Ham & Cheese 5 Minute Egg Crêpe

An easy keto breakfast for when you want to treat yourself on short time: These delicious egg crêpes can be whipped in just 5 minutes with some ham, cheese, eggs and cream. A simple recipe, full on flavor!

I love crêpes, and specially for a keto breakfast! But crêpes are not something that you can just quickly cook. Omelets are great too, but I don’t care for plain ones. I like them thick and filled up like a burrito, loaded with literally everything I have in the fridge, and then topped with some more. Which makes it too time consuming for me.

These keto breakfast egg crêpes are a combination of an omelet and a crêpe – the egg part is super thin and it does not “fluff” like an omelet does, instead it behaves not unlike a thin, savory crêpe that is absolutely scrumptious with the ham and melted cheese filling.

The ingredients

You only need a few, easy to come by ingredients, and 5 minutes of your time:

• Eggs – only two eggs per crêpe! More would make it too thick and hard to flip. Resist the temptation!

• A dash of whipping cream – Adding whipping cream to the eggs completely changes their texture, and the final result does resemble a Parisian savory crêpe.

• Shredded Grana Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano – When you sprinkle the finely shredded Grana Padano or Parmigiano cheese, it forms a lattice as it melts that increases the structural integrity of the keto egg crêpe, so you can fold it easily, or roll it up, and even hold it in your hand to eat for a keto breakfast on the go. Read on for more on these wonderful Italian hard cheeses and find out why they are perfect in this recipe!

• Slices of a easy melt cheese – pick your favorite easy melting cheese: Emmental, Edam, Gouda and Mozzarella are some of the best!

• Slices of ham – Ham is the best, but of course you can use mortadella and also turkey breast. All thinly sliced.

• Butter – only to cook the crêpe in, yes, but choose grass-fed butter as it will nonetheless impart its wonderful flavor!

• Salt and black and white peppers – we keep it simple in the spices here, but no one is stopping you from adding some hot sauce for a morning pick me up 🙂

Choosing the right cheese

Parmigiano Reggiano vs Grana Padano

These cheeses are similar enough in texture to be used interchangeably in recipes. Parmigiano Reggiano has a stronger, saltier taste because it’s aged for longer than Grana Padano, which is slightly sweeter and lighter.

Parmigiano is also more expensive than Grana Padano, which is funny because Grana literally means cash in Portuguese. But sadly it isn’t cheap either. At all. But we don’t need a lot for our keto egg crêpes to turn out wonderful!

How to tell fake and real Parmesan apart

Although they should be the same cheese, as the name Parmesan is the English translation of Parmigiano, in America the translation doesn’t inherit the protected trademark of the original name.

Parmigiano Reggiano is the authentic Italian cheese, and Parmesan (in America) is a generic name for any hard cow cheese. Most of the times, the so called 100% grated or natural Parmesan is made from a variety of cheaper scrap cheeses and wood pulp. Yup… appetizing.

The real Parmesan, Parmigiano Reggiano, should only contain three ingredients: milk, salt and rennet. If after reading the ingredient list you are still in doubt, try this test: does the company that sell this grated Parmesan offer you the opportunity to buy the same cheese as a block to grate it yourself? No? I wonder why… 🤔

If the Parmesan cheese you get comes in a cardboard tube and has wording like “100% real” or “natural” then it’s probably not. I’m not saying the labels are misleading: The cheese IS real, as in not abstract, and it IS natural, as in not supernatural.

But don’t just throw away your fake Parmesan: It’s great in keto and low-carb baking, and I use it as an ingredient for my keto crackers and keto bread recipes when I want a flour like substance that tastes like cheese – but that’s what fake Parmesan is, basically. An expensive (for its weight) cheesy tasting keto flour.

Why not use American Parmesan

The so called authentic Parmesan is too hard and granular, and it doesn’t melt. Finely shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano (the real deal) has the perfect texture to form a thin web over the whipped eggs and cream that holds the keto egg crêpe together without making it too heavy or too flimsy.

Not only that, but the taste of fake Parmesan is too strong and salty and adding it would prevent the simple ingredients in this keto egg crêpe to really shine.

How to make keto egg crêpe

First, lightly whip the eggs with a whisk, then add the whipping cream, salt and pepper, and whisk the mixture just until it starts getting foamy.

Melt the butter on a large, non-stick skillet, on medium-high heat. Pour the egg mixture in, and spread it all over the bottom of the skillet, creating a uniformly thin layer. Immediately sprinkle the shredded Grana Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese all over the surface of the the keto egg crêpe, before it has a chance to set.

Put the two slices of cheese side by side, topped with the two slices of ham, on one half of the crêpe. When the eggs are fully cooked, fold the light side of the keto crêpe onto the side with the cheese and ham fillings. It’s all done when the cheese is fully melted. Slide it onto a plate, and enjoy!

The best size pan for crêpes

To get the keto crêpe nice and thin, you need to let the eggs spread over a large area. I used a 30 cm (12 inch) non-stick skillet.

If you don’t have a large skillet, use a different technique. It will take a bit longer, but the result is gonna be the same: you can make the recipe on a smaller pan, one half at a time: melt the butter and spread half of the egg mixture, sprinkle half of the shredded Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano, and slide it off onto a plate when the cheese is melted.

Then add the other half of the butter and the second half of the eggs – give them an extra quick whip first to wake them up – and spread it on the pan. Add the shredded cheese and the cheese slices, then the ham, and then cover everything up with the first layer of the crêpe that you prepared. Done!

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