La Chandeleur: french crêpes’ history and recipe

La Chandeleur (Candlemas) is celebrated on the 2nd of February.

In Ancient Roma, farmers walked through the lands carrying torches to purify the soil before sowing. The tradition was to make crêpes with the previous year’s flour as a symbol of propsperity. Their shape and colour was associated with the Sun coming back after the winter night. In the 5th century, the Pope decided to replace this pagan tradition with a Catholic one. Since then, la Chandeleur is associated with the presentation of Jesus to the temple 40 days after his birth.

The crêpes tradition stayed unchanged. Nowadays, la Chandeleur represents for many an excuse to eat crêpes, so here is our recipe to realise delicious crêpes !

– 5 fresh eggs
– 300 grams of flour
– 1 liter of milk

For an authentic touch, you can add ½ liter of beer. It makes the crepes lighter, thinner and less dry!

In a salad bowl:

– Make a base with half the flour
– Add the eggs one by one.
– Wisk in a little milk then flour and milk again and so on. For those who want to try the with beer, add it at this stage. Let stand 1 hour, and voila! your dough is ready.