Crêpes, blood orange & créme fraîche

February is pancake season so I thought it would be good to practice these before the big day. This batter needs resting, that’s so the gluten can absorb the liquids properly. The double cream adds another dimension of richness to the batter please try it! It’s hard to go back to crepes any other way after this. I remember very early on in my career watching the French chefs tell me that the secret to good crepe batters was double cream, and nice butter when cooking them.

Here I’ve suggested serving them up with blood oranges because they are so special when they are in season, it's great to eat them as much as you can when they're around! You can also go classic with lemon and sugar or serve with whatever you have around.

This recipe makes 10 so I would suggested making them all and stacking them up in between pieces of parchment paper as they keep better cooked rather than storing the batter. Simply re warm in a pan with a bit of butter to eat later.

Makes: 10 crepes

135 plain flour

1 tbsp caster sugar

pinch of salt

2 eggs

330ml whole milk

110ml double cream

50g unsalted butter

4 blood oranges

60g caster sugar

Crème fraiche & icing sugar to serve

Make the crepe batter

· In a large bowl stir together the flour, sugar and salt

· In the middle crack in the two eggs and whisk gently gradually bringing in a bit of the flour from the sides

· Pour in 1/3 of the milk and use this to help you mix the flour and eggs to a smooth batter

· Add the second third and keep whisking well

· Finally add the last of the milk and the double cream and mix well

· Cover the bowl and let it sit at room temperature for approx 1 hour

· Heat a non stick frying pan on a medium heat, heat 15g of butter until melted

· Tip the melted butter into the crepe batter and mix well

· Return the pan back to the heat and add in a knob of butter

· Pour in enough crepe batter to cover the base of the pan, swirling well, keeping it nice and thin

· Cook until the top looks dry before flipping and cooking for another minute or two

· Serve with blood oranges, some of the caramel, a dollop of crème fraîche and a dusting of icing sugar

Blood oranges

· Remove the skin from the oranges with a knife and segment, keep the segments aside. Squeeze the juice out of the remaining flesh and keep aside

· Heat the sugar in a pan until it turns into a caramel

· Add in the orange slices and juice, swirl

· Simmer for a few minutes before removing from the heat

· Serve with the crepes