“When you buy a crepe to take away, there is a good chance that you will buy a product made with this premix, explains Frédéric Hoffmann, showing a 2.5 kg sachet of powder on which we simply read “Crepe and waffles”. . With that, we can produce a hundred pancakes. »
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This restaurateur is at the head of an artisanal creperie, Krügen, in Paris. “It breaks my heart that such a product exists. For the purposes of our video report, he followed the instructions on the packet: “for 400 g of dry preparation, it reads, mix with water or milk”. “A restaurateur who wants to save money will use water instead because it really doesn’t cost much. »
The instructions allow up to 800 ml of liquid. “It’s double the dry matter,” says the craftsman. After whipping the mixture, the dough rests for 10 minutes. “We, our dough, we let it rest for 24 hours. This affects our storage costs in the fridge, ”adds the boss.
Frédéric Hoffmann has side by side a cul-de-poule filled with premix and another filled with homemade pancake batter. The cost of the crepe alone is 9 cents with the premix and 30 cents with real raw ingredients. “Visually, there is definitely a difference. »
With our expert, we even identified three clues to distinguish industrial dough from artisanal dough. Clue #1: color. The homemade version is darker. Clue #2: the texture. The industrial version is more fluid. And to discover clue n° 3? Pancakes need to be cooked. That of Krügen is smooth with a beautiful caramel color while that made with the premix has lots of small holes. “It’s probably due to the presence of water,” explains the professional.
In the rest of our report, we found a fourth clue to ensure that the crepe is really artisanal: the “homemade” logo. And we blind tasted three pancakes, including that of Krügen, to the Breton chef Stéphane Jégo, owner of the restaurant L’ami Jean. Press “play” to see the full report.