Hi guys!
Long time no writing, I know… The primary cause for this is the pregnancy, which I revealed in my last post. I am currently 30 weeks pregnant, and while I know I am lucky in so many ways that my pregnancy is going well, the tiredness and nausea is really getting to me.
Well, the nausea is actually not too bad anymore, after almost 5 months of all-day-nausea it finally subsided, and was replaced with “nausea when I get hungry”, which is more manageable. The tiredness, however, does not seem to be subsiding. Naturally, the nausea dampened my desire to bake, and the tiredness effectively stopped any efforts I might have attempted when the nausea was not too bad.
But yesterday, I managed to make pancakes! (which is basically all that I managed yesterday…).
A bit of terminology may be appropriate here, as pancakes are a wide concept. In Denmark, “pancakes” are thin and crêpe-style, while we call the thick pancakes “American Pancakes”. In the US I know that the thick pancakes are simply “pancakes”, while I think that the Danish pancakes might be referred to as “crêpes” (spelling may wary). However, I actually think that most Danish pancakes might be too thick for the French to consider them crêpes. Are you with me so far? Food linguistics are interesting ;)
Baseline, for me pancakes are thin, and so are the pancakes in this recipe :)
I struggled with pancakes for many years, never finding a recipe that truly worked for me, but some years ago, for Christmas I was given the River Cottage Every Day cookbook, and it contained a recipe for “Perfect pancakes”. The recipe intrigued me, as it only used 2 eggs for 6 dl milk, which is a very low egg-to-milk-ratio for pancakes. But, who am I to argue with Hugh, so I gave the pancakes a whirl, using the pancake-pan I had received the same Christmas, and they were so good. They were thin, they were delicious, they were everything I thought a pancake should be. So I made them again. and again. and again. and kept on making them, often thinking I should share the recipe, but pancakes don’t photograph well, and I never got around to writing about them here. (Also, when the pancakes tend to disappear as you make them, taking pictures does not get easier).
So, without further ado, Perfectly Pancakes, River Cottage Style (The original recipe can be found here)
250 g all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
6 dl whole milk (they can be made with skim milk as well, but whole milk gives a little something extra)
Butter for frying (you can use oil if you prefer, I just love the taste butter adds)
Mix the flour with the salt, and form a well in the middle of the flour. Add the eggs and some of the milk to the well, and whisk the liquids together with some of the flour. As the mixture thickens, add more milk and whisk in more flour, until all the milk has been added, and all the flour mixed into the batter.
Let the batter rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (or make the pancakes right away, but be warned, they will be “wet” – though still delicious). After the batter has rested, check the consistency – it should be slightly thinner than whipping cream. If needed, adjust the consistency with milk or flour.
Melt butter on a pancake pan (or whichever pan you are using) and tip of the excess. Cook the pancakes on medium-high heat, how long depends on your stove, but the pancakes should be ready to be turned when the top side is no longer wet. Adjust cooking time and temperature as you get to know your pan and stove.
Enjoy the pancakes with sugar, ice cream, fruit, chocolate sauce, lemon juice, anything you want!
I like them with a sprinkle of sugar (coarse, dark cane sugar for preference) or parmesan cheese.
Below you can see a video of me flipping a pancake in the air in very low light :) in our old kitchen, this video is over a year old ;)