This $20 Pan Is the Secret to Perfect Crepes at Home (2024)

High-quality construction, versatility and a sub-$20 price tag put this Lodge cast iron griddle at the top of our list. The heavy cast iron pan provides even heat distribution and can withstand high temperatures, making it quicker and easier to use than nonstick. Keep in mind that cast iron does require some care to maintain and you'll likely want to invest in a handle cover because it will get hot.

If impressing your family with large crepes is high on your agenda, this Proctor Silex crepe maker is a great value pick. Aside from its even cooking performance, we love that it comes with a measuring cup that scoops the perfect amount of batter required to evenly coat the entire surface of the pan for a quality crepe. The cup can then be neatly hooked onto your batter bowl to avoid messy drips and spills. It also comes with a plastic batter scraper and long spatula.

If you're just starting your crepe-making adventure, this crepe pan from Cuisinart will have you pancake-tossing in no time. The pan does not come with accessories but its light weight makes it easy to spread batter evenly by picking the pan up and rotating your wrist. It is oven safe up to 500°F and will make a great addition to your everyday pan collection.

This nonstick pan from Le Creuset is our easiest-to-clean pick because it's dishwasher safe (although hand-washing will preserve the nonstick coating for longer). We love that the stainless steel handle stays cool, making it easy to spread the batter using the included scraper or by rotating the pan. It is also induction safe and light enough to flip crepes in the air.

The CucinaPro was our best-performing electric crepe maker. Despite its large 12-inch cooking surface, it has a relatively low profile, making it easy to store. It has five temperature settings and cooked crepes faster than any other electric model we tested. The sticky rubber feet will keep it from shifting around on the countertop.

This enameled cast-iron pan has Le Creuset's signature bold and colorful exterior, making it an attractive addition to your stovetop. It comes with both a wooden batter spreader and spatula and can be used on all heat sources. In order to maintain the nonstick qualities, Le Creuset recommends hand-washing the pan and not using metallic pads or abrasive cleaning agents.

Our top pick for the best cordless electric crepe maker is made by Salton. It has a tidy cord keeper under its base and we found the batter was much less likely to drip off the cooking surface when dipping into the crepe batter than with other models. The pan is nonstick and can be easily wiped clean but as with all cordless models, batter tends to get stuck between the cooking surface and the base.

Morning Star's professional-looking electric crepe makers have handles that make it portable and a tapered base, which makes it less likely that batter will drip down the sides. It has a temperature dial, but we found it needed to be on the highest setting in order to quickly get a nice golden color on our crepes. It comes with a batter spreader but not a spatula.

At the Good Housekeeping Institute, we tested 15 electric and non-electric crepe makers by using the same homemade crepe batter recipe to make at least three crepes in a row on each pan or griddle. We evaluated cooked crepes for their browning, doneness and consistency, and we scored the crepe makers on how easy they were to operate, the time it took to heat up, surface temperature, how many heat settings they featured (for electric types), "doneness" indicators (like lights and sounds) and the quality of the operating manuals. Our top performers made consistent evenly cooked crepes — crisp on the edges but with a thin and flexible texture.

Anna Helm Baxter is a cookbook author and an experienced recipe developer, culinary producer and food stylist who spent over five years working in the Woman's Day and Good Housekeeping test kitchens. She tested all of the crepe makers in this story in the GH Institute Kitchen Appliances Lab.