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pimp my galettes

Turn on the television any night in France and chances are excellent that you’ll land on a program, held in a brightly-lit studio, where celebrities, authors, and other French luminaries mingle, chat, and talk about issues—or whatever they feel like.

For some reason, though, they don’t run a banner at the bottom while the person is talking, like they do incessantly on American television. And because of that, I usually have no idea who all those overly-made up people are.

So I’ll ask—”Romain…who is that?”

folded galette

He’ll be surprised, really surprised…”You mean you don’t know who Valérie Lemercier is? She is a very big star. Très, très connu!” I always hate bursting bubbles, so I’ll nod kind of half-heartedly, although I’m not so good at keeping a poker face and hiding my feelings.


Which invariably leads to his next question: “People in the United States don’t know who she is?”

Then I have to tell him, no, most Americans would be hard-pressed to name a contemporary French singer, with the exception of Carla Bruni. (But if you heard her latest CD, the term “singer” may be a bit of a stretch.) Same with holidays. Most of us Americans haven’t the foggiest notion of French holidays. Except the ones that involve drinking.

salted butter caramel

Last Monday was La Fête de la chandeleur, a day when everyone is happily at home making crêpes, smearing them with salted butter caramel, mentally planning their spring wardrobes and upcoming vacations spent idling away on the beach at Club Med.

(Those hoping to look good on the beach should eschew the salted butter caramel. I tried, but I’m powerless to resist the lure of creamy caramel made with deliciously-salty Breton butter. So folks will just have to look the other way when I pass them on the beach, and ignore mes poignées d’amour.)

While I used to be fond of crêpes, if given the choice, I always choose a galette over a crêpe any time I can. The true galette is made from just buckwheat flour, water, and salt. And that’s it. No eggs, no milk. Nothing else. Rien.

2 galettes

They’re not easy to make so when I was at Breizh Café two weeks ago, I asked them if they’d teach me how to make a true Breton galette. I don’t know if the verb “to pimp” something has made it to France yet, but I wanted to learn how to pimp my crêpe-making skills and learn to turn out honest-to-goodness galettes.

galette

First off, the cooks told me it’s important to use fresh, organic buckwheat flour (farine de sarrasin) which has a bit of stickiness, which they told me was obligatoire for frying out a proper galette. So it all starts there.

jams

The batter is not difficult and they don’t use a recipe. When I asked about one, or even proportions, they laughed. The night before they simply mix buckwheat flour and water to make a paste. The next day, they thin it out until it’s the consistency of melted ice cream.

Then the cooks expertly demonstrated to me how to ladle batter onto the very hot bilig (griddle), using a wooden râteau (rake) to move the batter evenly around in a circle. It looked ridiculously simple and something any moron could do. I couldn’t wait to give it a go.

butter

And of course, I’ve fried a bazillion crêpes in my life, manning four pans at a time standing over a grand restaurant stove. So I figured it’d be a breeze, and I’d show them that a certain cocky américain knows his way around a bilig just as well as they do. So I ladled out some batter onto the griddle and began to rake the batter into a perfect circle, just like they did.

What could be simpler?

my galette

(Well, one thing that could be simpler would be try to figure out why the credit card that I recently found on the sidewalk required me to pay to call the bank if I wanted to report it. I think that bank might want to pimp their customer service.)

Let me tell you, les galette-makers at Breizh Café make it look too-easy. (And they didn’t charge me for the lesson, but I did pay them with a batch of homemade ice cream, which I thought was a deal.) Unlike the lovely galettes they were peeling off the griddle, lickedly-split, mine came off looking like a wounded amoeba. Dragging the batter in a perfect circle isn’t easy at all.

I like mine very crispy, which they told me was how they like them in the sud of Brittany. Up north, they prefer them soft. So they showed me how to brush both sides with what looked like me to be an obscene amount of butter and crisp the galette up on the griddle. In fact, they said some customers now actually request their galette either crispy or moelleuse, which is one of those words that’s impossible for Anglophones to pronounce. I think I need to pimp my French and get that one down, because I like my galettes as dark and as crisp as possible.

I didn’t have very good luck at the restaurant, but thought I’d master them easily in my home kitchen. I went straight home and mixed up some buckwheat flour and water and let it stand overnight.

