How to Have a Perfect Pancake Day
A World of Perfect Pancake Days.
Pancake Day is just around the corner on the 21st of February and millions of children around the world are already salivating in expectation. Never mind Valentine’s Day, that is a boring day of slushy stuff for grown-ups, bring on the yummy pancakes that is what we want!! Well in the UK it is called Pancake Day but across the world it is known under other names. In France they call it Mardi Gras which means Grease or Fat Tuesday, in Brazil it is Terca-feira gorda (Fat Tuesday, last day of the Brazilian Carnival), in Greece it is called Apocreas which means “from the meat”, in Sweden it is Fettisdagen (Fat Tuesday), in Germany it is Fastnacht, in the Netherlands it is the last day of the festival called Carnaval (very similar to Mardi Gras), in Iceland it is called Sprengidagur (bursting day).
It seems to be one of the festivals that are celebrated fiercely all over the world! In the UK it is also called Shrove Tuesday and this dates back all the way from the Middle Ages. Shrove which comes from the old world “Shrive” means to repent and Shrove Tuesday is the day that sinners would come to repent of all their sins prior to fasting for Lent. Lent is a period in the Christian calendar where believers prepare themselves through self-denial (giving up something important to them like fattening food) {for me this would definitely be chocolate – all chocoholics groan in misery with me!}, prayer, giving to charity and saying sorry for things done wrong, to get ready for Easter week and the celebration of the death and resurrection of their Messiah; Jesus Christ.
So basically Pancake day is a wonderful day of eating lots of scrummy food, stuffing your-self until bursting point as they say in Iceland, and generally making a pig of yourself, so you can then theoretically cope with the (non-chocolate) days leading up to Easter when you can stuff yourself silly again! But enough of all this boring history stuff, let’s get down to the nitty gritty of Perfect Pancake Days – the Pancakes and the fillings!
Perfect Prehistoric Pancakes!
Pancakes (sorry another boring history bit!) appear to be the oldest prepared food stuff in the existence of mankind. Archaeological finds have shown that pancakes, made from seed flour, mixed with milk and eggs and baked on hot stones have actually been around, worldwide since prehistoric times. So if your parents are saying that pancakes are not good for you, tell them you need to make them for a history project and refer them to Wikipedia for more details! These days pancakes are made from flour, eggs and milk, whisked together to form a light fluffy batter and either cooked on a griddle or lightly fried in a frying pan. Sounds a lot better than seeds and milk and hot stones if you ask me, but if you are desperate… well prehistoric pancakes are better than none I suppose.
To Make The Pancakes.
Ingredients:
(To make 8 Pancakes – if you need more {and who wouldn’t} double or triple the ingredients.)
- 220g/8oz Plain Flour, sifted.
- Pinch of salt.
- 2 Medium eggs.
- 50g/2oz butter.
- Toppings of your choice!
Method (or how to make Perfect Pancakes).
- Sift the flour and salt together. Do it over the top of the bowl to get some air into them.
- Beat the eggs into the flour and salt using as fast a beating action as you can. If the mixture is a little lumpy add a drop of milk and keep whisking. The idea is not only to beat out all of the lumps, but also to add as much air into the mixture as possible.
- Melt the butter in a large non-stick frying pan and then tip the excess into a metal jug to keep next to the hob.
- Taking a ladle, scoop a ladleful of batter into the middle of the hot pan, twisting it until all the batter covers the base of the pan.
- As the batter starts to cook keep the pancake moving by gently shaking the pan.
- When the mixture start to bubble on the top and the batter starts to darken the pancake is ready to turn to the other side.
- This can be done by inserting a spatula or fish slice under the pancake and carefully turning it over.
- If you are really brave you can flip the pancake just using the frying-pan!
- Lift the pan up so that it is tilting forwards and slide the pancake to the front edge of the pan. Then brace yourself and flick the pan upwards causing the pancake to flip over to its uncooked side. It is best to use both hands to flip the pancake, do not try to be too over adventurous and get it stuck to the ceiling. The wrist action is important in that you need a steady front facing push with a lift at the end to flick the pancake. Oh I know it sounds scary but it is actually not that hard, so go on, give it a try, the most you lose is a couple of eggs and some flour!
- I do not recommend trying to flick the first pancake as this never goes exactly right, the first one is always a bit of a disaster. This is how it is supposed to be, however or else how will mum know if the pancake mixture tastes right?
- To store the pancakes that have been made, while you make the others, put a large pan into a warm oven and then place a tea-plate on top of that upside down.
- Slide your pancakes onto this after you cook them to keep them nice and warm and ready to eat.
When you have finished making your pancakes – or when your mum’s arm drop off, whichever comes first, you are ready to lay them on the table, with your yummy toppings for you all to dig into - Perfect Pancake Pleasure!
Tasty Toppings!
