This post contains affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy.
If you’re looking for a fancy breakfast recipe that’s fairly easy to create with simple ingredients, then these sourdough crepes are your answer! Made with 200 grams of sourdough starter or sourdough discard, these simple yet elevated sourdough crepes are going to have you mesmerized!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe!
Elevate Your Weekend Breakfast – There’s just something a little bit fancy about a golden brown crepe with those delicate, crispy edges! Not to mention one made from sourdough starter! So grab your skillet and let’s get swirling!
Sweet or Savory – Sourdough crepes are so versatile. They can be served as a sweet or savory dish, making them perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner and everything in between!
Use 200 grams of Discard – Empty your sourdough discard jar and use up a whopping 200 grams of sourdough discard in one go.
Ingredients
- Sourdough Discard – or sourdough starter discard. Like most sourdough discard recipes, you can choose whether to use sourdough discard or active sourdough starter. These sourdough crepes don’t actually need any leavening so whether the sourdough starter you add is fed or unfed doesn’t really make too much difference.
- Butter – You’ll need melted butter. As always, I’ve used salted butter, but you can use unsalted butter if you prefer.
- Eggs
- Whole Milk
- Salt
- All-purpose Flour
- Sugar
How To Make Sourdough Discard Crepes
The easiest way to make this sourdough crepe batter is in a blender (or with a stick blender). You can also use a whisk to mix by hand if you prefer. Unlike sourdough discard pancakes, you’re looking for a smooth batter with no lumps.
I recommend making the sourdough crepe batter the night before you want to cook the crepes. Allowing it to ferment overnight in the fridge makes it so much easier to work with (and really enhances the flavor too).
Add all of the ingredients to your blender (or bowl) and blend until the batter is smooth. Transfer to a clean bowl, cover and place into the fridge for at least an hour (but better overnight).
When you’re ready to cook your sourdough crepes, heat a non-stick pan or skillet (or crepe pan if you have one – I’m just using a 24cm or 9.5″ skillet). Make sure your skillet is hot enough to cook the crepes quickly. I find a medium heat is best, try not to let the pan smoke. You want gorgeous crispy edges and a lacy centre, not scrambled eggs! Allow your skillet to heat up while you gather all the equipment.
Add a little butter to the hot pan (this is important). Pour around a 1/4 cup of sourdough crepe batter into the centre of the pan and then swirl it around so it reaches out to the edges. Add a little extra batter to cover the holes if you need to, but if you place too much batter in the bottom of the pan at once your crepes will be too thick and more like pancakes.
Kate’s Pro Tip
Don’t Skip The Butter
It’s super important to add a small amount of butter in the pan before you cook each crepe. The butter helps the batter bubble and become lacy and brown. It also ensure you get those crispy edges. Olive oil does work too, but not as well as butter.
Allow the crepe to bubble and brown for around a minute. Once you can see that there’s no liquid left, then carefully flip the crepe over using a large egg flip or silicone spatula. Allow the crepe to cook for around 30 seconds on the flip side and then remove from the pan. Repeat this process with the remaining batter until it’s all used up.
Kate’s Pro Tip
The First Crepe
The first crepe (just like the first pancake) is often a bit weird. It’s generally the sacrificial crepe that you use to know what you need to adjust in order to cook the remaining crepes successfully.
You can stack the crepes on top of one another while you’re cooking them. They won’t stick together as long as they are cooked through. I’ve seen people layer parchment paper between each crepe but I feel like this is unnecessary.
Recipe Testing Notes
When I first set about creating a sourdough crepe recipe, I thought oh it will so simple, they’re just like really thin pancakes. I was so wrong! It took me quite a few tries to get the texture of the batter right. I thought I was so cool with my fancy crepe skillet but when I went to use it, it was much harder than I thought!
After so many failed attempts at cooking huge sourdough crepes, I ended up trying my 24 cm or 9.5″ non-stick skillet and my crepes came out perfectly!
I didn’t think a 24cm or 9.5″ skillet would be big enough, but turns out it was the perfect size to roll and fold! In light of this, I thought I’d put together these tips so that you can have success first time and learn from all my mistakes! Using a huge skillet can make it really difficult to flip your sourdough crepes (especially if you are a beginner). I found that a 24cm or 9.5″ skillet is big enough – you can still roll and fold the crepes at this size.
I also want to mention that I don’t recommend using a cast iron skillet. They can be heavy and awkward to handle when hot, making it tricky to swirl the crepe batter successfully.
After testing this recipe numerous times, with varying degrees of unfed sourdough starter I found that using discard that wasn’t too old gave the best result. Sourdough discard that is old, thin and acidic doesn’t allow the batter to form properly, particularly if you are allowing it to sit overnight. Active sourdough starter or sourdough discard that is less than 48 hours old gave the best results (just like when making these sourdough discard tortillas). You can read about the differences between sourdough starter and sourdough discard.
