Pancakes!
 

Is Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day a UK thing? I would imagine not but I haven't spotted *any* pancake recipes on TFCooking!

I don't have a particular batter recipe that I use and I generally resort to something quite simple and plain with a medium thickness. Does anyone have a favorite batter recipe they could share? - I would be particularly interested in any US recipes, as I have heard pancakes state side are very good.

In terms of toppings I really like savory ones:
bacon and cheese
ham and cheese
chicken and cheese (common theme here!).
Can anyone lend me some creativity?!?

For sweet ones:
Lemon and sugar
Banana and melted chocolate
Freeze a mars bar, slice it thinly and spread over while cooking the final side.
cheery pie filling and ice cream

Hmm, will have to have pancakes tonight.

I love pancakes... generally I make them from Bisquick but do have a scratch recipe at home somewhere... I try to avoid the "just add water" types as I find that they get kind of granular (if that makes sense).

As for toppings, the best way is maple syrup! Although when I am getting fancy I will make a compote of bananas or some other fruit.

My favourite as a kid was raspberry jam, butter and maple syrup...


For me, pancakes should not be thick. They should be about the size of a medium pan. They should be golden brown on both sides...

Shrove Tuesday was last week wasn't it?

Man those toppings sound good right now . . . .


Here's my batter recipe (quantities are approximate, I don't measure them):

In the wet bowl mix about a cup of milk, an egg yolk, a tablespoon or so of sugar, and as much melted butter as you want, I guess around 2-4 tablespoons, and mix in the juice of one lemon.

In the dry bowl mix a cup of flour, a tablespoon of baking powder (with no aluminum in it) and a teaspoon or so of baking soda. Make sure it's all mixed well.

In a separate bowl beat the egg white until it's stiff.

Mix the wet and dry together, gently with a spatula. Then fold in the egg white.

The lemon juice will react with the baking soda to create lots of bubbles, and make a very light pancake. The lemon juice adds some zing and tastes great with butter.

@Charlatan - yeah it was but I realised that I never get enough on pancake day! I love Maple Syrup but its way pricey. Am only a poor student. One thing though, how would you compote bananas?

@raveneye - so hungry, am at work and will be until 7ish. urgh. Thanks for the recipe btw, it sounds delish and will certainly give it a go! Might have them for breakfast on a late Valentine's day :D

Butter and Heated Maple Syrup... yummmm.... but it's gotta be good maple syrup, Aunt Jemima just doesn't cut it... hmmmm I'm in New Hampshire this week, gonna have to stock up...

Just curious, based on the size of the pancakes that Charlatan is describing, do y'all have a difference between pancakes and crepes? I've never seen savory pancakes, but savory crepes all the time...

I use the term pancake to mean a batter that isn't necessarily sweetened. Charlatans pancake will be light, fluffy and thick I would guess? This is what I meant by US pancakes. A crepe for me is a French pancake, very thin and very large and can be either savory or sweet. The ones I make are sort of halfway in between and, to be honest, not that great.

I think making proper, thin French crepes is hard. Once when I was a youngster in France I was given a pancake with mostly uncooked egg on it. I was told before a sweet one I had to eat that globby mess. yuk.

the UK has a pancake day? Cool

I only eat crepes that are wrapped around fillings...or wait is that a blintz? I know nothing of french food.

I make mine the way charlatan does.....and while I love "real" maple syrup....I honestly enjoy aunt jemima just as much :)

Come to Canada, Maple Syrup is cheap and plentiful...

Bananas... warm to hot pan... some butter (use your own judgment)... some sliced bananas... cook until the butter and the sugar in the bananas gets thick.

Is this a sautee?

Growing up Irish and Catholic, Pancake Tuesday was common in our house. Occurred the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday... Was kind of a fun tradition, we usually had pancakes for dinner.

Blintzes, to the best of my knowledge, are crepe like pancakes that are stuffed with a ricotta cheese type mixture, and usually served with blueberries or some other fruit on top... Sometimes the blintz is then put in a pan, after it's been filled and cooked some more til it's really golden brown.

Crepes are very thin pancakes, that are just so yummy with butter and sugar... among other things...

Nope, not a saute, its a reduction, almost like you're stewing the fruit. And yummy, lol. I like an apple and cherry compote myself with crepes, or lemon curd, or orange marmalade.

Crepes and blintz are similar, I think. I don't find crepes all that hard to make... lots of folks have a "crepe pan" but I use the underside of a cast-iron skillet, well greased. Or I did when I had a gas stove. Its harder to get it hot enough on my smooth topped electric range. Stupid condo and its no-gas rule. *sobs*

Its just a matter of getting the batter thin enough, and not overcooking them. I suck at pancakes but do ok with crepes. My hubby is just the opposite, lol.

Even though Louisiana is predominantly Catholic, we have Mardi Gras instead of Shrove Tuesday. While I think King Cake is a pretty good trade for pancakes, I still think we should do pancakes, too, lol. *grins*

Huh...chalk this one up to you learn something new everyday. This thread has me wanting pancakes now. Can't remember my recipe it's in a giant cookbook my mom gave me but I ALWAYS put some vanilla extract in mine. Oh so good.

