Raw Breakfast Crepes

Happy (belated) 4th!

This, my friends:

Is why I love July 4th in Manhattan. Period.

You guys didn’t really think I’d let the whole holiday weekend go by without posting a patriotic recipe, did you? Last year’s red, white and blue creation was this:

Berries and raw “whipped cream.” Translation: yum.

This year, I present you with my patriotically colored raw breakfast crepe:

raw vegan breakfast crepes

Instant classic!!

Since I’ve been having such tremendous fun coming up with new and improved raw or semi-raw breakfast ideas for you all, I thought I would try my hand at breakfast crepes. Not quite a pancake, yet a little more than a collard leaf, these guys make fancy presentation a cinch.

I’ll admit it, I have tremendous envy for those of you (ahem, Sarah, Tasha, Ricki, Jessica, Lindsay, Ange, Diana, etc.) who are skilled bakers, or those of you (Nelly, Averie, Bitt, Heathy, etc.) who are extraordinary raw “bakers.” I just can’t seem to develop much initiative or patience in this department! My mother resents this fact, and wastes no chance to ask me why I don’t bother making vegan pancakes, muffins, crepes, or waffles for her more often. I guess my annual batch of vegan blueberry pancakes on Mother’s Day each year just isn’t cutting it. Sad face.

Well Mama, this one’s for you. The recipe may not quite be able to match the thin, buttery, Parisian street crepes you so love, but between the raw banana crepe, the homemade (raw) strawberry jam, the BSS “cream,” and the fresh berries, it’s pretty darn close–and without the hassle of crepe pans and candy thermometers! I hope you’ll be as impressed with their tastiness as I was 🙂

Gena’s Raw Breakfast Crepes (makes 2 crepes, or 1-2 servings, depending on appetites)

For the crepes:

2 large or 3 small ripe bananas
1 teaspoon ground flax seed

1) Place the banananas and flax in a food processor. Process until the mix is a very smooth liquid.

2) Line two dehydrator sheets with teflex. Pour half of the liquid onto one of them and spread it with a spatula or inverted spatula.


You want to aim for it to be relatively thin (let’s say 1/8 inch). Smooth it into a circular shape; this can be messy, since you’ll make the edges pretty later on. Repeat with the other half of the banana mix on another sheet. Dehydrate at 115 degrees for 3 hours, or until the crepes are totally smooth to the touch (careful, if you check these before they’re ready, you’ll likely mess up the surface! Think of this as drying nail polish: don’t touch it till you’re pretty sure it’s hard enough.)

3) When the crepes are truly ready, remove them from the dehydrator, and very CAREFULLY peel the crepe from the teflex sheet. Trace a perfect circle on the crepe (I used the lid of a pot to do this), and then, using a very sharp paring knife, cut a neat circle out. What’s left will resemble this:

Thin, light, and sweet!

For the strawberry “jam” (NB: this technique was one of my favorite discoveries from my homegirl Sarma’s Raw Food, Real World. She’s a genius, that one!)

1 cup sliced strawberries

1) Place strawberries on mesh lined dehydrator sheets and dehydrate for six hours or so.

When they’re ready, they ought to be shrunken and dry, but clearly still a little plump inside.


2) Transfer strawberries to a food processor fitted with the “S” blade, and process till the mix resembles a messy, textured jam.

For the cream layer:

1 batch banana soft serve

For the filling:

1/2 cup berries of choice

To assemble, lay out a single crepe and top with 1-2 tbsp of the jam.

Over that, spread 1/3 cup banana soft serve.

Finally, top this with 1/2 cup fresh berries. Fold, and serve!

Isn’t it heavenly looking?

After you cut in, you’ll have a mess on your hands. But a tasty mess:

Obviously, these crepes are pretty much the same as homemade fruit leather, so you could absolutely serve them up plain. And they’re a bit more decadent than I tend to like for breakfast, but naturally, it isn’t hard to modify them to suit any sort of breakfast craving. You could cut the sweetness by using less jam or soft serve, or eliminating one or the other. You could also fill these with pudding; I intend to make a chocomole version very, very soon.

What else? How would you like to fill up a banana breakfast crepe? Throw out some ideas, and we’ll see if we can’t come up with more perfect breakfasts.

I hope you all have a nice day off planned. If you’re in NYC, hunker down with some AC and ice. It’s a scorcher out there!

xo

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Categories: Breakfast
Dietary Preferences: Gluten Free, Raw

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    57 Comments
    • Not this recipe, lulu, I’m afraid! I have other pancake recipes that are more conventional and don’t demand the dehydrator.