The next morning I earnestly got out of bed, chugged my morning café au lait, then went to work on the stove. I heated up my crêpe pan, added what I thought was a reasonable amount of butter (reasonable for someone who has to wear a swimsuit in 2 1/2 weeks) and fried up my first-ever, picture-perfect galette.

er...

Er…..well, it certainly wasn’t easy. But as any crêpe-maker knows, the first one is always a dud and is the cook’s bonus. (Although it would take a pretty big stretch of the imagination for anyone to think that eating that would be some kind of “bonus”.) So I poured out another one. But the batter was too thick. So I thinned it down, yet, still, every galette I turned out of my pan was a désastre.

broken galettes

I don’t have a lot of experience ‘pimping’ anything, but I’m fairly certain that pallid, flabby, and doughy aren’t worthy prospects for any self-respecting pimp. So the bad news is that I failed and I think I need a lot more practice before I can turn out a perfect (or even decent) buckwheat galette.

t-shirt

But they told me I could come back any time and try again. (Am not sure if the homemade ice cream had anything to do with it, but I don’t think it hurt.)

The good news is that the Breizh Café won’t be losing a certain customer anytime soon.

Breizh Café
109, rue Vieille du Temple (3rd)
Tél: 01 42 72 13 77

Related links and recipe:

Breizh Café

Buckwheat Crêpe Recipe

Sunday Dining in Paris

The Best Socca in Nice

My Favorite Crêperies in Paris

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67 comments

    • Jenni

    Cheer up, David Lebovitz. Be the Little Engine That Could. And blame it on your stove at home. I bet it doesn’t get as hot at that wicked round griddle deal gets at the restaurant. :)

    • krysalia

    hou, that’s food porn for sure \o/ ♥

    this isn’t bad, I’ve seen worst first essays (huh, mines actually !). I think for the first one pictured (at breizh café), you were too shy and not fast enough to work on the dough with le râteau, so the galette is thicker than it needs. I often have the problem or the contrary : I work too quickly and the doughs sprays too thin, it burns and makes holes :( .
    the second one at your homes explains itself with the temperature of the crêpière pan, it’s difficult to have something hot enough at home, especially with those coated non sticking pans. I’m sure that if you had a traditionnal bilig at home you’ll perfect the technique within a few days :)

    about the left galettes ratées, you can cut them in pieces and fry them, or put them in the oven, (you brush them with butter and salt before for example). the slices of galette becore crispy and tasty, it’s a kind of brittany tortilla chips, not traditionnal at all but quite enjoyable :D.

    • David

    Jenni: Their griddle was really, really hot. I was pretty surprised. I don’t know. Krysalia previously mentioned that frying true galettes was a skill similar to being a Jedi warrior.

    Krysalia: One thing they did show me how to brush the galette with lots (and lots) of butter, then fry it again on both sides. I think it’s best to leave it to the experts.

    Plus it gives me an excuse to get closer to those jars of salted butter caramel : )

    • elra

    These are my favorite, sweet or savory, buckwheat or just regular wheat, I love them all. Btw, I just made your sweet potato gnocchi…
    It was delicious. Thanks for the recipes.
    Cheers,
    Elra

    • Dawn in CA

    David, you make me smile. Thanks for that. :)

    • SavvyChristine

    Wow, I didn’t think it was possible to have more skills than a Jedi warrior. Galettes just got a hundred times cooler, in my book, and the same goes for the people who make them.

    Your attempts looked…erm…tasty. Thanks for the laugh. :)

    • Jessica

    I know it’s not nice to take pleasure in someone else’s failings, but…I have to admit I was happy to see your first gallette experience went as poorly as mine did. I tried over and over and over, thinning the batter, then thickening the batter, more butter, yet MORE butter, then less butter, and yet each gallette still turned out grey, flabby, broken, squishy and just plain gross. After an hour or so I finally gave up, had myself a little hissy fit, and dined on the fillings I’d reserved for the gallettes washed down with lots of hard cider. Don’t know why I even bothered trying to make them at home, since I live in San Francisco and can hit up Ti Couz whenever the urge hits!

    • rouquinricain

    i think you accidently left out an “r” on valérie lemercier, who is hilarious by the way, you should really try and look at some of her sketches on youtube.
    and once again, thank you so much for letting us know about breizh café, i never knew how good galettes and crêpes could be until i went.

