An overview of all the different ways you can fold crepes, whether sweet or savory, garnished or not. Classic and more original.
You know how much we, French, have a love affair with crêpes. As there are many different recipes and different ways to eat them with all kinds of garnish or toppings, there are dozens of more or less original ways to fold your crepes, enough to be able to vary the pleasures and make pretty presentations. They can be folded to highlight a specific recipe, to highlight a star ingredient, for convenience in tasting them, or for fun, or quite simply to just change your usual habits…
I will not be able to give you an endless list of all the existing techniques for folding pancakes, or establish a top 5 or 10 of the best folds. Instead I will give you small tutorials to show you examples, tips and easy-to-follow instructions for the main folds you can use on your sweet crepes or galettes, just garnished or generously filled. From there, it’s up to you to give free rein to your imagination and creativity.
I made you a small video tutorial which will certainly be much more explicit than my instruction a few lines below, and which will help give context to the photos that I put for each fold. The video is available on my YouTube channel.
Depending on your filling or your desired result, you can add the filling before folding your crepe, or arrange your toppings afterwards.
The triangle family
Half moon folding
This one couldn’t be simpler, you simply fold the crepe in half, and with that you will obtain a half-moon shape.
Folded triangle
Start off with a half-moon folding then fold it in half again to obtain a rounded quarter shape. Either fill in a perfect quarter shape or slightly offset the bottom “quarter” for it to be slightly larger than the top “quarter”. It looks quite pretty on the plate and allows you to add more garnishes.
Triangle
As shown in the photo, form a triangle by folding down three corners of the crepe to form a triangle. Try to have three sides of the same length to form a perfect isosceles triangle, it will remind you of your geometry lessons!
Hexagon
From the triangle folding, fold each corner of your triangle inwards, towards the center, this will give you a hexagon. You can serve it as is or turn it over, flipping it over hides the fold and only leaves a nice hexagon shape.
The square family
Envelope
Fold two opposite sides of your crepe, do not fold them completely parallel, make sure it is in a slight v shape the base in front of you should be narrower than the top. Fold the bottom half, you will get an open envelope where you can put your garnishes inside. The image may help to understand the instructions.
Square or rectangle
To make a square the folding is similar to the triangle, except that we do this for all four sides. Folding all for sides inwards to create a square.
A square can be adapted into a rectangle if you have long plates suitable for it or if you want to put a garnish on the side. I didn’t take any photos but two options, either you cook your pancake in an oval shape rather than a round one, or you fold in one set of opposite sides more towards the center than the second pair of opposite sides, this creates two different lengths and forms a rectangle.
The rolls family
Cone
Fold your crepe into a half-moon shape then roll it up from on edge to the other, and with that you get a pretty cone. It makes for a very nice presentation.
Double cone
Similarly as the cone folding, you fold in a half moon shape, except here instead of rolling from one side, start from both ends and roll towards the center to form two cone shapes.
Cigarette
Lay the crepe flat and simply roll up your crepe starting from one side to the other, rolling the crepe entirely on itself. That’s all! You can garnish your crepe before rolling it up.
Nem
For this fold as it stated in the name we proceed in the same way as folding Asian spring rolls. Place the crepe in front of you. Slightly fold the left and right side inwards in parallel lines, then roll the crepe from the front to the back (or vice versa). It’s the same process as for the cigarette but the edges of the roll are stuck inside and your crepe will be well filled without the risk of the filling falling out.
Lollipops
Roll your crepe using the instruction for the cigarette fold, once you have done that you slice your crepe from one end to the other. To keep the twisted shape together you can use a toothpick to hold it in place. Now you have some nice lollipops.
You can invite the children to dip their crepe lollipops in melted chocolate then add the topping of their choice (grated coconut, sparkling sugar, etc.). A great idea for birthday parties, they love it.
The family of original foldings
Boat
You start by falling your crepe using the instruction for triangle fold, from there you turn your crepe over with the base of the triangle facing towards you. Lastly, fold the base inwards and you will obtain the shape of a sailing boat.
Shirt collar
Fold your crepe in half, make sure the rounded edge is towards you. Then fold both edges of the crepes downwards towards you, join both edges together and you should have tear drop shape in the center, you now have a collar, use the photo for more indication on how the final result should look like.
Aumônières or alms purse
A great classic fold of traditional crepes, place your filling in the center, then fold it into a small purse and close either with a large pick that you push into the crepe with a zig zag motion to take in all the folds, or with a small tie knot the whole thing together (having someone to help you tie it is best, alone it can be a bit of a hassle)
Your turn…!
There are of course many other ways of folding crepes, this list is of course not complete but I have shown you the most common ones to help you fold your crepes nicely.
To make all these pretty presentations, I have three crepe batter recipes you can follow. The classic recipe, and two variations, one with vegetable milk (in this case hazelnut milk which gives a good taste and allows you to avoid adding butter) and another with chestnut flour, gluten-free and with such a unique taste. All this is in a complete article on crepes.
You want to try one of these folding techniques, choose your best crepe recipe to practice!
