France: Crepe
Interestingly, in France, the day of eating pancakes is called Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras). On this day, festivities and competitions are held everywhere, traditionally including a race with a hot frying pan, during which a pancake must be tossed in the air.
French pancakes, popular in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Portugal and Brazil (where they may be called panquecas or crepes) are made from flour, milk and eggs. They are thin pancakes and are usually served with a large amount of sweets or other savory fillings, ranging from fruits or ice cream to seafood (in Brazil, most often it's minced meat).
Breton galette – a large thin pancake made from buckwheat flour, mainly associated with the regions of Normandy and Brittany in France. It is often fried only on one side.
Germany: Pannenkoek with bacon and Gouda cheese
German pancakes are called Pfannkuchen (Pfanne and Kuchen mean "frying pan" and "pie"). In some regions (Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony), pancakes are called Eierkuchen, because the name Pfannkuchen is used in Berlin. In Swabia, a pancake cut into strips (Flädle) is often served in soup.
Kaiserschmarrn – imperial schmarrn – is a thin, caramelized pancake divided into pieces, filled with fruits and/or nuts, sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with fruit sauce. "Schmarren" means "cut, slit" and is also used as slang for "nonsense", and Kaiser, of course, means emperor in German. It looks like a stunning dish of shredded pancakes. But it tastes much better than it looks. This torn or shredded pancake is first carefully fried, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and then topped with apple or plum syrup, or syrup from other fruits.
Imperial schmarrn
Needed for 4 servings: 3/4 cup + 75 g flour, 4 eggs (separate yolks from whites), a pinch of salt, 125 ml milk, fat or vegetable oil for frying, 4 tablespoons powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons (10 ml) cinnamon
Preparation: Place the flour in a bowl and make a well in the center. Mix the yolks, salt and half the milk in a pitcher, then pour into the well in the flour. Gradually stir the mixture, then whisk vigorously until smooth and bubbly. Pour in and mix the remaining milk. In a clean, greaseless bowl, beat the egg whites until they thicken. Whisk the batter again and fold into the whites.
Heat a little fat or oil in a large frying pan. Drain off excess. Pour a quarter of the batter into the pan and fry over medium heat for 1 minute until the bottom of the pancake is light brown. Flip and fry the other side for 30 seconds until golden.
Cut the pancake into pieces with a spatula. Place them on a plate, then fry the remaining 1/4 and repeat the procedure. Then immediately put the cut pieces back into the pan and heat for 30 seconds, carefully turning the pieces.
Place on a sheet of parchment paper, add 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and mix. Place on a warmed plate and keep in a water bath. Cook the remaining batter the same way, greasing the pan as needed. Serve with compote or jam, to taste.
Netherlands – wheel-sized pancakes
In the Netherlands, pancakes are called pannenkoeken and are served for lunch. Pancake restaurants are popular for family outings and offer pancakes with various sweet and savory toppings and fillings. Pannenkoeken are slightly thicker than crepes and are usually quite large (25 cm or more) in diameter. The batter is egg-based, and the filling can be sliced apples, cheese, ham, bacon, candied ginger, black treacle and many others – individually or in combination.
Poffertje is another classic Dutch type of pancake, but sweeter and smaller (resembling mini pancakes). To make them, you need a special indented pan, preferably copper. During cooking, Poffertjes are constantly tossed so that the sides don't burn.
Dutch classic Poffertjes
Needed: 1 packet dry yeast, milk, buckwheat flour – 1 cup, wheat flour – 100 g, eggs – 2, sugar – 1 tbsp, salt – 1/2 tsp, warm milk – 250 ml, to taste: plums, butter, powdered sugar, strawberries, whipped cream
Preparation: Dissolve the yeast in 1 tbsp of milk. In a separate bowl, mix the buckwheat and plain flour, eggs, sugar, salt, half the milk and add the yeast. Stir, then add the remaining milk. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the batter rest for one hour.
In a pan, melt butter, drop the batter by teaspoonfuls onto the pan, forming mini pancakes. Fry on both sides. Serve the mini pancakes (Poffertjes) sprinkled with powdered sugar, with strawberries and whipped cream.
Scandinavia – blueberry pancake
Traditional Swedish variations of pancakes can be exotic. Along with ordinary thin pancakes called pannkakor, which resemble French crepes and are often served with whipped cream and jam, they are eaten for lunch on Thursdays with pea soup; Swedish cuisine also has plättar, which resemble tiny English pancakes, and are fried several at a time on a special pan.
Others resemble German pancakes, but fried pork is added to the batter and they are baked in the oven. Potato pancakes are called raggmunk, made from grated raw potatoes and may also contain other vegetables. Raggmunk are traditionally eaten with pork cracklings and lingonberry jam.
Special Swedish pancakes – saffron pancakes from Gotland, are made from saffron and rice, and baked in the oven. Norwegian pancakes are usually eaten for lunch, traditionally with various kinds of jam or sugar. To give the sugar a special flavor, lemon juice is also often added to it.
Another special "Swedish pancake" is aggakaka (egg cake), also called skansk aggakaka (egg cake from Scania), which looks almost the same as a regular Swedish pancake, but is much thicker, and also much more difficult to make due to the risk of burning it. It is cooked in a frying pan, and its thickness is 4 to 5 cm, served with lingonberries and bacon.
Swedish blueberry fritters – PLАTTAR
You will need: 3 eggs, 200 ml flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1-2 tbsp sugar, 200 ml low-fat sour cream (preferably 10%, liquid), 200 ml blueberries (can be frozen), 2 tbsp melted butter, a pinch of salt.