    Merde! Thanks. But I guess that proves that I need to get to know the French celebrities better. I am, however, thoroughly familiar with the galettes and crêpes though. Oh, and back at ya’…accidently is spelled accidentally -dl ; )

    • Elle

    Wait, am I understanding this right? There’s a holiday that typically involves crepes with salted butter caramel? Because if that’s true, I’m moving to Paris. Right now.

    • FN

    I love Breizh cafe. I bet the chefs there can show you how to make Soba too, no?

    • JULES

    After reading your post about the Breizh Café last year, I just had to try it. So on our trip to Paris last September, my 3 year old daughter and I braved the Metro, got thouroughly lost wandering the streets of the Marais searching for the Breizh Café. Those galettes were totally worth it all. I can’t wait to try them again. Good luck with making the galettes at home, at least you can always go to the Breizh Café to satisfy the galette urge.

    • Laura

    My, you are just the king of the charming posts! This is hysterical…and it is nice to know that you are human and not some super-amazing robotic turner outer of perfect pastries/breads/everything else. I think you are quite brave with respect to the bathing suit…I would be passed out on the ground if someone told me I would be required to don one at the moment!

    • Paula Maack

    So, you messed up some crepes? You got a private lesson at Breizh Cafe, and that rocks, you mad *ss pimp, you!!

    Back when I was managing an all girl punk band, we did a show with the Pimp My Ride Tour, and that entire tour fell apart and became a major disaster. My girls rocked it though, and we made the best of it, just as you have. I love that you post your failures, as well as your successes.

    Pimping is messy biz. ;)

    I love this post!! It’s all because of you that I even went to the Breizh Cafe, and what a treat it was! While nothing like a private lesson, I did blog about it, should you be interested.

    Happy Valentine’s Day!!

    XOXOXOX,

    ~ Paula

    • LTLFTP

    Long time lurker, first time poster here – the obligatory I love your posts aside, you should go to a good Indian, particularly South Indian restaurant and ask for Dosa.
    These look just like galettes, are super thin, savory and the best thing ever!
    There are different ones – made out of just semolina, yogurt and some g.chilli, ginger, seasoning etc..and more involved ones that include soaking up rice/lentils, grinding, fermenting etc.
    You should try it and report back.
    And as a proof of how much I love your site – I never never post any comments on any of the food blogs I visit, this is my first.
    If you can’t find a good south indian restaurant in Paris, next time you visit, you’re welcome to drop by and I’ll fix you up with out of the world dosas!

    oh and did I tell you I’ve secretly stashed some of your caramel toffee in my freezer.
    xoxoxo – LTLFTP (long time lurker, first time poster)

    • Alisa – Frugal Foodie

    It was a valiant effort! It certainly doesn’t look easy.

    • Jenni

    May the force be with you, young Jedi David…

    • Barbra

    According to the website they’re looking for apprentis crepiers… Maybe you should apply, David.

    Breizh might have to be my first stop when I arrive on Thursday.

    • clotilde

    “Wounded amoeba” — thanks for the chuckle-inducing simile! :)

    • Linda H

    Howlingly funny!
    I made a big-recipe flourless chocolate cake in a heart-shaped mold for a Valentine gift. Your galette results were similar to my results when I turned out the cake and one third of it stuck in the pan, losing all the sculpted details. So please don’t feel bad about your galettes. Misery loving company, there was someone else having a culinary disaster simultaneously.
    However, the cake is now in the freezer and will be crumbled and mixed into homemade vanilla ice cream soon.

    • Rona Y

    If it makes you feel better, your homemade galettes look like really good roti! Maybe you could have used them to scoop up some curry.

    • Red

    Love your attempts at galettes. I used to live in Rennes and can make passable galettes on a cheapo T-Fal crepe pan I bought there. Now if I could only find the appropriate saucisse, I’d be happy. Or happier. Thanks for the great pix.

    • materfamilias

    We’ve trekked out to Rue de Charonne for crêpes on your rec before (and well, well worth the hike — great food, friendly service, and prices you’ve got to love!), so it’s a pleasure to hear of something closer — this is going on my list for this June. Merci.

    • Meagan

    Those look incredibly delicious! Nevermind that you screwed up a few. When we learn how to flip pancakes for the first time the results are always disastorous for at least 10 pancakes. This must be no different. I am excited to see something that is easily gluten free in Paris. Maybe someday in my GF european travels, if I am ever starving because I can’t find anything that’s not loaded with wheat, I can just ask for these, and everything will be ok :) Thanks for sharing, David.