In the UK the most popular three toppings are:
- Golden syrup,
- Lemon juice and sugar.
- Ice-cream.
But there are so many other toppings you can add, so why not throw the boat out and try some others. In France crepes (French Pancakes) are eaten with all manner of toppings both sweet and savoury and you can make a 3 course meal from pancakes – which is a very good idea and something I should attempt to do tonight (in the interest of research you understand) in order to get pictures for this article!
Succulent Savoury Starters.
(Make these pancakes a little smaller – they are only starters after all)
- Prawn cocktail
- Egg and Mayonnaise
- Curried chicken (shredded chicken breast, mayonnaise, curry powder –mild)
- Tomatoes and bacon
- Brie and cranberry sauce.
- Mango Chutney and raita (add a little curry powder to your pancakes for this one!)
Mouth-watering Mains!
(Ok so cheese is good in Pancakes!)
- Cheese and beans
- Cheese, beans and bacon
- Cheese and bacon
- Cream cheese and chive
- Cottage Cheese (with onion, pineapple, ham etc)
- Pizza topping (cheese with whatever makes you mouth water)
- Hotdogs, fried onions and ketchup (with cheese of course if you fancy it!)
- Bolognaise (with cheese???)
- Meatballs (cheese???)
- Chilli
- Curry
- Tuna mayonnaise
- Crab and Melon Crepes (crabsticks, honeydew melon, dill and seafood sauce, shred the crabsticks and cut the melon into small bite size bits.)
- Shoarma
Perfect Posh Pancakes
- White fish, king prawns and hollandaise sauce
- Avocado, tomato and mozzarella
- Smoked Salmon, Philadelphia and crisp red pepper
- Pear and blue cheese
- Roast Turkey, Cranberry sauce, stuffing and bread sauce
- Roasted caramelised vegetables
- Steak with caramelised red onion chutney
- Coronation Chicken
- Chicken and mushroom
- Spinach and ricotta cheese
- Caviar and quails eggs (on tiny, tiny Pancakes – Blinis anyone?)
Pudding Pancakes.
- Peanut butter and jelly (jam)
- Peanut butter and chocolate spread
- Sliced bananas and chocolate ice-cream
- Spiced Apple Sauce
- Toffee ice-cream with toffee sauce
- Mixed berries and yoghurt
- Hot chocolate sauce with squirty cream
- Chocolate and coconut
- Maple syrup and ice-cream
Perfect Posh Pudding Pancakes!
- Strawberries and whipped cream
- Chocolate ice-cream with Cointreau
- Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream (any flavour let’s be honest)
- Caramelised pineapple with butterscotch sauce
- Flambéed Bananas and clotted cream
These are but a few ideas that myself and my family could come up with (my daughter Serphinia wants me to make them all – NOW!), but I am sure you could come up with plenty of different ideas to suit your tastes (sprinklies anyone?). You may need to practice a bit before the day in order to have a Perfect Pancake Day, so keep plenty of eggs and flour to hand. I am sure any nearby children would be happy to sample the fruits of your labours for you to make sure you are doing them right!
For a slightly different idea for Valentine’s Day, why not do a 3 course pancake meal, using some of the posh pancake ideas I have put forward, on a carpet picnic in a candlelit room. Whoever said that pancakes could only be eaten once a year anyway!
I hope you have enjoyed this article and have found some tasty treats to try this February and for many years to come. Happy Pancake Day everyone!
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Comments
Yay we are having some of these tonight! Oh, the sacrifices we must make for research! Hehe!
xxx
Pancake Day is my kind of day, I love them! Nice article!!
I love pancakes..and don't apologize for the history, I love history. I couldn't care less about the Religious aspect as I am Pagan and find a lot of our celebrations "borrowed" by the Church.
I eat pancakes a couple of times in the year, just because. Funnily enough not all of my children like them, strange little things they are...the kids, not the pancakes.
I can't possibly have a favourite but the one with the biggest memories for me are the ones The Little Chef did when I was a child( don't go in them any more, you need a bank loan to pay for a meal), they use to do one with vanilla ice cream inside a hot pancake and then have Morello cherries in sauce inside, lush to say the least.
Mmmmmmm Ddraig that does sound really yummy! Forgot to get the flour yesterday so we are having the pancakes tonight. Will get loads of mouthwatering pics up when we have finished!
xxx
Yummy,pudding pancakes made to taste like German chocolate cake is what I'm thinking of. Great article Nici. I have a pancake article too, may I link?
Of course Lynsuz, cross linking articles is great, set it up then send me the link to your article and I will link that to this!
xxx
We often eat pancakes for dinner. Now I can change it up a bit. Thanks for the ideas.
Lots of interesting ways to eat pancakes and celebrate Pancake Day! If I had my own classroom again, I would read the book "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" and read it to them as they ate.
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