Stack of pancakes
Did you know that today is pancake day? I didn’t know up until two days ago that apparently today is THE day to bake pancakes. Obviously I do not need much excuses to start baking pancakes and it had been a while so I figured today would be as good a day as any. But then I started thinking; is this an American festivity and what is it all about?
I did a bit of googling around and according to most sites, this is by origin celebrated in English speaking countries and is traditionally the start of lent. Back in the day, eggs, butter and flour where considered to be luxury items and the idea was to have a bit of a splurge before the period of lent would start. Now, the funny thing is that we Dutch or at least the Christians are familiar with this as well and it is called pannenkoekendag. However, and I don’t know why, we decided that it would be a good idea to have a pancake day in March. March 30th to be exact. They even came up with their own website so go and check out all the details. it’s no longer anything to do with religion as far as I can tell, and it’s just all about eating pancakes.
One of the really cool things about it is that one of the highlights of the National Pancake day is that schools can enter and that means that the kids are baking for the elderly people. I just think that is a fun and cool concept of the pancake day. The schools can go and bake for the kids grandpa’s and grandma’s or for a home for the elderly. The price they can win (there has to be a price ofcourse) is a fun trip with the school to the Efteling. Nothing to do anymore with the original concept of pancake day but I still thought it was worth mentioning.
Does your country have any special traditions around pancake-day?
I’m sharing my pancake recipe below. I baked two batches, one with buttermilk, yogurt and a little bit of cocoa and the other plain. The plain ones I topped with caramelized apples in butter and honey… Delicious!
Some more pancake recipes you might want to try:
Pancakes with caramelized apples
Print recipe
| Serves | 15 |
| Prep time | 10 minutes |
| Cook time | 30 minutes |
| Total time | 40 minutes |
| Meal type | Dessert |
| Misc | Child Friendly, Serve Cold, Serve Hot |
| Website | BBC Good Food |
Ingredients
- 200g self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 egg
- 300ml milk
- 3 apples (peeled, cored and cut into slices)
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons butter
Directions
| Start by making the caramelized apples. Once the apples are cleaned, put a pan on the stove and melt the butter. Add the apple slices to it and add 1 tbsp of honey. Leave to gently bake for about 5 minutes or until the apples are tender. Remove from the heat and add the cinnamon and 1 extra tbsp of honey to the apples. Leave to cool. | |
| Put the selfraising flour, the baking powder and the salt in a large bowl. Put the milk and the egg together and whisk until combined. Make a well in the middle of the flour and slowly poor in the milk mixture until you have a thick smooth batter. | |
| Heat a frying pan with a little bit of oil or butter and bake 1 tbsp of batter at the time until all your batter is gone. Leave to bake in the pan until bubbles begin to form on top of the surface, then flip the pancake and quickly bake the other side as well | |
Note
For the chocolate pancakes I used the same ingredients but added 1 tbsp of cocoa powder to it. I also replaced the 300 ml milk by 150 ml yogurt and 150 ml buttermilk. The rest of the recipe remains the same.
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
I never knew about Pancake Day until I discovered food blogs!
Yours look yummy!
I never knew about pancake day until mm, I think I saw it on twitter first..
Mmmhhh, you are making me drool! They look delicious.
We’ll be having a big savory pancakes tonight….
Cheers,
Rosa
Nice. I should be making more savory pancakes too but I tend to turn to the sweets..
Tempting blog and clicks..You are tempting me to make pancakes..
Love
Deepa
Your pancakes look AMAZING and have inspired me to make some for our National Pancake Day here in the US on the 28th! I may have to have them before AND during National Pancake Day – a week is a loooong time to wait!
Lol… Yes and we have another pancake day here too in March…
It’s a hard life..lol
Ooooo I loooooove pancakes
Ik doe ook wel eens het eiwit apart mixen en daarna erdoor heen, mmmmmmm worden ze nog dikker en donzig (hahahaha sorry kan het woord niet vinden) van.
Pfff ik heb er meteen trek in, o en ik moet dus in mijn agenda zetten 21-02 pannekoekendag!
(enne nee valt niet mee foto’s maken van food, lang niet gedaan.)
Donzig…hmmm, krijg ik toch een heel ander beeld van.. Haha… Maar snap wat je bedoelt!
Happy pancake day!!! They look yum!
And they were yum too!
Yumm! They look maginificent Simone! I made pancakes too the other day completing forgetting about “Shrove Tuesday”.
Ah yes shrove tuesday… You must have ‘felt’ pancakes in the air Peter!
I cld eat this for blast lunch dinner and get up next morning and do the same thing over again
Yep that would not be an issue for me either!
Replacing the milk with yogurt and buttermilk really makes a difference? Which batch was your favorite?
The caramelized apples look just… irresistible!
That’s a lot of pancakes! Can I come over for breakfast?
Gorgeous pancakes! And the photos are almost edible!
Misschien kunnen we de wereld rondreizen van de ene lokale pannenkoekendag naar de andere. In België worden er immers traditioneel pannenkoeken gebakken op Maria Lichtmis, 2 februari. Dus in de agenda : 2/2, 21/2, 30/3, … Hoewel … wie heeft een reden nodig om pannenkoeken te bakken?
Deze zien er in elk geval verrukkelijk uit. Ik ben bijna geneigd om in mijn scherm te bijten
O ik ben helemaal voor! Wanneer vertrekken we?
Mmm, there’s nothing like a a photo of a stack of pancakes positively dripping with syrup to incite the appetite. I wasn’t hungry before, but now, I could really go for something sweet and sticky!
In all my years in U.S. and in food blogging, this is the first year I’ve seen pancakes everywhere. Typically, each region has it’s own FAT Tuesday tradition. It was fried doughnuts where I come from in Pennsylvania. In New Orleans, it’s Kings Cake, which is seen all over U.S. This pancake thing makes sense before Lent, I was just late finding out. Now that stack you’ve made is enough for the whole family. Looks divine. (I’m off wheat and sugar for two weeks, but maybe later).
We don’t have a pancake day but that doesn’t stop me from eating them
I love Dutch pancakes…and especially stroop!!
I live in the UK, and pancake day is BIG here! Some people have them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. As an expat I just miss the stroop… But the local way, with lemon and sugar, has shown to be an excellent replacement.
I never knew it was Pancake Day!! I only know it was Mardi Gras on Feb 21st! hahaha.. I would’ve made stacks and stacks of pancakes had I known!! Anyway, you have such awesome photography skills! i really like the way you styled your pancakes! The syrup with the fruits…. mmmm..!! Lovely!
There is such a thing as a pancake day??? So that’s why pancakes are all over the place these days. OMG, I never knew. I will definitely have to look into that. I wouldn’t want to miss it next year. Hey, can’t pass on an opportunity to have pancakes, now, can I?
Especially not if they’re going to look as good as yours, Simone. 
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