    • Amy

    The technique you describe reminds me of making Indian dosa, often a fermeted batter of ground rice and lentils, though there are other versions. Ghee is what crisps them up, but scraping and spreading the batter thin enough to crisp while still intact and round is the tricky part. They are sooo worth the trouble, just as those delicious looking buckwheat crepes look.

    • piccola

    Bruni’s latest sucks?? That’s sad — her first album, Quelqu’un m’a dit, is one of my all-time faves.

    Oh, and while I’m not nitpicky enough to correct every little spelling and grammar mistake — you’re doing pretty well anyway :) — I thought I’d point out it’s “poignées d’amour,” not “de l’amour.” There’s a tiny, tiny nuance.

    I wasn’t sure, so I looked it up, and that’s how L’Express newspaper wrote it. I’ve seen it both ways and I figured they knew more than I did about the correct spelling. ( I’m probably more of an expert on “love handles” than them.) But I did change it, although I’m not going to tell L’Express how to speak or write French : ) -dl

    • Annie

    I’m finally getting around to saying thank you for your writing and humor (and food). And, as my dad likes to say of less-than-picture-perfect food, it all goes down the same way!

    • selena

    DUDE, they have locations in Japan. I’m so going! Thanks for the hot tip, David!

    • Reuben Morningchilde

    You’re so right, the first one is always, well, for the cook. ^^

    Luckily, my parents dragged me to St. Malo basically each summer of my childhood, and I learned how to make galettes when I was, like, eleven? They didn’t seem difficult to me then, and I have never used anything but an ordinary pan – no bilig, no rateau. Maybe it would be different if I had to learn it now.

    So maybe, if ever you come through my part of Germany, we make a batch and perhaps find the trick together?

    • oakjoan

    The buckwheat gallettes reminded me of my attempt to make masala dhosa like they do at Vik’s in Berkeley. I haven’t stopped laughing about the results and that’s been over a year.

    PS: Doesn’t “moelleuse” mean soft?

    • paris

    I have a question about crepes. Are crepes supposed to be pale and soft or crispy? And should they be slightly sweet or have really no flavor like they usually are? I love my crepes to be crispy and slightly sweet but every place I go to is everything but that. Do you have any GOOD crepe recipe??

    • Gael

    Well I’ve been making galettes for years and my family is from the Cotes d’Armor. Every part of Bretagne has a little different variant of the recipe for galettes. The Finistère makes them with only buckwheat flour, salt and water. In my region we put in some plain flour as well. 90% sarrasin and 10% froment. Then we add enough water to work it really hard and get all the gluten out of the froment. After some rest just add water until it’s the right consistency(I don’t know how much.I just what it looks like).

    Also we grease our billig with saindoux and an egg yolk mixed together. Maybe that’s what you should be doing. And it should definitly be very hot.

    It’s true that we tend to prefer our gallettes moelleuse with lots of butter. I miss eating a galette saucisse in Rennes. This post got me all nostalgic about Bretagne now.

    • selena

    Btw, nice bra ad above the comments. Ahh, targeted marketing.

    • Sophia

    You are so wonderful! Even when the crepes are not coming together as they should, you are still diligently documenting every step. This post and the previous one on Breizh Cafe reminded me that when I had crepes in the Bretagne region, they were so crispy and light, similar to the dosas of the Keralan restaurant I loved in London.

    • David

    Laura: Well….actually, I’d planned to do a post about making these at home, and how easy it was. I was all set up, got my plates and pan ready, plus plenty of melted butter and got my camera out. Imagine my disappointment when my home-made galettes looked like that!

    I didn’t feel (too) bad since everyone, even the experts, say they’re really tricky and it’s almost something you need to be born to doing. I still would like to get it right, but on the other hand, there are some things that just aren’t possible to reproduce at home, and are best left to the pros.

    Luckily, for the price of a tub of ice cream, I know where I can get a steady supply of hot-off-the griddle galettes‐expertly made!

    • bwilson

    So so funny! Who hasn’t produced one of those foetal-stage pancakes/crepes/galettes! Love your ragged nebula galette and the flaccid gray pancakes. I have some burned caramel I’ll send you add to them. Mix well before tossing in your trash. Tomorrow is a new start!

    • Accidental Parisian

    These comments are making me very, very hungry for masala dosa.