      • Aww darn. Oh well, I’ll just experiment with your other recipes. Thank you for replying, Gena!

  1. yum yum and yum again I made something similar to this the other day actually. I used date paste instead of jam and it was soooooo goood. I am hungry now!!!!! thanks for posting this recipe.

  2. Anyone without a dehydrator, I often use my oven with just the oven light on if I have just a small amount of herbs, tomatoes, etc to dry instead of running my dehydrator which is a larger 10 rack Barron. If you add a small fan, plug-in or battery operated, it would work even faster. If the small oven light doesn’t warm the oven enough, try a 40w, 60w or larger light bulb to bring it up to the temperature you want.

    • A further suggestion for using your oven as a dehydrator: for drying racks, use a cake rack with parchment paper or even a cookie sheet and when the food is partially dry to hold its shape, slip the paper directly onto the oven rack to speed up drying.

      Gena, you may want to post alternatives for methods in a separate heading people can click on.

      I just ran across your blog and will definitely return often to read it!

  3. Apparently I have a problem following recipes. I always make a double batch, and then wonder why it takes forever to dehydrate! Even with my error, these were amazing! Filled them with strawberry puree and a cashew cream!

  4. Hi gena! I have missed your posts so much, and I have having such a fun time playing catch up 🙂 I hope that you are good and enjoying your summer so far I know that I am enjoying mine. These crepes look delicious, and so utterly pretty. I cant wait to try them out!

  5. Those crepes look delicious and I remember the dish you made this time last year as well 🙂 We made very similar crepes at 105 degrees too. YUMMERS.

  6. I’ve been waiting for my Ani Phyo book to arrive so I can make some crepes, but your recipe looks so easy and delicious, I might have to make it first! 🙂 YUM!!! Glad you had a nice 4th! XO

  7. what a great idea! i’ve never seen anything like this before. I thought you were going to use a cashew filling, but this is way less dense, and very banana-y. Love bananas. Hope you had a nice weekend!

  8. I have always loved a good crepe and I am sure these were just as good as the typical french version! I definitely want to try them with my oven on a super low temp! I may have to add some chocolate to mine though…

  9. These look amazing! I’ve been meaning to try the Brazil Nut Banana Pancakes in Ani’s new book, but these look simpler so I think I’ll try them first. 🙂 Seriously, amazing job with this, thanks!

  10. Gena – what a breathtaking sunset.

    I’ve been enjoying a similar recipe from Ani’s new book. She uses flax and banana or flax and apples. On the mornings that I had made a little batch of raw nutella the breakfast made getting up glorious. Enjoying crepes in the morning just makes me feel fancy all day.

  11. This is amazing-looking. My birthday is tomorrow, I’m crossing my fingers for a dehydrator (just kidding, no one’s buying me one of those). I just wanna know where the chocolate is. How about coconut butter, cacao nibs, and raspberries? Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

  12. Beautiful sunset–almost as beautiful as those crepes! I bet they would be delicious with the Creamy Cashew Dip from ED&BV. While it’s not raw, I’m sure it would taste amazing.

  13. wow!!!

    who would have thought that banana soft serve would be amazing in a crepe? thanks for the idea…i am drooling over here…yummy!

    also…the crepes i made lasted a little more than a week in the fridge.

    have a beautiful day.

  14. I dunno if I have any suggestions for that delicious-looking breakfast. Seems pretty perfect to me. Hm.. Maybe a little bit of cinnamon sprinkled on top? Or powdered sugar if you’re craving some sinful sugar…

    ~Amanda

  15. I have been craving some crepes, thanks as always for the inspiration. I would put some of the fresh cherries I just picked up in there, and a little cashew cream. The kiddos will love them I am sure… who wouldn’t? Now I need to stop drooling.

  16. Whoah whoah, that is one seriously decadent looking brekkie! Fabulous. And I’d say your own creations are definitely inspired, even if not always baked (and thanks, btw, for including me in that awesome list!). 🙂 I bet I could do this in my oven, which has a digital temperature gauge that goes to 115 (though not to 11–ha ha). I just can’t wait to have banana again!!

  17. FYI: In your post, Nelly’s link is broken. 🙁

    The crepes look amazing! Can’t wait to try them!

  18. Delicious!! I love banana fruit leather…haven’t made it in forever! Maybe I’ll have to dust off the ol’ dehydrator. 🙂 I think this would be amazing with chocomole and more bananas!