Those reduced/sauted/compoted bananas sound delicious. You could do the same thing with other fruit I guess - apples, peaches, red berrries.

I think the idea behind pancake day is to use all the milk, eggs and butter before Lent. Having compoted bananas, ice cream and maple syrup is probably a modern thing!

Yup. The hubby says a compote is just "warmed, stewed fruit". He made a face, but I think it sounds yummy, lol.

Berries make great compote, and so do apples, peaches, pears.... just about any kind of fruit, except maybe melon and kiwi. Mangos and papayas make awesome compotes... so does pineapple. If you like that sort of thing, lol.

Mangoes are my all time favorite fruit, nothing is tastier IMO! My gf made me a variation on Tart Tatin using mangoes and peaches - was so tasty I just couldnt' stop eating it!

Reduction... that's right! I didn't think it was a sautee but couldnt' remember the word O was looking for... that Bryn...

and avernus... Tart Tartin is one of my favourite desserts...

I think this is a holiday that America has made its own, instead of eating pancakes we just throw beads to get women to expose themselves, I guess that would be pancakes of sorts :)

As far as Pancake recipies, This is the last batch I made using Alton Brown's Recipe:

Dry mix:
2 Cups AP flour
1/2 t. Baking Soda
1 t. Baking powder
1 t. Salt
2 t. Sugar

Wet:
2 Eggs seperated
2 Cups Buttermilk
4 T. melted butter

Whisk together the egg whites and the buttermilk in a small bowl. In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the melted butter.

Combine the buttermilk mixture with the egg yolk mixture in a large mixing bowl and whisk together until thoroughly combined. Pour the liquid ingredients on top of the pancake mix. Using a whisk, mix the batter just enough to bring it together. Don't try to work all the lumps out.

Check to see that the griddle is hot by placing a few drops of water onto to the griddle. The griddle is ready if the water dances across the surface.

Lightly butter the griddle. Wipe off thoroughly with a paper towel. (No butter should be visible.)

Gently ladle the pancake batter onto the griddle and sprinkle on fruit if desired. When bubbles begin to set around the edges of the pancake and the griddle-side of the cake is golden, gently flip the pancakes. Continue to cook 2 to 3 minutes or until the pancake is set.

Mmm, I'm a huge pancake fan, every since I was a kid. We used to do the Shrove Tuesday at my house (known as pancake day), along with pancakes on a fairly regular basis.
That compote/reduction thing sounds really good. I think I'll try that next time I make pancakes.

Use to be a big pancake fan. Then I got tired of them and haven't eaten them in .... 10 years! Now, in the last couple of months, I've suddenly gotten cravings for pancakes again. Been making them every Sunday. I've been doing whole wheat pancakes with blueberries and strawberries on them. I've been using a mix, but I believe I'll give the recipies here a shot.

I just remembered that when my wife was pregnant with my son (over 10 years ago) she used to get cravings for Buckwheat Pancakes... horrid stuff Buckwheat.

When she went into labour she barfed up the last batch she ever ate.

On the contrary, cantelope compote is delicious. Mixed with apple compote (applesauce)...mmm.

PS: Mal, Aunt Jemima is my favourite kind of syrup! :)

Raveneye - I tried your recipe and it was delicious! My girlfriend and I devoured about 6 medium sized ones each.

According to Leigh's Cookery Bible (cookery school in UK) these pancakes are very similar to ones she calls Scotch Pancakes or Drop Scones. I remember my mum used to make them on a griddle for me and my brother when we were young. We covered them in butter and honey. Actually thats one of my favorite memories :D

Since tomorrow is Pancake tuesday, aka shrove tuesday, aka fat tuesday, aka the day before Lent... Had to give this thread a bump....

/me wants pancakes

Thanks for the bump Mal... I just loaded up on some mix for tomorrow night (bacon too).

I love Shrove Tuesday...

I need to go to the store and get some ingredients...we're running low on mix and it's this wheat honey stuff I don't really like as much as say, Bisquick (snowy loves her Bisquick). But a pancake feast is definitely in order tomorrow night.

I also need to plan for the soup I'm making for Ash Wednesday.

My wife makes me an interesting pancake meal. She makes up a batch of light, fluffy pancakes, then while they are still hot she puts peanut butter and sliced bananas inside and rolls them like a crepe. As a funny aside my parents hosted a number of international students when I was growing up and NONE of them liked maple syrup. We had a French, German, Japanese, and Spanish student and not one of them liked it, I think they found it too sweet.

Rolled pancakes are a big deal in Scandinavian cooking. They make batter that cooks up thin, crepe-like pancakes, which then are usually rolled up and doused with powdered sugar, then covered with preserves, fruit, or whatever you like. No peanut butter, though; but I'm a big fan of the peanut butter-and-banana sandwich, and a PBBP (Peanut butter banana pancake) would big a nice treat -- and hearty.

I usually make crepe-like pancakes also. I know how to make the light fluffy US ones too. They're just different. I also roll mine, usually sprinkle them witrh sugar and lemon juice. It tastes yummy.

One of the best pancake recipes I've had was from Jamie Oliver, it was almost an omelette type pancake but really tasty. Here's the recipe:

Jamie Oliver Pancakes