How to make pancakes for Mardi Gras, or pancake day
By missmaudie
Why do we eat pancakes?
If you don’t want a bit of a history lesson first and just want to know how to make pancakes you can skip this part and rush on down to the section headed How to make pancakes. These pancakes are English style ones and not American pancakes which are a whole new ball game!
It is tradition to eat pancakes on the day before Ash Wednesday which is the first day of Lent. What you call this day depends on where you live in the world. Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Pancake day, they are all the same, and part of the Christian calendar. The reason we eat pancakes is twofold: it uses up eggs and fat in preparation for the fasting that is to follow and it is a time of celebration before the reflection and fasting of Lent. Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras is 47 days before Easter.
Lent lasts for forty days and represents the forty days that Christ spent in the wilderness before his triumphant entry into Jerusalem and subsequent arrest and crucifixion. Nowadays of course most people don’t fast for forty days but some people will still give up something for the days leading up to Easter. Because Lent is linked to Easter the dates are not fixed and can vary by as much as a few weeks each year.
The word shrove comes from the ritual of shriving when Christians would confess their sins and ask for penitence before the beginning of Lent. Lent is thought to derive from the word lengthen as it occurs when winter is coming to an end and days are lengthening.
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How to make pancakes
Basic pancake recipe:
Makes about 12
4 ounces (110g) plain flour, sifted
2 eggs
Half a pint (275ml) milk (if you want you can substitute a little water)
2 ounces (50g) melted butter
Pinch of salt
Sunflower oil or melted butter for cooking
1 Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl
2 Make a well in the flour and break the eggs into it. Begin to whisk them in
3 Gradually add the milk, still whisking until you have a batter the consistency of thin cream
4 Whisk in the melted butter
Now you’re ready to cook them. A couple of tips first: if you don’t over beat the batter it won’t need resting and the less batter you add to the pan the more lacy and fragile they will be. And remember that the first pancake is never perfect.
So, put a pancake pan over heat until it is really hot and then wipe with a piece of oiled kitchen paper. Put in a couple of ladles of batter and quickly swirl the pan to coat the bottom with batter. After about 30 seconds flip the pancake over with a palette knife and give the other side a few seconds. Then slide the pancake out and start again. If the first pancake isn’t golden try cooking the second for a little longer. You can stack the pancakes between pieces of greaseproof paper as you go. If you want to you can freeze them at this point.
Then when you have your stack of pancake, simply add sugar and lemon, or your favourite filling and voilà !
More homemade pancake ideas
Pancakes are not just for eating sweet, you can fill them with savoury fillings too. Try sweating some leeks and garlic in some butter, then stir in some grated cheese and a little crème fraiche. Delicious. Or how about making cannelloni with them and filling them with a ragu topped with a béchamel sauce and mozzarella cheese.
Smoked salmon with a dollop of crème fraiche and lemon and dill on top or cheese and lardons, there are lots of ideas you can experiment with.
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For sweet pancakes you could try caramelised apple and cinnamon, banana and maple syrup, or for a French flavour how about adding some Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur and setting them alight.
How about greek yoghurt, banana and honey, or vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.
Pingu makes pancakes!!!
Comments
Thanks for dropping by Daddy Paul :)
interesting looks yummy, I will try this one
thanks for looking alexandriaruthk, all pancakes are yummy of course, if you put your favorite filling in
Now I'm hungry! I used to love pancake day in England - we used to have races while tossing the pancakes - kinda made you forget that it all was supposed to be for Lent though!
Great hub!
Miss Maudie, gosh, I never knew that bit of history. Thank you for enlightening me. Really..I mean I never knew we had to eat pancake before Ash Wednesday. Hmmmm..now I know..I will remember to do this this year! :)
Well, I could almost smell the pancakes from where I am...my stomach is rumbling...hahahahhaha The Hubnuggets team loved your pancakes recipe and this hub has been nominated for the Hubnuggets! Wouldn't it be nice if you could actually serve us with pancakes? I would love to try them out that's for sure.
To vote for the Hubnuggets, this way please: http://hubpages.com/_hubnuggets10/hub/Hubnuggets-h Vote and promote your hub okay? Have a sumptuous time!
SimeyC - you kind of forget that there is a serious side to it don't you? I've never taken part in a pancake race - I prefer to eat them! thanks for stoppping by
Thanks ripplemaker, I'd love to come and make you all pancakes, I'll just check which flight I can get! I'm very excited to get chosen for the Hubnuggets vote. Imagine! It's great to get all this support from everybody, thank you all very much.