How To Serve Crepes (Sweet + Savory Ideas)
There are so many ways to serve these delicious crepes! I love sweet, but there are also so many options for savory crepes too! Here are some ideas to inspire you to try something a little different next time you make this recipe!
Sweet Sourdough Crepe Toppings
- Strawberries (or any fresh berries) and whipped cream.
- Homemade hazelnut spread and raspberries (I love adding pecans to this flavor combo).
- Go one step further and spread each crepe with homemade Nutella before stacking on top of one another. Top the stack with good quality vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce or maple syrup.
- Fresh peaches, whipped cream and crushed pistachio nuts.
- Sliced bananas and peanut butter.
- A squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a sprinkle of fine sugar (one of my absolute favorites).
- Spread with your favorite jam or jelly (I recommend this small batch strawberry jam).
- Spread with cream cheese, smoked salmon and capers.
- Layer on sliced leg ham, your favorite cheese and a little mustard. Roll up and brush with garlic butter. Like sourdough crepe sliders!
- Layer on sliced turkey, spinach, cranberry sauce and chunks of Brie cheese.
Savory Sourdough Crepe Toppings
- Spread with cream cheese, smoked salmon and capers.
- Spread with a little whipped honey jalapeño butter.
- Layer on sliced leg ham, your favorite cheese and a little mustard. Roll up and brush with garlic butter. Like sourdough crepe sliders!
- Layer on sliced turkey, cranberry sauce and chunks of Brie cheese.
- Serve with this whipped Brie butter for the ultimate savory indulgence.
- Spread with cream cheese, smoked salmon and capers.
- Layer on sliced leg ham, your favorite cheese and a little mustard. Roll up and brush with garlic butter. Like sourdough crepe sliders!
- Layer on sliced turkey, spinach, cranberry sauce and chunks of Brie cheese.
How To Store and Freeze
These sourdough discard crepes are always best eaten fresh, straight out of the skillet! Honestly, those crispy edges are just divine and never really last once these have been stored or reheated.
If you are making a stack of crepes for a breakfast event, they are fine to sit for a few hours, all stacked up to stay warm but I don’t recommend freezing at all.
Making the batter a day ahead is a great way to be organised when you’re wanting to make these more easily.
Other Sourdough Breakfast Ideas
Sourdough Discard Crepes
Equipment
- Non Stick Skillet (24 cm or 9.5-inches)
Ingredients
- 200 g Sourdough Starter, (or sourdough starter discard)
- 40 g Butter, (melted – I've used salted butter)
- 3 Eggs
- 200 g Whole Milk
- 5 g Salt
- 60 g All Purpose Flour
- 30 g Sugar
Instructions
- The easiest way to make this sourdough crepe batter is in a blender (or with a stick blender). You can also use a whisk to mix by hand if you prefer.I recommend making the sourdough crepe batter the night before you want to cook the crepes. Allowing it to ferment overnight in the fridge makes it so much easier to work with.
- Add all of the ingredients to your blender (or bowl) and blend until the batter is smooth. Transfer to a clean bowl, cover and place into the fridge for at least an hour (but better overnight).
- When you're ready to cook your sourdough crepes, heat a non stick skillet or frying pan (or crepe pan if you have one – see notes).
- Add a little butter to the hot pan (this is important – see notes). Pour around a 1/4 cup of sourdough crepe batter into the centre of the pan and then swirl it around so it reaches out to the edges. Add a little extra batter to cover the holes if you need to.Allow the crepe to bubble and brown for around a minute. Once you can see that there's no liquid left, then carefully flip the crepe over using a large egg flip or silicone spatula.Allow the crepe to cook for around 30 seconds on the flip side and then remove from the pan. Repeat this process with the remaining batter until it's all used up.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Rate and comment below!
That picture (raspberries, cream, nutella, nuts) speaks a thousand words! I’m going to make this tonight, can’t wait 🙂
Greetings, I have made many crepes before for my hungry loving boys. These are the best yet. I was able to flip well without tearing. I was able to roll them up or fold them. This recipe will be on repeat. I am new to sourdough and I love it!!
These are so good! My picky son loves them.
Yum! This is the first time I’m playing with sourdough starter and sourdough discard, so I really appreciate your sharing this encouraging recipe.
Just made those. Prepared the batter yesterday and refrigerated for 24 hours. They’re absolutely delicious. Perfect balance between sweet and savory so tonight we ate them with thin sliced ham and gruyere, with a nice arugula salad on the side. This recipe is going in my rotation for sure!
Loved this recipe. This is the second crepe recipe I’ve tried. This one is 5 star. It will be on repeat in my house. I only waited 1 hour before making. Blueberry and whipped cream. Very light and brown.