The sweet wheat-flour crêpe folded over salted-butter caramel is Brittany's dessert default, thin and lacy under a caramel darkened almost to bitterness and cut with fleur de sel.

Salted butter is the Breton constant, the result of a medieval salt-tax exemption that left the region salting its butter long after the rest of France stopped. Caramel au beurre salé as a confection is far younger, developed in Quiberon in the 1970s and spread across Brittany within a generation, and it took over the sweet crêpe almost completely. The wheat-flour crêpe itself is the sweet counterpart to the buckwheat galette, and in a Rennes crêperie the two arrive in that order: galette first, crêpe second, cider throughout. A good caramel is cooked to the edge of catching, then loosened with cream and beaten with salted butter until it pours thickly rather than runs.

Where to eat Crêpe au caramel au beurre salé in Rennes

4 editor picks for Crêpe au caramel au beurre salé in Rennes, ranked by editorial score. All Rennes signature dishes · Crêpe au caramel au beurre salé across every city.

  • Bretone

    Order The grilled Guémené andouille galette with caramelised onions

    Bretone serves buckwheat galettes in the mosaic-tiled former home of the Odorico family in Rennes, a Fooding-listed crêperie with a pastel rooftop patio.

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  • Œuf, la Crêperie

    Order The Galette Super Complète in organic 100 percent buckwheat

    Œuf runs a light-wood crêperie on Rue de Saint-Malo in Rennes, organic all-buckwheat galettes through the week and a Breton brunch on Sunday mornings.

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  • La Gavotte

    Order The Guémené andouille galette with apples, camembert and mustard ice cream

    La Gavotte holds the crêperie corner of Rue Saint-Georges in Rennes, open seven days with an andouille, apple and camembert galette as its calling card.

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  • La Crêperie du Thabor

    Order A sweet crêpe built from the house candy bar, this room's party trick

    La Crêperie du Thabor sits by the park gates on Rue Saint-Melaine in Rennes, galettes and sweet crêpes with a candy bar that keeps student budgets happy.

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Make it at home

Serves 41 hr 30 minIntermediate

Ingredients

  • 250g plain flour
  • 3 eggs
  • 500ml whole milk
  • 50g melted salted butter
  • 30g caster sugar
  • For the caramel: 200g caster sugar, 60ml water
  • 150ml double cream, warmed
  • 80g salted butter, cold and cubed
  • A large pinch of fleur de sel

Method

  1. Whisk the flour, sugar and eggs, then beat in the milk in stages until smooth. Stir in the melted butter and rest the batter one hour.
  2. For the caramel, heat the sugar and water in a heavy pan without stirring until it turns a deep amber, just short of catching.
  3. Off the heat, pour in the warm cream carefully; it will seize and spit. Return to a low heat and stir until smooth.
  4. Beat in the cold butter cube by cube, then the fleur de sel. Pour into a jar and cool; it thickens as it sets.
  5. Cook the crêpes in a buttered pan, about a minute a side, until freckled brown.
  6. Spread each hot crêpe with the caramel, fold into quarters and serve with a spoonful more caramel on top.

Editor tip. Warm the cream before it hits the caramel. Cold cream drops the temperature so fast that the sugar sets into a lump you cannot rescue.

Common allergens: Gluten, Eggs, Dairy.