What Liquor Does Julia Child Add To Her Flaming Crepes Suzette?

Like Baked Alaska, Bananas Foster, and other flaming desserts, Crêpes Suzette is a showstopper to prepare and serve. Crêpes Suzette is a stack of warm, thin crepes topped with a caramelized orange-butter sauce. The chef and TV personality Julia Child loved this French classic enough to include the recipe in her collection, "The French Chef Cookbook." The finishing touch for all Crêpes Suzette recipes is to flambé (aka pour a little alcohol over your pan and ignite it). But when it comes to what you flambé your crêpes with, Child has some definitive opinions.

As Child cooks through her Crêpes Suzette recipe on her 1960s cooking show, The French Chef, she shares that she uses both orange liqueur and brandy. "You don't have to use orange liqueur, but it gives an added orange flavor," she says. Her Crêpes Suzette recipe uses squares of sugar that she rubs against orange peels to pick up their orangey oil, plus orange zest and orange juice. So, it makes sense that an orange liqueur would help bring out all that orange goodness. But Child adds a caveat, "Don't use it at all unless you're willing to buy a brand that really tastes very good," she says. It's the good stuff or bust for Child when it comes to crêpes. To honor her request, pick up a bottle of Grand Marnier, a French orange-flavored liqueur that blends barrel-aged Cognac, bitter orange, and sugar.

If you want to add more orange flavor to your flambé without the price tag, try Cointreau or another brand of triple sec. Triple sec is an orange liqueur often found in margaritas or cosmopolitans. Unlike Grand Marnier, triple secs don't have a dash of Cognac, so they won't offer the same smoky depth of flavor. 

The Crêpes Suzette recipe itself also features plenty of orange, so if you'd rather not have orange liqueur on your shelf at all there are still a few options. Skip the Grand Marnier and simply use an equal amount of Cognac, for instance. If sticker shock is a factor, then try a less expensive brandy. If your bar cart has more of a tiki bar theme, follow in Bananas Foster's footsteps and swap in rum. You can also give bourbon or whisky a try. Any liquor that's 80-proof or at least 40% alcohol will work. So, turn up the heat and give flambéing a try.