It’s never
too early to prepare for the National Pancake Day! Especially when there are so
many pancake varieties you need to make. Here are three amazing suggestions to
celebrate this day in style!
Welsh Crempog Pancakes
Crempog is a
Welsh pancake made with flour, eggs, buttermilk, vinegar, and salted butter.
This traditional recipe is also known as ffroes, cramoth, or pancos and was
originally cooked on bakestones, then served as a stack with butter on top.
Crempog
pancakes are usually served to visitors as a teatime treat, but people in
Whales also love making crempogs on birthdays (especially in South Whales),
when the stack is cut down the wedges, just like a cake, and on holidays,
especially on Shrove Tuesday, but also on St. David’s Day (March 1st) and on
Bonfire Night (November 5th).
The oldest
crempog pancake recipe was published in a book called ‘Welsh Fare’ in 1976 and
dates from the 1700s, but the basic ingredients and old cooking traditions
suggest that the origins of this Welsh staple go further back to the past. The
earliest recipes called ‘crempog furum’, include yeast, oats, and barley meal,
and were served with sugar or black treacle syrup on top. The variety made with
oats was called ‘crempog surgeirch’ and was for the servants, whereas the
masters opt for the variety with more refined flour.
During the
1880s, black treacle was replaced by golden syrup and bicarbonate of soda
became increasingly popular as a yeast substitute. Crempog
pancakes were traditionally cooked on a bakestone (also known as ‘maen’), a
big, round flatstone. This was later replaced by a thick, cast-iron disc, also
known as a ‘planc’ or ‘griddle’ and eventually, in the 20th century, built-in
wall ovens were commonly used. However, the tradition of using a bakestone
coexists with the more modern forms of cooking.
Standard Crempog Pancake Recipe
The
ingredients you need for this traditional pancake recipe are:
- 1 ¼ all- purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp. bicarbonate of soda
- ½ tsp. salt
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 ¾ buttermilk (warm)
- ¼ cup salted butter
- 1 tbsp. vinegar
Follow these easy steps to make the
crempogs:
1. Place the butter in the warm buttermilk to
melt, then gradually pour this mixture into the flour and beat well.
2. Leave the mixture stand for at least half
an hour (if you can wait, leave it for a few hours).
3. Beat the eggs and combine them with the
sugar, bicarbonate of soda, and vinegar. Mix well and add them to the
flour/buttermilk mixture to form the batter.
4. Grease a griddle (or flatstone if you have)
and heat over medium heat. Pour about 1/3 cup of the batter and cook until
golden brown on both sides.
5. Serve in a stack with butter spread on each
pancake. Other toppings like jams, syrups, or fruit slices are a matter of
taste.
Crempog Pancake Varieties
The name
suggests that English and Scottish crumpets are derived from crempog pancake
recipes.
English hot crumpets and pikelets
English
crumpets are circular, thick pancakes made with flour and yeast. The early varieties were hard pancakes, which
transformed into the soft and chewy cakes that we have today during the
Victorian era. They are traditionally cooked on a griddle by pouring the batter
into a shallow ring that serves as a mold.
These cakes
are usually left slightly undercooked, then toasted just before eating. Their
top is flat and they have a spongy texture, with a lot of pores. The topping of
choice is usually butter, but honey, jam, margarine, or chocolate spreads are
also frequently used.
Pikelets are a version of crumpets made
without yeast and cooked without the ring, which makes them thinner and
flatter. This version is also very popular in Australia and New Zealand and
pretty much the same as classic American pancakes.
How can you
not love something with such a cute name? I know, that is why I offer this easy and simple pancake recipe:
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 large egg
- melted butter
- 1 cup self-rising flour
- 1 tbsp. sugar
- pinch of salt
Preparing them is very easy:
1. Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a big
bowl.
2. Beat together the egg and milk. Add them to
the flour mixture and whisk until smooth.
3. Heat a large griddle or nonstick frying pan
and grease with butter.
4. Drop the pancake batter 2-3 tablespoons at
the time onto the griddle. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface and the
bottom is light brown. Turn and cook on the other side until light brown.
Scottish crumpets
Unlike the
English version, the Scottish crumpets are not spongy and leavened. They
resemble pancakes in appearance, but are cooked in a slightly different manner
– sometimes they are fried, sometimes baked, but only on one side. The
resulting pancake is darker and smoother on the side that was cooked, whereas
the other side retains the bubbles and holes that appear during cooking.
The
ingredients’ proportions slightly vary from the classic pancakes we are used to
making, which results in a thin batter.
Besides the plain variation, these pancakes often include raisins in the
batter. They are usually served with fried breakfast but also rolled with
butter and jam.
Here is a
Scottish crumpet pancake recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 large egg
- 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
- 1 cup plain flour
- 2 tbsp. castor sugar
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- pinch of salt
How to prepare:
1. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and
salt in a large bowl.
2. Mix the wet ingredients- egg, milk, and
butter, then add them to the flour mixture. Stir until just combined.
3. Grease the griddle with some butter heat it
over low heat. Pour ¼ t- 1/3 cup of the batter to form a small pancake (about
3’’ to 4’’ in diameter).
4. Bubbles will start to form and pop on the
surface of the crumpet. Turn the pancake before the surface dries up. Cook the
other side just a bit.
Happy
Pancake Day!
