Enjoy Dairy Free Crêpes as your next dessert, or Sunday breakfast. The best homemade crêpes made completely without butter, milk, or eggs. They are so delicious! Serve with your favorite toppings and fillings such as jam, fruit, or dairy free ricotta.
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💡 The recipe in a nutshell
- Plant-based (eggless and dairy free)
- Easy to make
- Great breakfast, lunch, or dessert
- Vegan french food
- Versatile: Make sweet or savory, fill and top with your favorites
What is a crêpe?
Crêpes are the European cousin of the American pancakes. People mostly connect them with France. Especially the Brittany, a region in the northwest of France, is famous for its crêpes. But the consumption is widespread in France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and general Europe.
They are larger, much thinner and more delicate than pancakes. Even the batter itself is thinner too. There is no leavening agent added that would give them any lift. When it comes to taste, they'll remind you of pancakes with a more delicate texture. The best part about them is that they are very simple to make.
Variations
Crêpes can be made sweet and savory:
Sweet crêpes (crêpes sucrées) are usually made with regular white wheat flour (all-purpose flour). The batter can be slightly sweetened with a bit of sugar. Those crêpes are perfect for breakfast or as dessert and typically served with cinnamon & sugar.
Savory crêpes (rêpes salées) are traditionally made with buckwheat flour, which makes them gluten free by the way. Buckwheat has a more nutty flavor, so they are great for lunch or dinner. Savory crepes are typically served with cheese or vegetables (like mushrooms), herbs, and several types of meat and egg filling.
Filling and toppings
The beauty about crêpes is how creative you can get with the toppings and fillings. Knock yourself out and get creative! If you need some inspiration I have a list for you with ideas.
Fillings
To fill your crêpes you can either roll them up, fold them into a hexagon, square, or triangle.
- Fresh fruit and berries, such as strawberries, banana or blueberry
- Sweet ricotta (dairy free)
- (vegan) Nutella
- Cinnamon and sugar
- Applesauce with cinnamon
- Fruit jams
- Hearty ricotta (dairy free)
- Vegan cheese
- Mushrooms, spinach and (vegan) feta
- Stir fried vegetables
Toppings
Sprinkle and drizzle on top of your homemade crêpes.
- Powdered sugar
- Whipped cream (dairy free)
- Maple, agave or pancake syrup
- Other syrups, such as chocolate, or strawberry syrup
- Sliced or chopped fresh fruit and berries
- Granola
- Ice cream (dairy free)
- Sliced or chopped vegetables, such as avocado, or tomato
- Pesto
- Fresh herbs
- (Vegan) cheese sauce
How to fold
Most french people roll their crêpes and eat them with their hands. When getting a street crêpe they are often folded into triangles. Here is how you fold a crêpe into a triangle shape:
To fold into triangles place the cooked crêpe on a plate with the best side facing down. Spread filling in a thin layer all over your crêpe, or in a thick layer over half. Then fold in half. Next, fold over the top edge of the crêpe to make a wide triangle. If wished you can fold it smaller by repeating this up to two times more.
Storage
Wrap a stack of cooked, cooled crepes between layers of vegan wax, or parchment paper. Place inside an air-tight container, or Ziploc bag. Refrigerate for no longer than four days. Let the crepes stand at room temperature about an hour before filling or serving.
How to freeze
Wrap a stack of cooked, cooled crepes between layers of vegan wax, or parchment paper tightly. Place inside a freezer friendly bag and label with the date of freezing. Freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw in the fridge or remove the stack from the bag and reheat in a microwave at high for 15 seconds.
📖 Recipe
Dairy Free Crêpes Recipe
Equipment
- electric mixer (or whisk by hand), medium-sized non-stick flat shallow pan (or pancake/crêpe pan), crêpe spreader
Ingredients
Basic batter
- 130 g buckwheat flour, or unbleached all-purpose (1 cup)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 250 ml plant milk, eg: almond, soy, oat (1 cup)
- 50 ml filtered water (¼ Cup)
- 1 tablespoon oil, eg: vegetable, avocado or olive oil
- some vegan butter, or more oil for frying
To make sweet crêpes add
- 1 tablespoon cane sugar
Instructions
- In a medium-sized bowl mix all dry ingredients together. Then add wet ingredients and whisk together quickly. Crêpe batter is rather thin. Set aside and let rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.
- Heat your pan and brush lightly with vegan butter or oil. Crêpes are known for being dry and not surrounded by fat, so don't overdo it with the fat! Once hot pour a little less than a ¼ cup of batter into the center of the hot skillet. Using your crêpe spreader, spread batter in a circle motion thinly out.If you don't have a crêpe spreader: Immediately pick up the skillet pan, circle the pan, and tilt it in all directions to flatten the batter. Both of these practices may take a few tries and a bit of practice, but you'll get the hang of it faster than you'd expect!
- Cook crêpe on one side until the liquid becomes more solid. It is ready to be flipped once it's nicely bubbled and the edges are slightly golden brown (it takes around 30-45 seconds). Using a spatula loosen from crêpe pan, or if using a skillet shake and jerk it by its handle to dislodge the crêpe. You can either flip it by throwing it (which is rather hard to be successful with), or you simply use a flat spatula. Gently direct your spatula under the crêpe, raise and quickly flip. Cook on the other side for around 30-60 seconds.
- To check for doneness: Pick up the sides of the crepe around its circumference to peek at it. Once cooked to slightly golden brown on both sides pick up and transfer onto a plate. Fill, fold and top as wished.
PS: Don't forget to rate this recipe and leave a comment on your experience - this helps improve my recipes and serves you with the best instructions, tips, and substitution ideas. Plus, I love hearing about your takes on my recipes! Tag me on Instagram @thesimplesprinkle to show me your pictures.
I didn't believe that I could reach the same softness as normal crepes without adding milk or eggs! This recipe proved me the contrary. It was so soft and fluffy! I tried both salty and sweet crepes, it's the perfect recipe as the batter doesn't contain sugar. Perfect for pancakes as well !
Thanks so much for reviewing this recipe. I am super happy to read how well these Crêpes turned out for you! 🙂
These were delicious!
enjoying this crepes also on weekdays.
A great crepe recipe and dairy-free, big bonus 🙂
Sounds delicious! Will definitely give it a try!
Thanks for all the tips for making perfect crepes!
I am a big fan of crepe and I can actually eat this any time of the day!
Delicious!
I love crepes rather than normal pancakes and to find a dairy free recipe is perfect!
Thanks for sharing this incredible piece of content! I love your toppings ideas and will be saving them on my own recipe book. Thanks!!
What a great idea to make crepes dairy free!