Rooibos vegan French crepes and orange coconut syrup

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    Here I am, finally, with my own vegan crepe recipe! It must have been two years since I was looking for a recipe that suits me, I have tried several, found on the Web, in Facebook groups or blogs but there was never one that was okay. The crepes were either very thick, the taste or texture was odd or they would tar apart while cooking them in the pan. 

   I finally tried something I should have tried before, I took my mom's recipe I have been making since I was a teenager - it's foolproof and does not need to rest for an hour or anything - and replaced the eggs and milk with cornstarch and soy milk. I had tried with other plant-based milks and apple sauce or flax eggs but it never worked out as fine as I wanted it.

   My mom's crepes are the 2nd thing I learned to bake with the famous yogurt cake and they're delicious and light so I always tried to find vegan crepes that will taste just like them. And as I always want to add some personal touch to a basic recipe, I thought why not add some rooibos. I first wanted to make it infuse into soy milk but I finally tried something else, adding rooibos out of a bag directly into the batter, it's subtil but it works and it's good. I usually add some rum as my mom does but didn't here to be able to taste the rooibos.

   If you don't know it, it's a plant you drink like tea but it doesn't have any theine/caffeine and is rich in antioxidants. The bush only grows in South Africa, the leaves cut and watered and then dried under the sun what makes them turn red, hence the name "rooibos" for "red bush". Be careful to choose only an organic one, you may not know it but recent researched showed that non-organic tea/infusion hold a giant quantity of pesticides, so if you don't want to poison yourself anymore, only choose organic!

   To go with the crepes, I wanted something as light as tasty. The butter sugar crepe was my favorite at home or at the restaurant for years as a child or teenager - we have lots of crepe restaurants in France as you may guess - then I started to like the butter sugar lemon juice. I would sometimes go for one filled with chestnut butter but since I've been making it myself, I always find it too sweet for me now. Anyway, if a crepe is good, it doesn't need much to be enjoyed! My mom would often choose one with apple or apple sauce, whipped cream or ice cream and Calvados (apple brandy). My dad was more of a Suzette crepe fan, the one with orange butter. Both are flambed and I loved to watch this lovely and somehow spectacular food show on the table.


   As I love citrus fruit in Winter, I followed that idea of the Suzette but with my personal touch as I love to do it. I made an orange coconut syrup with orange juice and zest, vita'coco, a coconut plant-based delicious and healthy margarine from Vitaquell and some coconut syrup from Nu3. Don't worry if you don't have those ingredients, you can use coconut oil or another margarine and coconut sugar or another liquid sugar like agave, it won't taste coconut but anyway, orange syrup will still be delicious on the crepes!

   You can find all my crepe and pancake recipes here! 🥞

Rooibos vegan French crepes and orange coconut syrup


Prep time : 5 minutes
Cooking time : 30 minutes + 10 minutes
Serving : 9 crepes of about 16 cm / 6 1/4 inches


Rooibos crepes

- 125 g / 4,41 oz flour, sifted (I used little whole spelt)
- 15 g / 0,53 oz corn starch, sifted
- 25 g / 0,88 oz / 2 tbsp blond whole organic sugar
- 1 tsp organic* rooibos (*important, read above)
- 2 tbsp deodorized coconut oil, melted (or other vegetable fat)
- 300 g / 10,60 oz soy milk

• Heat a non-stick frying or pancake pan while preparing the batter. Add 1 tsp of coconut oil or other fat, once of the key for successful crepes is to add some fat into the batter but also the pan, even if non-stick.

• In a mixing bowl, stir in the flour, corn starch and sugar. Add the melted oil or fat and soy milk, whisk well but quickly to avoid having lumps.

• If you start cooking the batter in a hot pan, you won't have the famous first failed crepe, believe me.

• Don't pour too much batter into the pan so that you have a think crepe and adjust the quantity for the following ones. Then, I guess you know how to cook crepes, cook for a about 1 min and flip to cook on the other side for about 30 seconds. Then you can choose to lay the crepes flat on a plate or folded in two.

• If you want to keep them warm, preheat your oven at 50°C/122°F and store them in while preparing the syrup.

Orange coconut syrup

- juice and zest of an organic orange
- 4 tbsp coconut syrup (or coconut sugar or agave)
- 30 g / 1 oz coconut margarine such as Vita'coco from Vitaquell (or coconut oil or other plant-based margarine)

• Grate the orange skin over a saucepan with a zester blade, then juice the flesh and pour into it.

• Add the syrup (or coconut sugar or agave) and fat and cook on medium heat until it reach some very light boil and cook for about 5 minutes while stirring regularly. Then, turn off the heat and let rest for a few minutes. 

• Stir and pour into a little bowl.

To serve

• Serve the warm crepes with the syrup so that each one can use it as wanted. Do not hesitate to eat some crepes with nothing else that maybe a little margarine and sugar, or better, nothing, to be able to taste the delicate flavor of rooibos.

• If you store the syrup into the fridge, hat it a few seconds in the microwaves or a few minutes in a saucepan on low heat and stir as the fat will go back up while cooling down. 

• You can find all my crepe and pancake recipes here! 🥞

💪 Approximative nutritional information for 1 crepe : 92 kcal (14,3 g carbs ; 2,8 g proteins ; 2,4 g fat)


💪 Approximative nutritional information for about 1 tbsp of syrup : 13 kcal (1,3 g carbs ; < 0,1 g proteins ; 0,9 g fat)

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