Oat Crepes/Wraps

Oat Crepes (or Wraps as they are called in our house) are a staple in our house.  They make a yummy sweet breakfast, they replace bread for our lunches and are also great for snacks or dessert.  These wraps serve as a standard crepe in our house as well as a replacement for wheat tortilla wraps.  It took some adjustment to get used to the idea of them being like a tortilla, but now that we are used to it we like them and would take them anytime over GF bread.  Matthew loves his wraps and is rather unhappy if there are no wraps for lunch each day.  I am glad that we have found sometime to replace bread that is portable and more edible then GF bread.  We find the GF breads are just not bread and while we have found a decent recipe our preference is still to eat GF bread as toast (unless it’s just fresh out of the oven) or for french toast.  I’m not sure how we would survive without our Crepes/Wraps

Since these are made with oat flour they are not suitable for those who are gluten free.  I keep thinking I should try learn to make a GF wrap, but I’m happy with these and just haven’t gotten around to trying out new recipes (we did at one point but when we couldn’t find a suitable one we resorted back to these).  The biggest issue with the wraps is that they have to be eaten the same day they are made.  There is no making a batch ahead of time that you can just scoop from.  I make the girls wraps in the morning before school and then make fresh ones for Matthew and I at lunch.  If they are not eaten by the end of the day I throw them out as they will be tough and yukky the next day.  While you cannot fry a huge batch a long time ahead of time, you can make the batter several days ahead and leave it in the fridge.  I usually make a big batch of batter and then fry them up as needed.  This makes it relatively simple, only requiring about 5-10 minutes (depending on how many you are frying and how many pans you use at a time) to fry them up before you sit down to eat.

Oat Crepes – 18-20 crepes

• 2 cups oat flour
• 1 cup GF mix
• 1 cup tapioca flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 5 eggs
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 3 1/2 cups water

Mix above ingredients with a mixer until a thinner pourable consistency.  You will learn with time what consistency you want it.  If they are not spreading easily throughout the pan when you make them then add more water to make it thinner.

 

 

Preheat your non-stick frying pan until it’s good and hot.  With a soup ladle pour the batter into the frying pan with one hand and use your other hand to roll the pan around so the batter spreads evenly over the bottom of the frying pan (you can pick the pan up and actually turn it on it’s side each way to get the batter to move quickly from one side the next).  You want the crepe to be as thin as possible, so you need to do this quickly.  If your batter is not spreading quickly over the bottom of the pan try to add a bit more water so it is thinner.  Again, this will take time to figure out the exact amount to fill your soup ladle for the size pan that you are using.

Allow the crepe to brown until your edges begin to curl away from the side of the pan, don’t leave it too long or you will have dry/tough edges.  You should be able to freely push it around in the pan when it’s ready to flip.

  

Place your flipper under the crepe and quickly turn it over

You will see a neat honeycomb pattern on the side you just fried.  Allow the second side to fry for about one minute, it does not have to go long.

Transfer crepe to a plate.  The crepes will be stiff at this point.  Place another plate on top of the crepe to lock in the moisture

 

Add more crepes as you fry them.  Allow them to sit for a few minutes so that they soften and will be easy to roll up .  If you are doing several crepes by time you add the last one the first ones are ready to be eaten and so you can just flip the plates over and start from the bottom … or what now would be the top.

It will take some time to adjust to the idea of a softer texture wrap compared to a tortilla or pita wrap.  But we have found that these have been a life-saver as we prefer them by far over GF bread.  We will put meat and cheese with lettuce and mayo on them, sunbutter, tuna salad and lettuce, egg salad, golden cane syrup, or for dessert strawberries and whip cream … lots of different possibilities.  This is not to say that there aren’t times where we still say “oh, how I miss bread”, but having these wraps has certainly made lunches easier and more endurable.