Whether sweet or savoury, fluffy or dense, the pancake has been the ultimate comfort food since the Greek and Roman eras, according to Ken Albala, a history professor at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif. Now a Sunday-brunch staple, they move to prime time on Shrove Tuesday as the traditional evening meal before the start of Lent. “It’s the time to eat up all the eggs and butter,” says Dr. Albala, the author of Pancake: A Global History. “This is when you go completely and utterly overboard with the biggest, fattiest meal.”
Follow these tips to serve up starchy goodness any day of the week.
Skip the baking powder
North American pancakes are typically made with baking powder, but Dr. Albala doesn’t like the resulting tinny flavour. He prefers to pump up the fluff factor by whipping the egg whites. “You fold them into the batter, then gently lay it in the pan,” he says. “It makes the pancake really, really light and airy inside.”
Use a starter
Favouring porous pancakes – rather than the denser British style – Dr. Albala often uses a sourdough starter to give his pancakes a lift. The starter’s combination of flour, water, bacteria and yeast “adds a really nice tang,” he says. “But you have to leave the batter for a few hours for the levain [leavening agent] to work.”
Vary the flour
To inject flavour and change the pancake’s texture, try swapping your all-purpose or whole wheat flour for a different variety, such as whole grain spelt or kamut. “Wheat flour contains gluten, and the batter sometimes gets overworked as you stir it. That can lead to rubbery pancakes,” explains Dr. Albala. “Other flours will make the pancakes more tender and pleasant.”
Air dry
If you pile your pancakes (which Dr. Albala dislikes; they “get cloying”), use this quick-dry technique: “When you take a pancake right out of the pan it’s still exuding moisture, so the one below it in the stack is going to absorb the moisture and get soggy,” he says. “This is kind of a weird trick, but you can wave the pancake in the air – or put it on a rack – for about 15 seconds once it’s out of the pan. It’ll be a little cooler but much nicer.”
Go global
If your griddle’s lost its sizzle try your hand at the lacy French crêpe; the savoury Japanese okonomiyaki; the bite-sized Australian pikelet; the wrap-like Indian dosa; or the oven-baked Finnish pannukakku (the lovechild of a pancake and popover).
One of Dr. Abala’s favourite sweet treats is the Danish skiver. “You make them in a little pan with these circular depressions, and can put any kind of fruit in the middle,” he says. “It’s sort of a cross between a pancake and a doughnut, but it’s not fried so you don’t need a deep fryer. You sprinkle them with powdered sugar and often soak them in rum.”
And don’t do this … Soak your pancakes. Serve syrup on the side to make the last bite as good as the first.
Special to The Globe and Mail