  19. These look AMAZING! I will make them this week… I do have a question though. How long will the dehydrated bananas last? I am thinking of making a few of the banana leathers so I can have crepes throughout the week.

    Also, would you store them in the pantry or fridge (the leathers)?

    • Steph, I actually don’t know, since this is the first time I’ve made them! I’d store the in the fridge, just to be super safe. And I’d guess they have a decent shelf life in there. At least a week?

      • Hi There –

        I make my banana crepes with just bananas (six of them pureed) and have stored them for three months at a time in an airtight container in the fridge. 🙂

  20. These crepes look HEAVENLY. In fact I JUST ordered a dehydrator online so hopefully I will make them soon 😀

  21. Yum, I would fill them with the cocoa coconut spread you made a while ago and some sliced banana. Deelish! I’ve used to liked the idea of nutella crepes but they’re always so sickening. These crepes and your healthy nutella would make it a much tastier treat:)

  22. It’s amazing how you got bananas to form crepes! I’d fill mine with strawberries, blueberries, papaya, almonds. And maybe some VOO, if the crepe can hold it, because I love it so much! 😀

  23. I’m the same way– so lacking in baking skills and always jealous of the amazing bakers of the blog world 🙂 Your crepes look pretty dang amazing though!

    Glad you had a happy fourth, Gena!

  24. Pfft, you give me too much credit. Any baking success I’ve had is dumb luck. But thank you anyway–I’ll take it. 🙂

    Alas, my lack of dehydrator means I won’t be trying this recipe any time soon, but maybe I could approximate the taste with TJ’s flattened bananas, which are dried as well. I could just make itty bitty Gena rolls. Good work!

  25. These look INCREDIBLE! Every time I visit your site I kick myself for not having a dehydrator. My mother loves crepes as well, so these are right up her alley! I left NYC yesterday, and I’m glad I did- it’s unimaginably hot in the suburbs, so I can’t imagine the city! Stay cool 🙂

    • Gabriela,

      If it makes you feel better, this is one of a very, very few recipes that demands a dehydrator. Most dehydrator recipes can use an oven at low temp just as efficiently! And I only use my dehydrator about once every 2-3 weeks 🙂

      G

  26. Yum! If I’m Canadian, does that mean I leave out the blueberries? Patriotism should be shared, non?

    I’d fill up a banana crepe with avocado, broccoli sprouts, and capers. But then again, I’m weird. I WIN I WIN I WIN!

  27. Nice job Gena! I have seen banana crepes in the past and have never made them but really want to! I have seen them filled with cashew cream and berries and choc sauce. I have dried bananas like you dried your s’berries but never pureed the banana, then dried it. I can imagine your house smelled divine! NOTHING better than the smell of dehyd’ing bananas and I dont even love bananas that much..ha! They look beautiful and love your idea of softserve in them. I have been making my own “jelly” by blending berries with a little sugar or agave for 10 secs in the Vita. Faster than dehyd’ing but of course, the dried fruit method would rock and the texture I bet is great.

    Happy Monday, Gena!
    🙂

  28. Well hello! Yuuum! I have been thinking of getting a dehydrator for quite some time now. This recipe made me decide to do it sooner rather than later.

  29. “The crepe idea may belong to the French, but the colors are all American. And the taste? Well, I think deliciousness is universal.”

    Hi Gena! Just wanted to say I loved your post and that crepe looks great, but this made me laugh. Out loud. I read that and tried to think what color the French flag was…I would have sworn red, white and blue…So I googled it. Yup. Great sentiment though. Have a great day!

  30. Almond butter and local raw honey (or chocolate syrup made with maple syrup and cocoa) would also be delicious!

  31. Those are gorgeous! I’m assuming the texture is much like a fruit leather? (which means my girls would LOVE) I think a savory version (maybe with zucchini in place of bananas and with the addition of a few spices) would be divine filled with a pate or hummus. After this post (as well as dozens others), the envy is all mine.

  32. Wow, these look delicious! Is there such a recipe as raw vegan nutella?? That’s what I’d fill mine with!

  33. These look great Gena! I remember you posting about the raw whipped cream dessert like it was yesterday (time flyssss)

    I would fill my banana crepe with yogurt, fruit, and something crunchy like granola of buckwheat crispies

  34. This looks pretty freaking amazing! I love how your raw crepe looks just like the real thing.

    While you are in NYC hunkering down with the AC I am in Los Angeles freezing my toes off. In July! Go figure?