How to make pancakes - Elle à Table

Crêpes are made up of a layer of dough, more or less thin, in a round shape. Pancakes have always been a delight for young and old alike, thanks in particular to their simple recipe, their soft texture, and their flavor, which is delicate and delicious at the same time. Traditionally served hot, they can be savory or sweet. The savory pancakes are called "buckwheat pancakes", and are made from - we suspect - buckwheat flour also called buckwheat flour.

How to make crêpes?

Crêpes are a classic, which always pleases, and their recipe, very simple, adapts to all kinds of fillings.

Pancake batter

To make homemade pancakes, you must first start with the pancake batter. For the latter, we use pastry flour, T45 or T55. First, mix the flour, salt and sugar, then add the eggs in the middle. Once the preparation becomes thick, add the cold milk little by little, adjusting the dosage according to the texture: the dough must be quite fluid (but not too liquid either). Finally, you can mix everything with melted butter but it is not mandatory. There you go, your pancake batter is ready!

Of course, it is quite possible to make pancakes without lactose using vegetable milk or creams.

Flavour your pancake batter

Before cooking, you can flavor your pancake batter as you wish, with orange blossom for example or rum. For a pancake cake like Hélène Darroze, dilute a little matcha tea in the milk before incorporating the rest of the pancake batter. Spices, such as cinnamon or vanilla, can also be used to lightly flavor the latter. And for the greediest, we opt for cocoa powder. Mix it with the flour during the first step of the recipe to obtain 100% chocolate pancakes. To play on tradition, you can also flambé your crêpes with Grand Marnier, like Benoît Castel's crêpes suzette.

The method

Once the pancake batter is ready and flavored – or not –, heat the butter in a frying pan or griddle, before pouring a ladle of it evenly for each crepe. When you shake the pan, if the pancake moves, you have to sauté it to turn it over. Gourmet option: you can sprinkle with a little brown sugar, before turning over one last time to caramelize slightly. Repeat the action for each pancake.

Trick for fluffy pancakes

For even fluffier pancakes, we opt for the famous trick of beer which, thanks to its yeast, brings more fluffiness to the recipe. When preparing the dough, it is enough to replace a quarter of the milk with the latter. We thus obtain a dough which will have no taste when tasted, no worries, but which will be softer and lighter.

Catching up with pancake batter

If the recipe for pancake batter is quite simple, there are however several common mistakes to watch out for. For example, to prevent the latter from being too liquid or that there are no lumps, it is important to add the milk (or beer) gradually, and not all at once, which allows to control the texture. To make up for your pancake batter that is too liquid, just add more flour, always gradually. If lumps have already formed on the surface of your preparation, mix vigorously with a whisk, or mix it in a blender or an immersion blender.

Happy Candlemas!

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