I love food. I really love some of the Swedish food like the meatballs, pyttipanna, and of course pancakes. So I’ve been trying to cook lately. Even got myself a cookbook before I left the US. My cooking skills are less than stellar but I make do. I haven’t gone to bed hungry once yet which is always a plus. In an attempt to get in touch with my Swedish side a few days ago I decided to try to make Swedish pancakes.
Swedish pancakes are very thing, kind of crepeish if you will. They are also delicious and served with jam and usually cream. I didn’t have any cream but I had plenty of jam. I also had the pancake mix (I’m not quite ready for making them from scratch, but if you are check out a recipe), butter, water, and a frying pan. I even tried to be fancy and add some vanilla sugar. I was set.
I was wrong. There is apparently some skill involved in getting the pancakes to look Swedish. With a sort of mottled browning look. Well I set about with a medium heat for the first pancake and a whole lot of butter in the pan. I was hungry though, and when I get hungry I get impatient. So I started flipping. Apparently a bit early and what I ended up with was a pancake that was drowning in butter and falling apart. So I decided that a higher heat would speed the process and keep the pancake from falling apart when I flipped it.
I was right. Sort of. The pancake cooked very quickly, unfortunately I couldn’t get the mottled look on one side. When I flipped it, by moving it around on the frying pan I got the mottled look, which was a moral victory for me. Well the problem with a higher heat was that t cooked the outside of the pancake pretty quickly. In fact so quickly that it tricked me into thinking the pancake was done. Now as I said, Swedish pancakes tend to be very thin but they still need to cook all the way through. Mine didn’t. And now I’ve decided that next time I cook them I need to eat something before I start so that my stomach isn’t governing my cooking skills.
Jag kan inte heller göra pannkakor utan pannkaksmix.. :P
ReplyDeletepatience is virtue, dude! how often should i tell you that? hahaha! anyhow, i wonder if you were using the correct frying pan, you know this heavy iron pan with six small indentions or something like that. the depth of the indents ensure the correct thickness. i think you can buy this kind of pan relatively cheap from clas ohlson.
ReplyDeleteDet är skönt att det är andra som har problem med det och inte bara jag!
ReplyDeleteSeriously! I struggle with the pateience sometimes it seems. I definitely need to look into one of the fancy frying pans. it would probably make the whole process a lot easier.
ReplyDeleteYou get an A for effort! :) Learning to cook is about trial and error!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate it. I think I'm going to make a go of it again here pretty soon. They are just so good when they are wellmade.
ReplyDeleteHere's a much more simple recipe:
ReplyDelete1 egg
2 dl flour
4 dl milk
a little salt
a lot of butter
For two persons or something like that.
Im nervous about even trying this. I cant even make the pancakes when I use a premade mix...
ReplyDeleteBut Ill give it a shot.
I don't put the butter in the batter, but directly into the pan.
ReplyDeleteImagine that you divide the pan into three sections, then fill one section (not the middle one) and tilt the pan so that the batter fills all of it. Then you should get about the right thickness. Don't touch it until it is dry on top, then you can flip it over. Usually it only needs seconds on the other side.
The pan should be hot, but if the butter starts to reek and turn brown it's way too hot. It should just frizzle and turn into a yellowish clear liquid.
I'm not a fan of jam on the pancakes, I usually just put a thin layer of sugar on top. Another tasty thing is to put a string of creamed mushrooms in the middle and roll it up.
Ive been told that I should try a different pan also. apparently cast iron pans are not good for making pancakes.
ReplyDeleteOn the contrary, they are the best ones. :)
ReplyDeleteBut you mustn't clean it with soap or any kind of detergent. Anything you make in it will stick if you do. Just use hot water and finish it off with a paper towel.
Now I've finally read all of your blog. It took a while to get through a few years of writings, but it was entertaining. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteglad to hear. and of course I only use water to clean then cast iron pan.
ReplyDelete