    David, if I can make good galettes, you can too. The galette recipe I was given by my Bretonne mother-in-law contains an egg (!) and a bit of salt. It came with two rules: one, that you absolutely must let the batter rest at least three hours, preferably overnight, and two, that you never reverse direction when using the rateau.

    Pour pimper vos galettes… If they’re are a total disaster, I have a galette cookbook that suggests you mix the remaining batter with an egg, a bit of sugar, a squeeze of lemon and a grated apple. Cook it in a frying pan, flipping very carefully with the aid of a dinner plate. You’ll get a thick, dense pancake which you can serve in slices, maybe with some honey or jam – a bit like a sweet paillaisson de pomme de terre. Delicious!

    • krysalia

    Thinking about galettes, I remembered this masterpiece of french téléachat : la crêpière magique with it’s patented spreader :D (this link for the manufacturer)
    I loved those tv shopping videos when a smiling family was making galettes that were obviouly full of eggs in the dough (as elastic as sillicon :D) to make it seem easier to get them off the electric bilig in one piece. But actually, I think that this tool would really help to spread some nice galettes, though it won’t help with the preparation of the right dough and to find the exact time of frying.

    • Mrs Redboots

    Um – “pimping” means something very different on this side of the Atlantic! The American usage is unknown, except for the television programme (and at least one channel has retitled that to “Makeover my ride” or something similar).

    Re pancakes. Our traditional pancake day – Shrove Tuesday – is coming up; I have a problem with it as the traditional batter recipe makes far too much for 2, yet how do you divide one egg in half? I suppose I could make a thicker batter and make corn fritters instead…. I might just do that very thing!

    I adore galettes, but wouldn’t make them at home, reserving them for a treat out. One of the nicest I’ve had was just before a skating competition: a galette topped with lettuce, goats’ cheese and walnuts, which was exactly the combination of nutrients my body demanded! Brilliant!

    • kayenne

    how did the “true” galette recipe of buckwheat, salt, water compare to your buckwheat crepe recipe?

    • Florinda

    Hi David!Im form Brazil.I knew ur blog in a NatGeo program and i went to take a look it. Wooow!!I love ur blog,it´s too great because have one the things i love: sweets!
    Well,i like to cook and create foods,and i think food is an art to learn always!!
    I´ll came back,ok???
    See u!

    • krysalia

    Mrs Redboots> to divide one egg in half, put it in a small container, beat it, then take only one half of the yolk/white mix :)

    with the other half, you can add some golden shine to puff pastries or any pie crust.

    But because adding even ONE egg to the dough is’nt regular at all, you can use your whole egg no matter the quantity of dough you’re making. And there’s a plus, they will have more strech abilities and they will be easier to lift from the pan in one piece (but they won’t be real galettes, grrmmbblblm :) )

    • pip of meetmeatmikes

    Hello David!

    Sorry to post a URL – but perhaps your commenters or readers can help us?
    We are making a recipe book to distribute to the survivors of last weekend’s Victorian Bushfires. Many people lost EVERYTHING – including, of course, their recipes.

    This is one of many projects up and running to assist the survivors in the long term. See http://www.handmadehelpsout.blogspot.com or http://meetmeatmikes.blogspot.com/2009/02/homemade-handmade-help-recipe-book.html for details – and please help us if you have a spare five minutes!

    and please may I have a crepe?

    • Stephanie

    Galettes are my favorite! I totally pass up crêpes for galettes too. Seeing these pictures make me really want one of these. I had them once a week for dinner when studying abroad. When I came back I tried to make them and I kind of succeeded. Thanks for the reminder to try again!

    • Jake

    David – Great post and thanks for making me hungry just after breakfast… I’m remembering my days in Rennes years ago where the Saturday morning trip through the market always ended with a galette, saucisse, moutard et gruyere cheese with a bottle of cidre… Amazing!

    • Sunny

    I can’t tell you how happy I am to see this post. I brought out my new crepe pan on Chandeleur, all ready to serve up galettes complet. I threw away half of them, but finally managed enough galettes for supper, despite the thick blue fog of obscenities under which they were created.

    I feel much better knowing that someone else (far more talented than I) had as many issues as I did.

    • Bren

    Hey David.