They look good and we ate something just about like that yesterday, so I guess we were a couple of days off. Good hub.
Thanks Pamela99, you can eat pancakes all year round of course. I love them filled with a ragu sauce with bechamel sauce on top.
Thanks for the history lesson and the recipe. Great stuff.
Love and peace
Tony
Thanks tonymac04, glad you liked it
After reading this, I think we'll be making pancakes tomorrow! Maybe we'll try your version instead of the Canadian version. Thanks for the recipe and the history of pancakes!
If you try the recipe Beth100 let me know what you think. Does the Canadian version have self raising flour? Thanks for reading
ooooh... naughty naughty! Some lovely suggestions here! xx
I do believe you have raised my love of pancakes to a new level. I see why you were nominated as a HubNugget Wannabe! Gook luck to ya!
go on shazwellyn try one, you know you want to! Thanks for reading.
Money Glitch, thank you, it was certainly a surprise to be nominated as a HubNugget Wannabe. Glad to hear you like pancakes too!
I never knew there was a "Pancake Day", what wonderful news! The recipe looks delicious and I love your suggestions for toppings. I cannot wait to try these, thanks!
If you wanted obsexed every day could be a Pancake Day but officially there's only one a year! Hope you enjoy them :)
This is a fantastic hub. There's a lot of information in here, and great ideas around such a simple idea as pancakes. Plus, Pingu brings it all together.
Glad you approve Chef Mac, you being a chef and all :) I thought the Pingu video was great but that's probably the child in me! For such a simple thing, you can do so much with them.
Great hub missmaudie! These seem to be more like crepes than the ones I learned to make in Texas. They sound yummy and I can't wait to try them. I have always considered the first pancake to be an offering to the pan gods but this guy seems to think otherwise: Steve Siegelman, coauthor of The Pancake Handbook, agrees that the surface should be only lightly greased: “First-pancake makers might well be making the mistake of overgreasing on the theory that more grease will mean less sticking. This may be true, but it will also mean less even browning, as the surface of the pancake will fry and absorb the grease, rather than ‘baking’ to a golden brown, greaseless finish.”
Siegelman also offers the following tips for getting a good first pancake:
• Let the batter sit 5 to 10 minutes before cooking it so the leavening process starts and the wet and dry ingredients meld.
• The griddle should be 375 degrees Fahrenheit for proper browning. Use an electric griddle with a thermostat, or sprinkle a few drops of water on a stovetop to test the temperature. “If they dance in a sprightly way for a few seconds, you’re good to go.”
• Make sure your batter is at room temperature. Cold batter will affect the temperature of the cooking surface.
• Do not peek at the underside of the pancake while it’s cooking. “Let it sit for two to three minutes, until the surface of the pancake is covered with bubbles and the edges look dry,” before you flip it.
“Made with care—and a little optimism,” says Siegelman, “the first should be as perfect as the last.”
Wow, thanks for the information Winsome. You're right, English style pancakes are similar to crepes although crepes are a bit thinner. I agree with Siegelman's points but somehow the first pancake is never the same, perhaps it readies the pan for the rest to come.
Yep, I agree. Ya just gotta give that first one up. Here Shep! =:)
A good hub. And yes, the first pancake never seems to be right. But after that they are good. The pan always seems to be at the right temperature after the first one. However long you wait for the pan to heat it always seem to be the same. It must not be meant for us but I never heard of the pan gods.
Nice hub missmaudie. Mike
missmaudie... you made my mouth water, hehehe! Excellent ideas and a superb, hublicious recipe! Well, I have learned new ways to make pancakes: The Brit way and The French way!
Loved it!
Thanks for sharing!
warm regards and blessings,
Al
Yumm, I'm going to make some right now. Good luck and congrats on your hubnugget nomination.
Never read the cooking hub of a French woman while on the run. Suffer, Haunty, suffer!
I know you're not French, but that doesn't make me less of a fool in this case.
Thanks for your lovely comments everyone, sorry not to have replied sooner.
Can you smell them Haunty? can you? Go on, you know you want one.
Pancakes, crepes, blinis, whatever theyr'e all great! Especially when you have your own free range eggs. We have an electric Krampouz (very good pancake maker from France)which I use-I picked it up 10 yrs ago in France when I was working there briefly. Great hub, thanks.
Thanks for reading Jamiehousehusband!The French make their crepes on a big heated stone with a paddle. Looks easy but it takes a lot of practise!
Daddy Paul 2 years ago
Good read informative.