Marcel's Ooh La La Crepes product reviews

Crepes and pancakes are weekend staples in our house and I always have a good stock of eggs and buckwheat flour on hand. I was interested in trying frozen crepes as the idea of being able to quickly serve up crepes was some appealing. These were easily found in the frozen food section of New World. I was a little surprised at the price and am not sure I would spend this much purchasing them at full price. I liked the box as it easily transferred to my freezer. Th crepes on the packaging are a fair representation of what is inside. I was surprised at the ingredients. despite being labeled as crepes which traditionally are made from buckwheat flour these crepes have no buckwheat flour in them. The ingredients are maize, tapioca, milk powder, oil, sugar, emulsifiers, egg, ticker, raising agents, salt and acidity regulator. This seemed like a lot when the crepes I make are Buckwheat flour, eggs and milk.

We got the packet out on Saturday morning and the girls each put one on their plate. the instructions said to heat in the microwave for 30 seconds or warm in a pan. To be honest this is about the time it takes to cook my own crepes in a pan. It was bit tricky getting the time right. I guess that depends on the wattage of the microwave.

My girls really liked the taste of the crepes and with 8 in a packet they could have 2 and a half each which they were happy with. Overall I am not sure that I would get these again as for the price and the time that it takes to heat them up I would just as easily prefer to whip up some crepes from scratch. I think if you don't want to have to use a frying pan and only have microwave then these are a great option and it saves having to use a bowl and mixing spoon to whip up a batch.

We often get the original Marcel's hotcakes for treats, so I was keen to try one of their gluten free range. We don't have to go gluten free, but it is sometimes nice to have a lighter option. It hard to find as no stores local to us sold them, but worth the drive to find. I did email Marcel's to ask who stocks them so they were very helpful (although the local one didn't sell this particular product).

I found they didn't taste like other gluten free products and if I didn't know, I wouldn't have known they were gluten free. They were light, folded nicely without breaking (which I haven't experienced a lot with gluten free products) and didn't taste heavy! They were absolutely delicious with traditional sugar and maple syrup with is always a hit in our house, as well as banana slices and grated chocolate filling. We tried a simple ham and cheese filling also as we've never tried savoury crepes as they've never appealed before...but yum! I can see this being a dinner option again.

I found that they are priced high for crepes, but reasonable for gluten free. I can see them being a treat for special occasions, or when we have to bring a plate to share (we have Celiacs in our family). They were fast, they were yum and everyone enjoyed them which I couldn't ask for more!

I have recently had to change to a gluten free diet and sometimes it is just so time consuming to make things from scratch I especially find breakfast times a challenge and those nights when you are tired and need something in a hurry. I am slowly learning to have things in the freezer for such occasions and these are certainly a product I will add to my freezer line up.

Friday nights after a long school week my youngest is usually pretty tired so getting home at 4 getting dinner prepared and showers done by the 6 o clock time slot he likes to get to bed are a challenge. I got these out Friday night and we had breakfast for dinner which he thought was a real treat. I made bacon and tomatoes and grated some cheese so everyone could choose what they wanted in theirs.

My teenage daughter has more of a sweet tooth so she opted for lemon juice and sugar which the little one soon cottoned on to and wanted to try. There was enough in the packet with all the fillings I made that it fed the whole family easily and only took minutes to prepare. So handy and so convenient. I think the price for a gluten free convenience product is amazing as on a budget I do look out for specials to ensure I can still get my gluten free products and even better when I can just adapt so the whole family can eat the same meal without moaning ewww gluten free again!

I haven't had much experience with crepes all my attempts to make them have failed even my pancakes turn out more like hotcakes so these are so great perfectly flat and evenly cooked so easy to roll up or fold over whatever you decide to do. I feel these are better than a pancake if you are adding fillings as you are not getting to full from the crepe so can have more filling. I found the crepe to have a great consistency not too stodgy just nice and light and easy to slide through with the knife.

