Sweet Breakfast Crepes

April 6, 2025 - By KJ Kendell

These Sweet Breakfast Crepes are quick and easy to make on even your busiest morning. Their light and elastic texture are perfect for wrapping your favorite fruits, berries, butters, and jams. Perfect for a delightful morning wrap on your way out the door, or a delicate sit-down meal. Oh, and did I mention they are easy?!

Growing up in rural Idaho, crepes were certainly not a meal that ever made it onto our breakfast table. In fact, I am quite certain the first time I ever heard the word “crepe” was from one of my older sister’s friends telling my sister about her recent study abroad experience in France. I was in my mid-teens, and I remember asking my sister’s friend what it was she was talking about.

“Kind of like a pancake, but not a pancake. Like a rolled up pancake. And so much better than a pancake. You fill it with fruit, berries, cream, or mushrooms, but not fruit and mushrooms together. You eat them either sweet with fruit, or savory with mushrooms and seasoning…. They taste amazing.”

To someone who had never heard of crepes, who had never seen a crepe, that description was a little hard to mentally materialize.

A pancake, but not. And stuffed with … things. A pancake burrito?

Now, years later, I understand what my sister’s friend was trying to describe.

A pancake, but not. Eaten sweet with fruit, berries, and a touch of cream. Or consumed with savory ham bits, mushrooms, maybe some sautéed onions and spinach.

And they really are amazing. That much is for sure.

Easy Breakfast

Crepes are now a breakfast favorite at our home.

And despite their reputation for being difficult to make – well, like most things new to our country, crepes get accused for more than their share.

These crepes are easy – EASY!!! – to make. And are totally doable on a busy weekday morning.

Much like their American sister, these French pancakes start out with a simple blend of flour, eggs, and milk.

But unlike the American big, white, and fluffy look, these French-inspired crepes should be thin, sleek, and floppy in their texture.

Only Five Ingredients

This recipe for Sweet Breakfast Crepes uses only five staple ingredients that are all easy to grab and mix on the busiest of mornings.

Flour – Like all recipes on this site, you can use any type of flour you choose. For this recipe personally, I like to use a simple unbleached flour (at least for these sweet crepes). Unbleached flour helps give these crepes that light texture that pairs so perfectly with creams or refreshing fruits and berries.

Eggs – Give these crepes that flexible, floppy texture they are so well known for. It is thanks to that almost-rubbery texture of crepes, which comes from eggs, that allows them fold and roll up so they can be eaten on the go (“like a burrito, but not”).

Milk – Adds an additional sweetness and dare I say creamy texture to the batter (though creamy without being thick … is it possible to be both skim textured and creamy at the same time??). Water will certainly work in a pinch, but I find the additional flavor of regular milk (2% or whole) adds to the end result. Try to stay with regular milk, though, and avoid thicker milk-based products like buttermilk or kefir. The goal in making crepes is to keep the batter thin to result in a thin crepe (or thin pancake). This recipe doesn’t contain other leavening agents like baking powder or baking soda, for buttermilk or kefir to react with, but both are thick substances, resulting in a thicker batter.

This recipe calls for just 2 cups of milk (or a 1:1 ratio of milk and flour). If you find your batter is still not thin enough, simply add more milk (roughly ¼ to ½ cup) until the batter is to your liking.

Sugar – Gives these crepes that delicious sweet flavor that makes you dream of walking down Parisian streets in the morning sun. If you prefer going without the added sugar, try adding an extra splash of vanilla (just make sure it’s pure vanilla and not imitation) for some added sweet flavor without the extra sugar.

Vanilla – A splash of vanilla adds to the sweet nature of these ultra-thin pancakes.

Mixing a Thin Batter

When it comes to making crepes, thinner is better. I love a stack of thick fluffy pancakes too, but thick and fluffy are not what we want. Thick doesn’t roll and fluffy doesn’t fold. And we want these crepes to do both, so make sure your batter is thin, resulting in a thinner crepe.

I love using these flat bottomed Pampered Chef whisks for making my crepes. I generally try to limit my kitchen utensils and appliances, but these whisks come in so handy for so many cooking and baking tasks, I often wish I had a second or even third one my kitchen. They are so nice!

Batter: Getting a thin crepe starts with a thin batter. You don’t want this batter to drip off your spoon – you want it to run. It should be a fluid texture. Thicker than milk (obviously, since we’ve added flour to our milk) but thinner than say your average cake batter.

Crepes: I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, we want these crepes to be thin. The thinner the crepe, the better. You want your crepe to be thin enough that when it’s time to flip it over to cook the other side, it’s almost floppy.

If you find once you’ve cooked a crepe or two on your skillet, and they are thicker that you like – perhaps they are not as elastic as you like or are not folding properly, maybe even splitting when you fold them – don’t be afraid to thin your batter with a little more milk.

Remember: the thinner the batter, the thinner the crepe.

Making Your Crepe

If you are new to crepes or are not sure how to “make” a crepe, don’t sweat! There’s really no way to go wrong.

Simply fill with your favorite, well, anything.

Roll (yes, like a burrito).

And eat.

Toppings

Where to begin? Ummm … anything that sounds yummy? Yep, that pretty much sums up what you put on your crepe. Anything that sounds good!

Fresh or Frozen Fruit (think mangos, bananas, peaches, cherries, etc.)

Fresh or Frozen Berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, huckleberries)

Yogurt

Cream Cheese

Whipping Cream

Peanut Butter

Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

Chopped nuts

Jam or preserve

Applesauce or Apple Butter

At our house, we eat them with something a little different almost each time we eat them.

On busy mornings, I might only put nut butters on the table with some bananas, or maybe just cream cheese and strawberries.

If it’s a Sunday brunch, we might fill the table full of refreshing berry, fruit and cream options for the family to mix and match, and overeat as they will.

There really are so many topping pairings to choose from, you can’t go wrong. And if you do choose a combination you don’t like too well, then I guess you’ll just have to make a fresh batch and try something different.

Mango and Blueberry, anyone?

Our family’s personal favorite topping combination has got to be Chocolate Hazelnut spread with cream cheese and frozen blueberries. Delicious chocolate paired with creamy refreshing cream cheese, and bursting with the zing of frozen blueberries. Yum. Yum. Yum.