Pancake up your life! (unsponsored post)

So shortly after my pancake series, our favourite German supermarket is bringing us today, amongst other fab’ kitchen articles at bargain prices (that little toaster oven… for my husbands nightly cheese toasts.. maybe.) three more or less ingenious devices to make you a pancake goddess:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can assure you, it’s purely coincidental (hey, not that I wouldn’t mind them as a sponsor, they get enough money from me already) and while for under 30 AU$ you can feel like a real French Crêpière, and for under 20$ your pancakes will be perfectly shaped (who would even want that ?), I still recommend the simple pan (for under 7 $ …) because in the end, some awesome kitchen appliances will only sit in the cupboard as they are too difficult to clean, too bulky to move around, and since you don’t use them all the time, hidden somewhere in the back. And don’t tell me you don’t have one like that.
So while I am very tempted by the chic crêpe maker, I am not getting it today.
I’ll get me the cheap pan, and I’ll enjoy making pancakes with little hassle.
And I will look guilty to the top of our kitchen cupboard where that cute little black (!)  deep fryer sits sadly. As it has never been used. Not once. Meh.

What’s your failed investment into kitchen godessness? Or else what should I buy that would really make my life easier and my family look as if they’d come right out of a TV commercial ?

My Pancake Time Machine Posts  – 3 Australia  2France  1Germany

Pancake Time Machine – Part 2 France

On a journey through my personal pancake history, yesterday I wrote about my mum’s fabulous, sweet “Eierkuchen”, that lay in our tummies like lead. Moving on, here is Part 2 :

Young and chic  with Crêpes in France

My first experiences with French Crêpes  were during the 80s: I was off to my first school exchanges to France, and we also saw the appearance of Crêpes in Germany, in the form of snack shop Takeaways – very different to the traditional ‘Crêperies’, which are actual restaurants in the country of Origin, especially in Brittany.  Either way, I loved them with chocolate sauce and almonds or simple, with sugar and cinnamon.
But it wasn’t until the 90s, now migrated to France, that I learnt the three essential rules of Crêpe making :

1. – Get yourself a proper ‘poêle à crêpes ‘– a special Crêpes pan – treat it right and stick to it!
Every French household has to have their special pan, used only for Crêpes, ideally made from cast iron, but a quality teflon coated pan will do.  Most French cook on gas stoves and nothing is more annoying than a pan that is uneven after a few runs. Minimum diameter 26 cm, get a wooden or plastic long flat spatula too, it’s the best way to turn or move those thin pancakes on your plate. It is generally considered a deathly sin to wash the pan with dishwasher liquid or the like – only wipe thoroughly with an oiled sheet of kitchen tissue – or bring on the rage and contempt of the French housewife! And you don’t want that, you want her Crêpes.
So how does she make them ?
This brings us to rule number two – there is no rule. Ah, que Non!

2. – There is no such thing as the one French Crêpes recipe. While obviously you should aim for the super-thin, golden lightness, every family has their own ‘best recipe’ for Crêpes. So over a decade I have tried out everything from very liquid to cream-based recipes, had crispy edges or ate Crêpes that were barely cooked, I have experimented with spices and tasty double-cooked sugar beet sugar (vergeoise), and also made savoury buckwheat crepes (galettes).  Just don’t forget : add some yummy booze !

3. – If you don’t make a minimum of 20 Crêpes, forget about it.
It’s not that the individual Crêpe takes long to make but most recipes are made out to supply for a big and hungry family, and if you want just a crepe or two as a snack for yourself, you might as well buy one at a stand in the street or wait to be invited somewhere. Crêpe making is serious business, so you’re expected to make loads of them or don’t even bother to try.
And : never ever buy ready-made Crêpes in plastic from supermarkets, they taste like rubber sheets with sugar. Yuck!

Here is one of the many basic recipes for French Crêpes :
half a litre of milk,
5 eggs,
500 g flour,
2 tbsp oil,
a pinch of salt
2 tbsp sugar (or not),
popular optional ingredients – to taste :
orange/lemon zest , Cognac (!), Armagnac or Rum, vanilla sugar, cinnamon.. Oh! It seems incredibly important to let your dough rest a while.
Laissez reposer la pâte !
Note : Crêpes don’t need to be baked from both sides, but if you manage to tumble them, you earn lots of extra points from the natives!

Jean-Pierre Foucault, the presenter of the French “Who wants to be a millionaire” looks sheepish over a question on how many eggs to how much flour should be in a Crêpe dough. There is no answer, really.

Link :
wiki on French Crêpes

Y esterday : Eierkuchen – mum’s pancakes in Germany.
Tomorrow : K.I.S.S. for Pancakes – Part 3, Australia.

Pancake Time Machine – Part 1

Today we made pancakes, and it occurred to me that I have been pan-caking a bit differently in every country I have lived so far. I am now very happy with my country of residence and also with my pancake recipe, but let’s have a look back with the pancake time machine :

Eierkuchen – My Childhood pancakes in Germany

Pancakes have many names and variations in Germany. In our family they were called Eierkuchen (literally ‘egg cakes’) because in Berlin we stubbornly call the “Berlin Donut” Pfannkuchen (pancakes) to the confusion of anyone who visits from the rest of Germany and calls them “Berliner” and well, pancakes simply pancakes..
Either way, the basic German recipe is indeed high on eggs and has less liquid and flour. The result is a rather dense dough that bakes to a somewhat elastic, rather filling cake. Eierkuchen also often have dark brown, even black patterns, this isn’t considered to be burnt, it’s their actual “look”.

My mother’s recipe went probably something like this :
50 g melted Butter,
100 g  sugar,
4 eggs ,
200 ml milk,
- beat until foamy and add 200 g flour.
Beat again. Fry!
Optional : Throw and tumble pancakes with verve to amuse the children, send them off to eat the first round in the dining room, then answer the phone in the corridor …and forget about the last pancake that turns into charcoal in the kitchen. Easy!

As toppings we usually had lots of sugar or strawberry jam, sometimes Nutella. My mother’s only variation, the simple apple pancake (acid type apple wedges thrown on the top of the pancake) was not popular with us then – not sweet enough!  My brother also liked the dark and strong sugar beet syrup, (must really try and get that here somehow). We loved mum’s pancakes, they averaged maybe 20cm in diameter, were 0.5 to a whole centimeter thick and after a single one, you generally felt like the only way to move was to go rolling around..  they were very filling indeed!

Daddy Pig is obviously "a bit of an expert" in pancake tumbling.

To be fair, many German recipes aim for a lighter dough, as a teenager I found out that other families actually added a teaspoon of baking powder or – kinky!- sparkly mineral water or even beer to make the cakes a bit fluffier.
Today, thin and light French Crêpes and smaller, American style pancakes are very popular, too, including the runny acorn syrup (hopefully imported from Canada to be the real deal). Anything goes as long as it isn’t exclusively eaten during the morning hours of a certain fast food restoration chain (or two). Making pancakes is soo much fun:

(The photo links to one of our favourite PeppaPig episodes – Pancakes!)

Links :
wiki on pancakes and variations around the world
Peppa Pig – Pancakes – on youtube

Tomorrow : Young and chic  with Crêpes in France

Perfectly imperfect moments of our life…

We made thick apple pancakes again today and my little masterchef had a great time ‘helping’ and watching me fry them. I always try to flip at least one with verve and although it’s never high enough for him, we have a lot of fun.
They are yummy too   I’ll clean up tomorrow.

I am inviting myself to a meme started by Kate from the Picklebums.
See hopefully many other perfectly imperfect moments on her blog HERE :