From crepes to pancakes: 7 pancake recipes for Shrovetide
Text: Elena Chernyavskaya
Shrovetide week begins - firstly, it is a good reason to visit granny and try her pancakes, and secondly - try to bake something of your own. If family recipes are not inspiring, you can experiment and prepare Chinese, Greek or any other options from this collection. Give more pancakes, good and different.
Pancakes
USA
Huge American pancakes are familiar to everyone who has ever traveled to the States. The splendor of the pancakes is given by the combination of soda with a fermented milk drink called buttermilk, which is a cross between kefir and yogurt (in Russian conditions it can be replaced with thick kefir). Pancakes are traditionally served with maple syrup.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Mix flour, soda, salt and sugar in a bowl.
In another bowl combine kefir, milk, eggs and melted butter. Beat is not necessary.
Add the liquid mixture to the dry - gradually, in parts, stirring well after each portion. The dough should not be too thick with air bubbles.
Pour the mixture in large portions into the pan and fry in butter on both sides until golden brown. Finished pancakes stacked and sprinkled with maple syrup.
Cong jubin
CHINA
Cong jubin - Chinese pancakes with green onions - are now served in Chinese restaurants around the world. They are good because in addition to onions you can add almost anything to them - in fact, the Chinese do just that. At the exit you should get fluffy and fragrant pancakes from choux pastry, with a crispy crust on the outside and a little watery inside.
INGREDIENTS:
PREPARATION:
Boil water and in a heatproof bowl pour 250 grams of flour with boiling water, stirring vigorously. When all the water is absorbed and the mixture cools, mix the dough with your hands until smooth and leave for half an hour.
In a separate bowl, mix melted fat, spices, salt, 2 tablespoons of flour and finely chopped green onions.
Roll out the dough or stretch it with your hands. Put the stuffing in the middle, roll it up and cut it into pieces. From each part to form a large pancake thickness of about a centimeter.
Fry over medium heat until light golden brown; inside the pancakes should remain slightly moist.
Kaiserschmarrn
Austria
This sliced "pancake" with filling is loved not only in Austria, but also in Switzerland and Germany - unlike labor-intensive strudel, kaiserschmarrn is often cooked at home, and for many Germans this dish is associated with childhood. The Kaiserschmarrn pancake is baked thick and dry, and its pieces are poured with something liquid: creamy or berry sauce, light apple jam, thick compote of any seasonal fruits. Instead of sauces, you can just put a scoop of ice cream. Kaiserschmarrn can be a separate dish (usually for breakfast), and a dessert at the end of a long dinner.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Pour boiling water over the raisins and leave for fifteen minutes. Separate the egg yolks from the whites and mix the yolks with the milk, vanilla and flour.
In a separate bowl, beat egg whites with sugar and a pinch of salt, and then gently mix them into the dough.
Lavishly grease a large frying pan with butter, heat it well on the stove and pour out all the dough. Immediately put on the surface of the raisins.
Fry Kaiserschmarrn until golden brown, then flip it (not bad if the pancake breaks).
On the finished pancake put a few pieces of butter and a couple of extra spoons of sugar; put in the oven under the grill. Heating is needed maximum, but only for a couple of minutes - only so that the sugar melted and began to caramelize.
Divide into small pieces (of such size that it is convenient to eat one by one) and add a portion of ice cream or sauce on top.
Kachapa
VENEZUELA
Yellow corn pancakes are typical for Venezuela and other Latin American countries. They turn out to be high, soft and interspersed with rather large pieces of corn. Served kachapa, folded in half and putting inside a few pieces of fresh cheese or just with butter. In Colombia, these cakes are called "arepas" and are often sold on the street for a quick snack.
INGREDIENTS:
PREPARATION:
Drain the corn cans with water. Put the grains in a blender and chop, gradually adding milk, sugar, eggs, salt and pepper. It is not necessary to bring to the state of a smooth mash - in the dough should come across pieces of corn. Last add flour.
Spread on pan so that pancakes with a diameter of about ten centimeters are obtained, and fry them in butter on both sides until golden brown.
Sprinkle red chilli over each kachapa, put a couple of slices of soft, fresh cheese, fold in half and serve.
Crepes
France
French crepes have long been famous all over the world, and there is nothing strange in this: translucent pancakes melt in your mouth. There is a sea of regional options, but the common feature of crepes is that they bake them with a minimum amount of butter and try to make them as thin as possible, so there are so many eggs in the dough - they give the mixture the necessary degree of elasticity. Crepes themselves are not sweet - they should be flavored with a filling that can be any.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Mix flour, sugar, salt, eggs, milk and melted butter until a homogeneous dough.
Lightly grease the pan with melted butter (the most convenient way to do this is with a cooking brush).
Pour small portions of dough into the pan and bake on both sides, trying to make the pancakes as thin as possible.
Serve the crepes you need with the filling wrapped in them - whatever. Grated apple, chocolate cream, finely chopped fruit, jam or honey can be supplemented with spices or alcohol. Salty options are good ham or cheese with herbs. Our choice of toppings is goat cheese with basil or cherry jam with amaretto. If you don’t want to bother with filling, you can simply sprinkle pancakes with cinnamon sugar.
Tiganites
Greece
Greek tiganites resemble Turkish pastries: they are also prepared in large amounts of butter, generously sprinkled with cinnamon and doused with honey. They are made on thick Greek yogurt. The option is extremely high in calories, even to the measure of pancakes, but believe me - it is very tasty.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Beat eggs with sugar into a fluffy smooth paste.
Add yogurt, salt and melted butter, mix well, add flour in portions. The finished dough should slowly drain from the spoon, and if it is too thick, you need to add a little water.
Heat the oil in a pan and spread the dough in the form of small pancakes. Fry over medium heat until bright brown crust.
Hot tiganites should be immediately sprinkled with cinnamon and sprinkled with liquid honey.
Pofferti
Netherlands
Dutch fritters - yeast. They are often cooked at home, baked at Christmas markets or eaten in pancakes. The dough turns out very soft and fragrant, and when frying greatly increases in size. Serve with a powdered sugar.
Ingredients:
Cooking:
Mix the yeast with warm milk and sugar and let stand.
In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, vanilla, salt and flour, then add half of the milky-yeast mixture and mix well. Add the second half of the mixture and mix again, more carefully. Cover the dough with a film and leave for about an hour.
Heat the butter in a pan, put the dough in the form of small pancakes and fry on both sides. Pofferti greatly increase in size, so do not spread them too closely.
Serve hot, richly sprinkled with powdered sugar.
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