    This is Bren. I don’t we’ve personally communicated in a loooong time. That’s got to change seeing as tho I keep up with ur doings. My dad’s best friend lives in Paris and I thought of you last time I was there. I should have reached out. In any case,
    I’m reaching out now just to make the acquaintance a bit more than passer by’ers. I’ll be in France in a couple of weeks, well really Monaco, but will enter surrounding cities. I’ll make sure to let you know in advance, next time I’m in Paris, hopefully not to far from now.

    Best wishes,

    Bren
    flanboyanteats

    • Ted Drake

    My favorite so far was from a guy at the farmers market. It’s incredibly simple but flavorful. He adds honey and a small squeeze of lemon as the galette finishes cooking.

    • MODman

    Very enlightening. I was making sourdough pancakes this morning and actually hatched a plan to make the french version of a sourdough crepe. I will let you know if it turns out.

    • Sara

    I am sure galettes are fantastic but I think I really need to get my hands on some salted butter caramel…

    • Christelle

    Les crepes aux sarrazin (or galettes) are difficult to make but not impossible to make. They will be thicker than normal crepes, but if you use a recipe for normal crepes and replace the flour and get the right consistency, you should be fine!…
    A few trials are necessary to find the adjustments that are bworking best for you. However, as soon as you change something the pan, the stove, etc… expect it will affect your galettes.
    I have made a post about crepes if you fancy having a look, they are the ultra fine type (Breton approved!), useable for savoury toppings, and transformable into galettes..:http://easydoesitrecipes.blogspot.com/2008/09/crepes.html

    • parisbreakfast

    This post started off very David Sedaris…
    Thanks for the intro to Valérie Lemercier!
    Watch this YouTube and you’ll never forget her!
    Valérie Lemercier – La cuisine gourmande

    • Joan

    HAAHHA I loved this post !

    So hilarious too – your attempts at making the gallettes. I totally understand as I have made a bazillion crepes but can imagine myself screwing them up as well (no offense).

    Btw, thx for bringing us to Breizh. I went back like 10x after that so your buddy there recognizes me now. I might be back in Paris end of the year so we should grab another crepe!

    • Amanda

    Oh, this one made me smile! Thank goodness I’m not the only one who messes up crepes!

    I’ll definitely be trying the buckwheat flour method, though, because it sounds wonderful. Thank you for sharing it! (I have a particular fondness for recipes that aren’t really recipes, just procedures to make something that looks like this, with a consistency like that.)

    • Collette

    When I was a little girl, there was a restaurant near my Grandparent’s place in Ft. Lauderdale called La Crepe de France (or is it Le?) that was run by a wonderful french couple, the Desnoyers. It was decorated Normandy style and all the wait staff wore french country frocks. The whole menu was crepes … except the most amazing French Onion Soup – with cheese you could have strung around the restaurant. Seeing those photos of the real crepe irons, and what a crepe should be, ultra thin, slightly spongy in the center, lacy and fine at the edges makes me long for that old restaurant, which is long gone. Can’t even bring myself to make crepes at home because they’d be such a poor facsimile of real crepes. Chicken bechamel was my favorite. And a banana crepe for dessert.

    • Sylvie

    I love galettes too, but I did not know it was just buckwheat, water & salt. I make crepes using 100% buckwheat, with milk & egg – and I thought that was galettes. ooops. oh well! I wonder if you can get that non-stick crepe pan hot enough for the galettes? at least it looks like a non-stick pan in the picture… a good US made cast-iron frying pan like lodge might work better. At least that’s what I used.

    Ice-cream for cooking lesson? what a deal!

    • pepe acevedo

    Dear David, I live in Chile, WAY down the southern hemisphere, so when I read the galettes post, I started to drool hopelesly…Imagine my surprise, just went for a walk round the neighborhood and just one block from where I live (in Santiago) a bretonne creperie opened two days ago.. had a wonderful crispy galette with tomatoes and cheese, plus a chocolate sauce crèpe with (get this) homemade vanilla ice cream, both were very good…
    I’m just waiting to see another post materialize in front of me…keep on working your magic!!!

    • J.A. Getzlaff

    We tried the Breizh version at home last night . . . and failed miserably. Used the sarrasin bought here in Paris, plus the salt and the water, and came up with some pretty ugly galettes. Fortunately supper was saved after falling back on your recipe with eggs! — Julie, http://foreignparts.typepad.com

    • Paula Head-Fourman

    Love your blog.Perfectly timed my reading of this post – tomorrow is Pancake Day in the UK, though I too am partial to a gallette. I never knew they didn’t have egg in though, though I imagine the batter with egg in is a lot easier to work with.

