Crêpes Suzette recipe: the classic French flambé

Crêpes Suzette is a thin pancake folded into a glossy orange butter sauce and set alight with Grand Marnier at the table, the trick that turned a Monte Carlo dessert into French bistro theatre.

Auguste Escoffier published the first written recipe in 1903, using mandarin butter and curaçao rather than the flambé most kitchens use today; Paris restaurants such as Paillard were reportedly serving something similar even earlier. Either way, the base stays the same: a thin crêpe, an orange caramel, and a liqueur lit at the last second. Chez Rose, the Mayfair bistro chef Spencer Metzger opened this year, keeps it on the menu at £13 as one of the few dishes diners are told not to skip.

Ingredients

A dessert Escoffier wrote without fire, and a century of bistros that couldn't resist adding it.

• 125 g plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 250 ml whole milk
• 30 g unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for the pan
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• Zest of 1 orange, plus zest of 2 oranges for the sauce
• 80 g unsalted butter, for the sauce
• 80 g caster sugar, for the sauce
• 200 ml fresh orange juice (about 4 oranges)
• 60 ml Grand Marnier
• 30 ml cognac, for flambéing

Method

1. Whisk the flour, eggs, milk, melted butter, sugar and orange zest into a smooth, thin batter. Rest it for 30 minutes so the flour hydrates fully and the crêpes cook without tearing.
2. Melt a little butter in a wide pan over medium heat and cook the crêpes thin, about 1 minute a side. Stack them as they finish; a thin crêpe absorbs the sauce instead of fighting it.
3. For the sauce, melt the 80 g butter and sugar together in a wide pan until they turn a light amber caramel, watching closely since sugar burns fast once it starts to colour.
4. Add the orange zest and juice off the heat, then return to a simmer and reduce for 3-4 minutes until the sauce coats a spoon.
5. Fold each crêpe into quarters and warm them through in the sauce, basting so both sides pick up colour and gloss.
6. Pour the Grand Marnier and cognac into a small ladle, warm briefly, then light it and pour flaming over the pan. Let the flame burn out on its own; it cooks off the raw alcohol and concentrates the orange flavour.

Serve it the way Escoffier didn't

Escoffier's original had no fire in it at all; the flambé is a Paris dining-room invention that turned a good dessert into a performance. Do it away from the table if flambéing makes you nervous — the sauce tastes the same, minus the applause.

A scoop of crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream on the side cuts the sweetness better than cream does, and a chilled glass of the same Grand Marnier alongside repeats the orange note instead of just the alcohol.

Can I make crêpes Suzette without flambéing? Yes — reduce the sauce a little longer instead so the alcohol cooks off, then serve without lighting it; the crêpes Suzette recipe works fine without the fire, just quieter.