Is it possible to make vegan crepes?

Question

I'm vegetarian and aspiring vegan. My family loves crepes, and I have tried various egg replacements, and they just don't work - when I try to turn the crepe, it disintegrates.

Has anyone figured out how to make vegan crepes?

Clarification: I'm not talking about pancakes; it's about crepes. They need to be thin enough to roll.

Answer 1

I never use any egg substitute and I don't have any trouble... Here's my method:

Savoury:

• half and half gram/chickpea flour and buckwheat flour
• oat or soya mylk (or whatever you like)
• salt, herbs etc, to taste
• use rapeseed oil to cook

Sweet:

• half and half buckwheat flour and chestnut flour
• hazelnut or buckwheat mylk (or whatever you like)
• vanilla extract, cocoa, cinnamon, etc, to taste
• use coconut oil to cook

In both cases:

• make the batter slightly thicker than you'd use with egg. It should be pourable but quite slow to pour (experiment to get this right)
• pre-heat the oil, but use a lower heat than you would with egg
• use a non-stick pan
• be prepared to wait a bit longer than you would if using egg for it to cook

Answer 2

My fiance uses a fairly simple pancake batter and thins it with additional non-dairy milk to make a thin crepe batter. We haven't had any trouble with rolling or disintegration.

The basic ingredients we use are white wheat flour, baking soda, and whatever unsweetened non-dairy milk happens to be in the fridge.

I can't give you a recipe unfortunately since my fiance doesn't use one, but this one seems to approximate what she does.

Answer 3

Natively vegan, crepe like foods called dosa (plural dosai) have been a part of indian cuisine for a long time - some use rice flour (the original dosa. There are also vietnamese rice flour crepes), some chickpea flour (besan ka cheela. Usually made a bit thicker, but still considered a type of dosa in some localities IIRC), several other main ingredients are also turned into dosai. These recipes make a known-working basis to start from.

Answer 4

Absolutely

The best egg substitute I have found for crepes is no egg but rather time.

For crepes, I use wheat flour (white or whole wheat), salt, and a mixture of non-dairy milk and water. Mix the batter to slightly thinner than you will ultimately want, and let the batter sit for at least an hour, up to overnight in the fridge. The soaking part is extremely important as for hydrating the flour and will give the crepes better texture, flavor, and make them more coherent in the pan (important since you are leaving out eggs).

After the soak, you may need to adjust liquids by adding more water or non-dairy milk to thin to the desired consistency.

If you want to use something for the egg, you can add a tiny bit of chickpea flour (I use this for french toast), but a little goes a long way--I would suggest something like 1Tbsp per egg substituted. This can help the coherence of the batter and actually does add an eggy flavor. Chickpea flour has a tendency to clump, so I would recommend pre-mixing the chickpea flour with a small amount of water or non-dairy milk, forming a thick slurry, to get out the clumps before diluting it into the main batter.