Breakfast Crepe Boxes

While I wrote this post, I had this old school SNL song with Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg (sound) in my head for the entire time.

It’s my crepe in a box!

Okay, but seriously. I wanted to show you guys a fun and somewhat classy recipe that might be nice for a holiday brunch. Sometimes crepes are hard because they are best right out of the pan, but with this recipe you can actually make a bunch of crepes, fill them, bake them, and everyone can eat at once!

I actually made a mild mistake in my version of these Crepe Boxes. I used sliced turkey because it’s what I had in the fridge and I couldn’t be bothered to go to the store for ham just for that. Plus, I thought turkey would be good.

Turns out I was wrong. Deli turkey doesn’t bake fantastically and didn’t taste great in the crepes. Use ham or use a veggie combo. Sliced peppers would be really nice as well.

Crepe Boxes

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Author: Nick Evans

Servings: 4 Servings

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour

Crepe Boxes make a perfect breakfast treat. Cute little crepe boxes are filled with either sweet apples and cream cheese or a savory meat and egg filling!

Ingredients 

Basic Crepes:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 ½ cups milk
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (plus some for cooking)

Savory Filling:

• Ham, sliced thin
• Cheddar cheese, grated
• Eggs

Sweet Filling:

• Cream cheese
• Apple, sliced thin
• Cinnamon
• Sugar

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Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For crepes:

• Whisk together ingredients (except melted butter) in a medium bowl. It should be a very thin batter. Let sit for at least 15 minutes. Then stir in melted, but cool, butter.
• Add a small dab of butter to a large nonstick skillet and swirl around over medium heat until melted.
• Pour in about 1/3 cup of batter to the pan and immediately swirl the batter around to spread it around the pan in a thin layer. Cook for about 90 seconds on that side.
• Flip crepe carefully with a thin spatula and cook for another 15 seconds on the second side until it’s lightly browned.
• Cook all the crepes and stack them up.

To make a crepe box:

• Place a crepe on a baking sheet (it’s fairly hard to transfer after shaping it).
• Sprinkle some grated cheese in the center of a crepe and hollow out the center a bit. Lay some ham on the crepe but leave some room in the center for the egg.
• Crack an egg in the center and then carefully roll the edges of the crepe up to form sides of a box. You will have to kind of press the crepe edges down to keep them in place.
• You should be able to fit 2-3 boxes on a baking sheet. Bake the crepe box until the egg is just firm, but still a bit runny in the yolk, about 15-18 minutes. When it comes out, season with a pinch of salt and pepper and serve immediately.

For the sweet version

• Slice apples thinly. Smear the crepe with a few tablespoons of cream cheese and top with sliced apples. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and roll crepe edges up to form a box. Bake just like the savory version (15-18 minutes).

Nutrition

Serving: 1Crepe Box | Calories: 265kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 108mg | Sodium: 649mg | Potassium: 203mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 443IU | Calcium: 132mg | Iron: 2mg

Course: Breakfast & Brunch, Main Dishes

Cuisine: French

Crepe Boxes

Making Crepes

This recipe for Crepe Boxes uses my standard crepe recipe and as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke it, don’t fix it!

Just whisk together all the ingredients except the butter. Let the batter sit for at least 15 minutes and then stir in the melted butter.

To make a crepe, add a small dab of butter to a large nonstick pan and melt the butter over medium heat. Once the butter is melted add about 1/3 cup of crepe batter.

Quickly start swirling the batter around the pan so it’s in a thin layer.

Cook the crepe for about 60-90 seconds on the first side and then carefully flip it with a thin spatula. Cook it for a few seconds on the second side and you’re all set!

A Big Note On Crepes!  You will mess up at least one of these. I make crepes somewhat frequently and I still mess up the first one I do no matter what. Don’t get dejected by it. If you are feeding four, you might want to double the batter recipe so you have enough Crepe Boxes even with a mess up or two.

Making the Boxes!

As I said, the nice thing about this recipe is that you can make all the crepes and it’s okay if they cool. Here’s my stack of crepes!

I made two different versions of these crepe boxes. The first was a savory version with some grated cheese, sliced turkey (use ham if you can) and an egg.

As you can see, I made a little well with the cheese and turkey so the egg can sit right in the middle.

Next, roll up the sides of the crepe to form a box!

The crepe might want to unroll on you so feel free to really press down on the sides so the box edges stay in place. See what I did there?

I made a sweet version of these Crepe Boxes as well that I sort of failed at photographing completely. Essentially I smeared a few tablespoons of cream cheese in the middle of a crepe. Then I stacked a few sliced apples in the center (sliced thin with the skin on), then I sprinkled the whole thing with cinnamon and sugar.

Done deal.

Whether you do savory or sweet, bake these at 350 degrees F. for about 15-18 minutes. The savory version of the crepe box is actually much harder to judge because you want to pull it out when the white is set but the yolk is still a bit runny. It’s a careful balance.

These Crepe Boxes are really fun and are super delicious. As I said, Betsy and I weren’t a huge fan of the turkey for some reason. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but something about baking the turkey for that long turned it a bit rubbery.

Anyway, you can fill these with damn near anything and they aren’t as difficult as they look. Fill ’em, bake ’em, serve ’em.

Has anyone ever made anything like this before? Leave a comment!