Crêpe Maker

What are you looking for? Crepes are usually made in a smallish skillet. If you're not making them that way, then there are various types of crepe makers. What did you have in mind?

How often are you planning to make them? Crepes in a skillet are pretty easy. If you're making 20 a day or something, you might want something else, but I tend to think Alton Brown gets one thing dead right: don't buy single-purpose equipment. I also add a caveat: unless you do that single thing a whole heck of a lot. I wouldn't buy a yogurt maker ever, but I know someone who makes yogurt batches every three days without fail, no matter what, and for her, it was a godsend. So if you're going to make really huge quantities of crepes often, go right ahead. Otherwise, try a skillet. Try Julia Child's recipe and explanation, too -- as always with her, it works like a charm.

HINT: Dig out every ladle you've got. Fill each and dump into a measuring cup. One of them is just the right size, I assure you, to get the right amount of crepe batter. Knowing which will save you a great deal of utterly unnecessary trouble.

Pretty easy to do once you get the batter right. Crepe making is 25% technique and 75% batter (IMOHO).

16.6% technique, 41.7% batter, 41.7% asbestos fingers.

BDL

Haha! Well said! Your fingers are the right tool for the job.

It's not hard. As someone said, the batter takes some practice, but Julia Child's batter works beautifully in my experience.

To get them thin, the trick is to pour in the right amount -- thus the ladle is key -- and immediately swirl it around the pan by tipping your hand gently.

As a rule, the first one or two may stick a bit while you get the heat just right and get the pan seasoned to perfection, but after that it's easy. So if you want to make 12 crepes, let's say, just make enough batter for 15 and you'll be fine. I think Child also says you can freeze them or something, and tells you how, though I've never done it -- that's nice because then you can get rolling and knock out a big pile for future use. If you're fairly well-coordinated, you can pretty easily get two pans going and make enough for a small army.

As to asbestos fingers, I find that this is much more true with sweet crepes -- something about the sugar, I think. If you're wimpy about fingertips (as I generally am), allow two or three more failures. Flip the first two (getting the pan seasoned) by releasing the edges with a fork and then tossing them. After that, just toss them. You'd be surprised: once you get the hang of it, you'll get 9 out of 10 perfectly, and that's both immensely satisfying and really rather cool. If you're going to toss them, though, you need a pan with relatively low and/or wide sides, and it'd help if it didn't weigh a ton.