Crepes Suzette Recipe: Julia Child's Orange Butter Crepes, Gen Z's Latest Kitchen Project

GBH, the Boston public broadcaster, posted a new Gen Z Tries Julia Child: Crepes Suzette episode on 12 November, a day after its boeuf bourguignon instalment. The series sends young cooks into Child's French Chef repertoire, and this one lands on the most theatrical dish in it: thin pancakes in orange butter, set alight at the end.

Crepes Suzette is a dish with a disputed birth certificate. According to Wikipedia's account of the dish, one story credits Henri Charpentier, a teenage waiter at the Cafe de Paris in Monte Carlo in 1895, who told it in his 1934 memoir, though Larousse Gastronomique doubts it. Another credits the actress Suzanne Reichenberg, who played a maid on stage in 1897. Auguste Escoffier's recipe in the Guide Culinaire had no flambe at all.

What follows is a metric adaptation built from the ingredient list on GBH's page, which follows Child's method: a rested batter, a creamed orange butter, a short bake to caramelise the sugar, and a flaming finish. The point is the sauce, buttery, bitter and sweet at once, soaking into crepes that stay tender.

Ingredients

Serves 6 (two crepes each). Total time about 3 hours, including a 2-hour rest for the batter.

• 3 eggs
• 180 ml whole milk
• 180 ml water
• 190 g plain flour
• A pinch of fine salt
• 70 g unsalted butter, melted, plus a little extra for the pan
• 225 g unsalted butter, softened, for the orange butter
• 4 sugar cubes
• 3 large oranges (zest of 2, and enough juice for 160 ml, strained)
• 45 ml orange liqueur, for the orange butter
• 65 g caster sugar, for sprinkling
• 120 ml orange liqueur, for the flame
• 120 ml cognac or brandy, for the flame

Method

1. Blend the eggs, milk, water, flour, salt and melted butter until smooth. Cover and rest the batter for 2 hours at room temperature.
2. Heat a 20 cm non-stick pan over medium heat and brush it with butter. Pour in about 60 ml batter, tilt to coat, and cook for about 1 minute until the edge lifts and the underside is pale gold. Flip and cook for 20 seconds. Make 12 crepes, stacking them on a plate.
3. Rub the sugar cubes over the skin of the oranges to lift the oil, then crush them in a bowl with the zest of 2 oranges. Add the softened butter and beat until fluffy.
4. Beat in the 160 ml strained orange juice a little at a time, then the 45 ml liqueur. The mixture may look slightly broken; it comes together when spread on warm crepes.
5. Heat the oven to 190 C. Spread about 1 tablespoon of orange butter on the better-coloured side of each crepe and fold it in half, then in half again.
6. Lay the folded crepes overlapping in a buttered baking dish. Dot with any remaining orange butter and sprinkle with the 65 g caster sugar.
7. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until the sugar begins to caramelise and the butter is bubbling around the edges.
8. Warm the 120 ml liqueur and the cognac in a small pan until just hot to the touch, not boiling. Pour it over the crepes at the table, light it with a long match from the edge, and spoon the flaming sauce over the crepes until the flames die down. Serve at once.

Tips, safety and variations

Flambe with care: keep the bottles away from the flame, tie back loose sleeves and hair, and have a lid nearby to smother the pan. If you would rather not set fire to the table, Pardon Your French notes that you can skip the flame and simmer the sauce briefly to cook off the alcohol.

The crepes keep well. Stack and wrap them, and they hold for a day in the fridge; the orange butter keeps for several days and is just as good on toast. Fill and bake only when you are ready to eat.

Crepes Suzette is a good Child dish to learn early: three small techniques, one dramatic finish, and a dish with at least two origin stories.