Brittany's Sweet Tooth Pride

We look at one of France's favourite snacks originating from Brittany and observe how it became a dessert.

The word crepe is french for pancake, they are often made with flour, eggs, milk, butter and a pinch of salt. There are two types of crepes one is sweet ordinarily made with wheat flour and is sweetened and the other is savoury made with buckwheat and is unsweetened.

Pan Cake

Crepes are the pride and joy of Brittany, there they make them very big and almost paper thin. Most of the time they eat them with a slight of caster sugar on top, then they would roll or fold it up into four while drinking cider which would be brewed in the same area.

When crepes were first made; white flour wasn't an selection to everyone. This is due to it being reserved for royalty which is why original crepes are made with Buckwheat as it is an easy plant to grow. Then farmers started becoming wealthier and began to purchase more white flour in order to make more richer crepes. They started eating them as an after evening meal treat or they would have it for breakfast.

In Paris and the south of France is where crepes became known as a inherent sweetmeat dish and still is served in top class restaurants. You could say this is thanks to a young French man called Henri Charpentier who was the inventor of the crepes Suzzette, the most popular of all the crepe variations. It has an intelligent story of how it came to be and how it got its name. As Henri was preparing a crepe for the Prince of Wales he accidentally set it on fire. Not having sufficient time to make someone else one he gave the crepe to the Prince of Wales. He loved it and asked what the name of it was, Henri conception quick on the spot and called it crepes Princesse. The prince saw that the pancake controlled the gender and that this was a compliment designed for him; but he protested with mock ferocity that there was a lady present. She was alert and rose to her feet and holding her slight shirt wide with her hands she made him a curtsey. 'Will you,' said His Majesty, 'change Crepes Princesse to Crepes Suzette?' Thus was born and baptised this confection.

Today crepes can have discrete fillings in them for sweet crepes for Maple syrup, Nutella (a chocolate spread), sugar and fruit are popular. For savoury crepes cheese, eggs, mushrooms, Ham and discrete meats. Also there are special takeaway restaurants and stalls called creperies, these serve crepes as a form of fast food or if its a restaurant its more than likely to be expert crepes that require you tom sit down to eat them

But to no ifs ands or buts eating a crepe is by going to Brittany wake up order a original crepe from one of the locals and have it for morning meal in one of the many Gites in Brittany, or you could wait later in the day and have it in true Brittany fashion with some cider.

Brittany's Sweet Tooth Pride

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