Preparation: Beat eggs with sour cream and salt, add flour mixed with baking powder, sugar, 1 tbsp melted butter. Mix until a homogeneous thick batter is obtained. Add frozen blueberries, bake fritters on a hot frying pan, greasing it with the remaining butter. Serve with blueberries and liquid honey, or maple syrup, or sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Central and Eastern Europe – pancake as a cake
In Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia, pancakes are called palatschinke, palacinka and palacinka respectively (plural Palatschinken, palacinky, palacinky). In these languages, the word derives from Latin placenta, i.e. cake. These thin pancakes are filled with apricots, plums, lingonberries, strawberries or apple jam, chocolate sauce or hazelnut paste.
In Hungary, pancakes are called palacsinta (also from Latin placenta) and are made from flour, milk or carbonated water, sugar and eggs. Sweet wine is also added to the batter. The filling is usually jam, candied and ground walnuts or poppy seeds, cottage cheese with sugar, cocoa powder or cinnamon, but meat and mushroom fillings are also used, especially in hortobаgyi palacsinta.
Gundel palacsinta are Hungarian pancakes stuffed with walnuts, zest, raisins and rum, and served in chocolate sauce. This dish is often flambéed before serving.
Hortobаgyi palacsinta (Savory Hungarian pancakes with meat)
You will need for 2 servings: 0.5 kg potatoes, egg, onion, tablespoon flour, salt, pepper to taste, oil for frying, marjoram. For filling: 400 g beef, onion, carrot, 2 bell peppers, allspice, 2 bay leaves, salt, pepper to taste, a pinch of hot pepper, 2 tablespoons cream or flour to thicken, grated cheese for sprinkling on top, green onion or parsley.
Preparation: Cut the meat into 2x2 cm cubes, roll each individually in flour and fry in hot oil. Then put the fried beef in a saucepan with chopped onion, bay leaf and a few allspice berries, pour in 2 cups of water, add spices with salt and pepper and start to stew. The meat should simmer on low heat until done for 0.5 h, 1 h or more, until the meat is tender enough.
Then add chopped carrots and red bell pepper to the saucepan and stew for another hour, sometimes even one and a half. If necessary, add a little water as it evaporates. At the end of cooking, add hot pepper, pour in cream and add a little flour for thickness if necessary. Cool the filling.
For forming the pancakes, prepare the batter as follows. Wash, peel and grate the potatoes and onion on a fine grater. Add a tablespoon of flour, egg, salt, pepper, marjoram. Mix everything well. On a heated frying pan, pour portions of this potato mixture with a tablespoon and bake until golden and crispy on both sides.
Place the pancakes on parchment to remove excess fat. On each pancake, put a small portion of stewed meat with spices, sprinkle with grated hard cheese (preferably Parmesan cheese) and lightly brown in the oven. Serve hot.
Great Britain and Ireland – oats and still there
English pancakes are similar to French crêpes and Italian crespelle, but Puritanically plain and lacking the "lace" of their southern counterparts. They can be served as a dessert with traditional lemon juice, sugar and golden syrup, or filled with a savory filling and served as a main course.
On Pancake Day (Maslenitsa), it is customary to eat pancakes with lemon juice. In Staffordshire, oatcakes are a variety of pancakes and are especially popular. Scottish pancakes (often known as Scotch pancakes) are called "dropped scones" because the batter is not placed but dropped onto the griddle. They are made from flour, eggs, sugar, buttermilk or milk, salt, baking soda and cream of tartar. They are smaller in diameter than American or English pancakes – only about 9 cm in diameter. They can be served with jam and cream or simply with butter.
North America – silver dollar pancake
American or Canadian pancakes (sometimes called hotcakes, griddle cakes, or flapjacks) contain a leavening agent; eggs, flour and milk or buttermilk in appropriate proportions, and form a thick batter. Many recipes remind the reader that ingredients should not be overmixed, as even if lumps remain, they will disappear during cooking.
These pancakes have a very light texture, usually served for breakfast, topped with maple syrup, butter, jam, peanut butter, nuts, fruits and/or honey. Some pancake recipes use yogurt to make the pancakes less thick and have a relatively moist consistency.
Jonnycake or journey cake (in English, the name Johnny and the word journey are homophones) is a cornmeal flatbread that was a staple food among the first settlers of America, and it is still eaten in the West Indies and Bermuda. The modern jonnycake is fried from cornmeal mush made from yellow or white cornmeal mixed with salt and hot water or milk, and is often slightly sweetened.
Flapjack is a thick pancake, typically about 10 cm in diameter. Flapjacks are often served in stacks with syrup and butter, as well as with bacon. The terms pancake and flapjack are often confused, and today in the US they are almost synonyms.
The pancake called 'Silver Dollar' has a diameter of 5 to 7 cm, slightly larger than the silver dollar coin that was in the United States until 1979, after which it was named. Its batter is no different from regular pancake batter. A serving consists of 5 to 10 'silver dollars'.
American 'silver dollar' pancake
You will need: 3 eggs, 0.5 L cream (10%), about 2.5 cups of flour, sugar to taste – about 6 tablespoons, 0.5 teaspoon of baking soda, oil for frying, a pinch of salt, vanilla extract, cinnamon to taste (can be more generous)
Preparation: Separate the yolks from the whites. Beat the whites with salt. Mix the yolks with sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, add the baking soda, gradually add the cream and flour, mixing with a whisk. Add the beaten whites to the resulting mixture.
Heat a frying pan, lightly grease it with oil (a silicone brush is convenient), and pour the batter with a ladle. Do not spread it over the entire pan; the pancakes will turn out 10-12 cm in diameter, thick, fluffy, aromatic, and sweet. It is important to cook the pancakes over medium heat and cover with a lid! Occasionally grease the pan with a thin layer of oil.