Sometimes my 5 year old struggles to cut pancakes up himself as they can be quite difficult for young children but these crepes just cut up easily so he could do it all himself quite a boost for a young man who loves to be independant. He has already asked me to buy more so will get more on next supermarket shop and have for easy dinners or yummy sunday morning breakfasts. I have put them forward in the suggestion box at my local supermarket as New World is quite a distance from where I live but I do not mind the travel to get them at this stage.

I had requested to review these thru KIWIreviews but unfortunately my application was unsuccessful. So tonight while at the supermarket I saw them in the frozen area and decided a fast crepe would be perfect for dinner. Nothing beats my mums recipe for Chicken and Mushroom Crepes! One of the first items I brought while dating my partner now husband was a Crepe maker. The problem was, the Crepe maker is terrible and they are always ripping and its often too hard to take off the hot plate, so I have kinda given up of making home made Crepes - until now!

I absolutely love Marcel's Fancy Blinis that I figured that these Crepes must be the same yummy standard and I was not wrong. So simple to use, which is what I need after my daughters dance class. I made the filling while leaving the Crepes sitting on the bench defrosting. After placing my mixture in the center I covered them in cheese and placed it in the microwave for a minute so the cheese would melt and they were perfect!

We actually went to a kind of restaurant on Friday and I had bacon and cheese crepes and I think these were marginally better, I found them very light. The flavour of my chicken and mushrooms were a perfect combination with these crepes. My husband ended up eating three of them, where as the girls had one each. We had actually started with Salmon with Cream Cheese Blinis followed by these yummy crepes and then for dessert had Jam and Cream Blinis so it was a great Marcel's night.

I love how simple these are to prepare and with so many combinations out there I could buy them all the time and have different fillings every night. There was one crepe left so instead of having the small Blini I instead had this crepe with jam and cream and a squirt of chocolate sauce and it was fantastic. So basically you could easily have it as a savory or sweet dish as the crepe is versatile to be used either way.

One thing I have to say is I live in New Plymouth and had no idea that Marcel's even existed when I told me husband he just replied with 'yea didn't you know' like I was thick or something. I have heard of Marcel's but had no idea they were in my backyard and now I will be telling everyone (although I am guessing they probably already know).

Pancakes are something I love, and something that my family and I enjoy as a breakfast treat every now and then. When I saw the Marcel's Ooh La La Crepes up for review I was rather interested in trying these out, as to me they seemed like a healthier option than traditional pancakes that you can make or purchase readymade and I love the convenience of these as they can be frozen and it is easy enough to defrost as many as you need.

With 10 crepes in the box, all of which were a very generous size it was crepes for breakfast for Miss 4, my partner and myself for a course of 3 days which meant that I needed to get my thinking cap on in order to think of different filling ideas for these. The first day I used the crepes I decided to simply spread them with a generous amount of Nutella, which I then topped with some sliced banana and rolled up just as you would a pancake. I heated this in the microwave for 10 seconds and this was more than enough time to get the nutella nicely melted, and the crepe heated through. Served with a side of whipped cream this was a very tasty combination, especially with Miss 4.

The next day I decided to try out more of a savoury filling, I folded the crepes in half and to each one I added a sprinkling of grated cheese, some streaky bacon, tomato relish and some spinach leaves. Once I had applied the fillings I folded the other half of the crepe over top and then heated each one in fry pan until the filling was hot and the cheese melted, and the crepe lightly browned and crisp. This tasted so good and it kind of reminded me of a thin and crispy pizza.

Last of all with the 4 remaining crepes I decided to fill them with a mixed berry compote that I had made using a mix of blueberries, strawberries and raspberries, and some ready made custard. After rolling these up I drizzled a small amount of icing sugar over each one and a drizzle of chocolate sauce. I left these cold as I didn't want the custard to get messy and once again the flavours were divine and the crepes worked perfectly.

I can't rate these crepes enough, I love that they are not sweet or savoury tasting which really makes them a very versatile product that can be used in an array of dishes. They are so easy to fold and cut, and I never had any problems with them ripping or tearing. If I had to find one (small) issue with these it would be that they do have little holes throughout them which does cause liquids to seep through however this really isn't something worth worrying about.

I totally recommend these as something you should try a great tasty product, at an even better price.

