Crepes Suzette
Ingredients
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- 1 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter – melted
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter – for cooking crepes
- 2 oranges – zested into wide strips and juiced
- 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter – cold, cut into pieces
- 3 tbsp orange liqueur – such as Grand Marnier or Cointreau
Instructions
1. Whisk flour, 1 tbsp sugar, and salt in a bowl. In another bowl whisk eggs and milk until smooth. Gradually whisk the wet mixture into the dry until lump-free, then whisk in 2 tbsp melted butter. Cover and rest 30 minutes at room temperature.
2. Using a peeler, remove wide strips of zest from the oranges (avoid the white pith). Juice the oranges; you should have about 0.5 cup. Reserve zest strips and juice separately.
3. Heat an 8–9 inch nonstick skillet over medium. Lightly grease with the 1 tbsp butter for cooking crepes. Pour in about 0.25 cup batter, tilt to thinly coat, and cook until the underside is lightly golden and the top looks set, 45–60 seconds. Flip and cook 10–20 seconds more. Slide to a plate. Repeat, greasing as needed, to make about 12 crepes.
4. For the Suzette sauce, sprinkle 0.25 cup sugar evenly in a wide skillet over medium heat and cook without stirring until melted and amber, 3–5 minutes. Carefully add the orange juice and the lemon juice (it will bubble); stir to dissolve the caramel and simmer until slightly thickened, 1–2 minutes.
5. Whisk in the 6 tbsp cold butter, a few pieces at a time, until glossy. Add a handful of the orange zest strips and simmer until the sauce is syrupy, 2–3 minutes.
6. Add 2–3 crepes at a time to the skillet, turning to coat, then fold each into quarters and move to the side. Continue until all crepes are coated and folded in the sauce.
7. Warm the orange liqueur in a small pan just until hot to the touch (do not boil). Remove the skillet from the heat, pour the liqueur over the crepes, return to medium heat, and carefully ignite with a long match. Let the flames subside, 10–20 seconds.
8. Spoon the sauce over the crepes and scatter the remaining zest strips. Serve immediately.
Crepes Suzette is a quintessential French dessert of tender, lacy crepes bathed in a glossy orange-butter sauce that’s bright, bittersweet, and luxuriously rich. The sauce combines caramelized sugar, fresh citrus juice and zest, and orange liqueur for an aroma that is both floral and heady. Finished tableside with a brief flambé, it’s dramatic yet balanced, coating the delicate crepes with a silky, citrusy glaze.
The dish’s origins trace to fin-de-siècle French restaurant culture, where performance and refinement met classic technique. A popular story credits a young waiter in Monte Carlo with the flambéed creation in the 1890s, while culinary historians point to evolving orange-butter sauces already present in French cuisine. Whatever its exact birth, Crepes Suzette quickly became a symbol of haute service, enduring as a hallmark of French desserts and tableside showmanship.