My maternal grandfather was quite a ways along when my mother was born. He died in 1963 at age 89. I have previously posted his baked beans recipe. When I was young, sometimes I’d spend a Saturday night with Grandma & Grandpa. After church on Sunday morning, we’d come home and sometimes he’d make “Flapjacks”. They were wonderful! Thin pancakes, rolled up and stuffed with some sort of jam or preserves, like a jelly roll. Many years later, when I was in my 20s, I asked my mother about them and she told me they were not pancakes, but crepes. Over the years, I made crepes a few times, usually following some recipe, but didn’t use them in the same way (stuffed with seafood or something) or they just didn’t come out right. Last night I had a craving, so I looked up a recipe for crepes in my French cookbook. It called for eggs plus egg yolks, heavy cream, white flour plus cake flour, Grand Marnier, etc. I’m sure Grandpa didn’t use this recipe, so I simplified the recipe, halved it and came up with the following:
2 eggs
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
2/3 cup AP flour (unbleached)
3/4 cup milk
Preheat cast iron griddle on medium heat and melt a pat of butter in it. Whisk all the ingredients together to make a batter about the consistency of heavy cream. Ladle onto griddle and swirl to spread out. When the top is dry, flip it over and cook the other side for about 30 seconds.
I topped my “flapjacks” with strawberry jam and rolled them up. Delish and they seemed similar to what Grandpa might have made. A local restaurant used to serve something they called “Manhattan Blintzes”. These were crepes, stuffed with strawberries and cottage cheese, rolled up and topped with a dollup of sour cream. I haven’t seen anything like these since they went out of business over 20 years ago.