I have no major food allergies or issues - apart from a dislike of too many tannins and a mild reaction to fungii - so the whole "gluten-free diet" thing is not something I usually concern myself with. However, with the recent decision to cut leavened bread products out of my diet, pretty much anything with flour has fallen by the wayside apart from unleavened wraps. Thus, these crepes were a bit of a treat... and what a treat they are!

Precooked, frozen in packs of 8, there's enough for dessert for a family of four with some restraint, or 2 people with a serious hankering for post-dinner sweetness. To be honest, I would have liked to have seen them in a pack of 12 - it divides better for groups of 1-6 people - but I appreciate at that quantity the RRP of the pack would have put a lot of potential customers off on cost alone.

To prepare this experimental dessert was simplicity itself, and I thought to do it a little differently. Taking inspiration from Mexican quesadillas, I pre-heated my 4-slice sandwich press (though you can do them in a 2-slice if you want single-crepe portions) and laid a crepe on the bottom plate. Working quickly, I layered on some dark chocolate chips and a bit of lemon curd, then slapped a second crepe on top and dropped the press down. Giving it barely 30 seconds - just enough to melt the chocolate - I popped the press open, folded the resulting crepe-adilla in rough quarters, added a scoop of ice-cream and an a dollop of lemon curd, and served it up. AMAZE-BALLZ!

I would like to share a couple of other recipes I made with these... but I can't. When I told my kids about this experiment, they demanded I repeat it for them, and there went the last of the crepes in one shot... because of course I had to try the repeat version - experimental analysis to prove the validity by repetition, naturally. That's the Scientific Method after all.

Ovewrall, these are stunning! So simple to use, so full of flavour. Honestly, these are now the second "gluten-free" pancake-style products I have tried, and I'm really getting the idea the flour-based ones should be put out to pasture - they are rubbish by comparison... and that's coming from someone who is pretty proud of his home-made pancakes and crepes! I quit - I'm buying these from now on.

I have eaten these pancakes on three previous occasions, all in French restaurants - one in Montreal, one in Andraitx in Majorca, and the last in Arrowtown, right here in New Zealand. On all of these occasions they were eaten as a special treat and I got to try various combinations ranging from seafood toppings to jamon espanol to crepes Grand Marnier (which is the one where the liqueur is poured over and then the dish set alight to caramelise the sugar). So I am overjoyed to find they are now available commercially and I can buy them to serve at home with my own toppings.

I did not have any Grand Marnier handy, alas, but I did get to try a range of flavours and serving methods. Luckily the packet is crammed full: there are ten good sized crepes included and they last for several days once thawed (the pack suggests three days but I used the last of mine a week after thawing and they appeared to be just as fresh as the first couple).

The first trial was with a rich confectioner's custard filling. I have had this with pastries but thought it might go well with the crepes too, and it was really nice - the crepes can be heavy so you need a lighter filling to complement that. I added some fruit on top and we had one each for dessert. The reaction was great; smiles all round as everyone gave it the thumbs up. I had warmed the crepes, but added the filling cold just before serving.

The second time we had them was with tomato-flavoured tinned sardines and a green salad. I did not warm the crepes this time, and really it did not seem to matter - the filling was cold too and quite palatable. It was not a combination I would have chosen, but the children present are into sardines and they assured me it would be much nicer than having them on toast. And, to my surprise, it was - an interesting combination of textures, and the sardine flavour was not too overpowering. I was pleased I had followed their suggestion as it is not a mix I would have thought of.

There were two left in the packet, so we had them for supper when everyone else had gone. I had been told they would work quite well in a sandwich press so I prepared them as though I were making a toasted sandwich. I had some ready grated cheese and some spring onions so I spread a little relish on one of the surfaces then added the cheese and onion. I was not sure how long to heat them as I did not want the crepes to go too dry, so I removed them as soon as I heard the cheese sizzling and cut the "sandwich" in half so we could share it.

All three of the combinations worked for me and for my other testers as well. I am glad I got the chance to review this product as it is something I can use in many different ways - and it has the advantage of being gluten free for those who need to be aware of this. And it is cheaper than travelling to Andraitx or Montreal! I just need to add Grand Marnier to my shopping list ....