3 tablespoons crepe batter into hot pan, tilting the pan so that bottom surface is evenly coated. Cook over medium heat, 1 to 2 minutes on a side, or until golden brown. Serve immediately. You can make your crepes ahead of time and stack them with pieces of wax paper in between OR you can make them fresh during your date. Either way, they will taste amazing!
On to the good stuff – crepe toppings! There are so many delicious foods you can fill your crepes with. Here is a list of my favorites: Whipped Cream and Berries – strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries {leave them whole or puree into a sweet syrup} Nutella and Bananas Peanut Butter and Bananas Fresh squeezed Lemon Juice and a sprinkle of White Sugar Powdered Sugar Chocolate and Anything:) You can also go the savory route with a chicken salad, grilled veggies, or anything with a cream sauce.
Whatever you choose to have as a topping will be delicious AND the best part is we have MORE free printables for you created by the amazing Tasha with Whimsicle Design Studio. She is so talented and can create ANYTHING you can imagine. These perfectly cute little cards are for you to write down & display each topping item on your menu. You could even use them for place settings if this is a group date! Once everyone has enjoyed as many crepes as their stomachs can handle {Mmmmmmm….} then it’s onto some artistic fun! It seems like everywhere you turn in Paris, there is always a talented artist in front of their easel, painting something amazing. Have a bunch of crayons, markers, paints, pastels, or even pencils set out. Give your date a large piece of paper and have them draw a caricature of you while you draw one of them! I found some cheap poster board and used that for ours, but whatever you have around will work great.
We had a blast drawing each other BUT if you or your spouse don’t have an artistic bone in your body, you may want to opt for the abstract art route. I think it would be hilarious to do this for a group date and have everyone draw their spouse secretly, then display them all and see if the group can figure out who each picture is supposed to be. Obviously you wouldn’t put names on them… but you could even do a prize for the ‘most obvious caricature’ or something fun like that.
My husband and I were lucky to take a trip to France with my family 5 years ago. Who knows if/when we will ever get back there again, but this date was a fun way of remembering the wonder of Paris and eating the crepes took us back to the flavors as well. I hope you have as much fun with this date as we did! Once you have your crepe-making mastered, you will want to invite your spouse or a few fun couples to join you for some “Crepes in Paris ~ No Ticket Required.” Bon Appetit!