Chestnut Flour Crepes

I don’t remember ever having had crepes in my gluten-eating days, but I can imagine quite well what they taste like, having had American pancakes and Arab qatayef. But these are not the usual substitute-with-a-GF-all-purpose-flour adaptation of a wheat-based food. Rather, these crepes (necci in Italian) are made with pure chestnut flour, which makes them taste, well, like chestnuts—yum! I used Dowd and Rogers chestnut flour; I also used their recipe, which I am including, with my own comments inserted, at the end of this post.

The crepes were very mildly sweet, soft, and pliable. Look at all those fun crevices! Like any crepe, these can be paired with any number of sweet or savory fillings. I tried two today, both sweet.

The first was a natural chocolate and almond butter, a harmonious pairing with chestnut.

The second was a lemon curd. This was the first time I tried lemon curd, and it is, sadly, addicting. So…lemony! And it paired quite well with the crepes. Lemon and chestnut—who knew?!

Here’s the recipe from Dowd and Rogers’s website; my comments are in brackets:

2 cups Dowd and Rogers Italian chestnut flour, sifted
1 cup milk [I used almond milk.]
1 cup water
1 egg
1 tablespoon melted butter, plus more for greasing pan
1/2 teaspoon salt

Whisk chestnut flour, milk, water, egg, melted butter, and salt in medium bowl. Let stand for 20 minutes. [The batter shouldn’t be too thick. You may have to add a tiny bit of extra water to make it slightly thinner than a typical pancake batter. Careful to not thin it out too much, or the crepes will not hold together.] Heat heavy skillet over high heat. [I found that it’s much better to cook these on medium heat, even in a heavy pan. High heat burns the butter and can burn the crepe as well.] Brush skillet with thin layer of melted butter. Pour 1/3 cup of batter in skillet and swirl batter in skillet until surface of skillet is covered. Cook crepe until its surface is dry and its bottom is golden. Flip crepe and cook other side until golden. Repeat with remaining batter.