    • Reuben Morningchilde

    Last weekend I made galettes at home, and when I came across your blog again, I remembered my ever-so-slightly boastful comment from above, and thought I rather ought to back it up.
    I’ve written a small how-to on making crêpes and galettes at home for our Australian friend with last Sunday’s pictures; maybe there’s something helpful in there for you, too.

    • cari

    Hi, I am looking for a place just like this for a dinner while in Paris. Having Celiac it is difficult to find gluten free food. Do you know if this spot uses 100% buckwheat or do they add wheat flour?
    Cari

    • David

    hi cari: They told me the batter only has buckwheat flour and water in it, but I didn’t see them mix it up so I can’t verify for sure. They do use the same griddle to fry regular crêpes (and utensils), so if you’re extremely intolerant to flour, take that into consideration.

    You might want to check out my post: Gluten-Free Eating & Dining in Paris, as I list a restaurant in Paris that is gluten-free as well as other options.

    • homie

    ok, so i did a search on using a wooden spreader to make crepes and came upon this! i was very happy to see that i’m not the only one who can’t use the wooden spreader with ease. i’ve made crepes for years swirling them around a pan but failed miserably using my le creuset crepe pan this morning with the wooden spreader. i thought it might be the pan because it isn’t entirely flat….but seems that there is need of some skill to use it correctly! thanks for sharing your attemps!

    • Mawrter

    Allo – I just just tried the recipe with gluten-free modifications, and thought I’d share my results for your other GF readers. Both times I’ve used a nonstick crêpe-maker by Maxim. I prefer a cast iron skillet, but my stovetop isn’t working ATM, so this was a lifesaver!

    The first time, I substituted Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten-Free Baking Mix (IOW, fake flour – garbanzo flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, sorghum flour, and fava flour). It was okay, and the texture was quite decent, but the flavor was beany (as is *everything* with this funky faux flour).

    The second time, I used brown rice flour instead, and it’s fabulous. I even had to punt a little with the milk b/c I I had less than 2 c whole milk. I used a mixture of cream & water to make up the difference. I’m sure the regular kind with real wheat flour is better, but if you have to be GF, this is the bomb. I definitely recommend this particular recipe with brown rice flour for GF crêpes – the best yet. MERCI!!!

    • Mawrter

    Oh – one more thing about the GF crêpes. The fake flour version didn’t swirl and spread easily with a spoon, but with a little practice I could get a decent thin circle. The rice flour version didn’t swirl at all – it started cooking so fast once it hit the hot surface that trying to spread it around was impossible and trying only created lumps. I just had to dribble the batter as thinly & carefully as possible. It may be different with a skillet or real crêpe pan, or if I get a real wooden rake. But for now, it’s still the best GF crêpe I’ve made.

    • hide

    hi, im trying to make galettes at home. but i cant do that well.
    i mean the point is how to make air bubbles on the galettes like lace.
    i use electric hot plate which can control temperature at until 230 degrees.
    so i have baked at 230 degrees.

    my recipe is 100g buckwheats, 1 egg, 200cc milks, 2g salts,10g melted butters.
    i dont know whats wrong with the above recipe…

    • 5feet9

    thanks for the chuckle.

    one more thing to add to the dosa comments: you can make something very like a galette without overnight soaking or any complicated manouvering using all-purpose flour or semolina mixed with rice flour, salt and water (with maybe a spoon of plain yogurt, optional). Rather thin and runny, pour a little into an oiled pan (I prefer nonstick) and pick up the pan and rotate the pan itself. A little more oil and you’re done! It’s very easy (would be happy to give specific measurements if you like), and you can add (or not) things like finely chopped cilantro and / or onion and / or fiery green chillies to the mix. (yummm. I think I know what I want for dinner tonight…)

    • Tammy

    Oh, I have tears in my eyes. You had me chuckling at the first image, and outright giggling at the second. Sometimes cooking can just come out so damn wrong… I also like the taste of sarrasin in my crepes, but I make a 70/30 ratio, kind of sort of, cutting the buckwheat with white flour. May make spreading it easier. Now all I need is one of those rateaux. I only ever see them sold as a set with the crepe-maker, and there’s no more space (or need) for another appliance in my kitchen. For a rateau, yes absolutely…

A

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