Well here in England it is Pancake Day! This seemed like a pretty big day here. People were really excited about making and eating pancakes! Stores would move pancake supplies to a special front facing shelf so you could conveniently pick up all your needs at once!
My flatmates were really surprised that we don't do Pancake Day (well, not that I know of in the US... I told them we have pancake breakfasts generally held by Kiwanis that I do highly enjoy :)) Turns out, it's not the same thing. Who knew ;)
So I had to be introduced to proper pancake day. Now, don't start thinking you know what pancakes are. The pancakes that you make ever so fluffy with butter and maple syrup, maybe sometimes peanut butter, how about some fruit, maybe you like them plain or with some powdered sugar......anyways....those are completely opposite of English pancakes.
Till being master chef.
English pancakes are quite large and very thin. The batter used isn't as sugary and more blah taste than our fluffy pancake batter (in my opinion, and i'm an expert batter, dough, (anything raw) eater)) But, that is for a very good reason (and it probably was partly due to our box pancakes rather than ones from scratch (college students don't like buying ingredients)) it is best how they dress their pancakes.
We did buy some maple syrup, because Tilly says that she doesn't mind having one with maple syrup and then rolled up. We bought some fruit, but didn't use any of it. The little lemon packets beside the pancake box was lemon syrup. I tasted it, and it tasted like lemon pie filling. We didn't use it on anything either. We stuck with the traditional lemon juice and sugar, and then did one maple syrup. Me being the fatty American got some butter out, because my pancake would have felt naked. It's like getting dressed without any of your undergarments on.. just doesn't feel right!
For the traditional English pancake you take granulated sugar and sprinkle as much as you want on there (usually 3-4 spoon fulls) and then you take lemon juice and squirt away. From there you roll your pancake and you are done! That is the traditional pancake!!
Oh, and I forgot to mention an extra little sprinkle of sugar on top!
I have to admit that I wasn't a huge fan of the lemon juice. Maybe I put too much on, but after eating some of my lemon pancake and then taking a bite of the one rolled with maple syrup, it was like a little taste of heaven! I'm sure the sour lemon juice and going to the sweet maple syrup had something to do with it as well.
After we saw our mix only made 6 pancakes we were planning on what we would eat after we got hungry in 10 minutes. I was so full after two that I had to give Rose my last lemon pancake to eat!
Mmmmmmmhmmmmmmmmm :)
What do you think???
Which would your prefer?? American "fluffy" pancakes or English rolled pancakes?
Well, I think they look like really big Swedish pancakes that we make once in a while...Very interesting but I don't know about putting lemon juice on them!!!
ReplyDeleteRoll some of the English bacon up in one and wash it down with some dark beer. Now THAT would be a good meal. -kb
ReplyDeleteThat is what I said grandma but the dough tastes different and you have to have the lemon juice for tradition! So they are a bit different. Maybe we can have a pancake day when I get back and you can try the different styles.
ReplyDeleteKevin, I have yet to eat the English bacon because I am slightly afraid of it due to a non eating ham taste bud. Our what they call "streaky bacon" is just fake and greasy and crisp enough to handle. The thick English bacon hasn't called my name yet! I'll have to give it a go before I leave to get the full experience.