Swedish Pancakes by Ronya Strom If you’ve ever had to go to school on the weekend growing up, whether it was for a second language, to take your SATs, or those dreaded Kumon math classes, you can probably still hear your parent’s voice yelling at you to wake up after your fifth snoozed alarm. For me, something about going to Swedish school on a Sunday morning destroyed the concept of weekends as a time to relax, turning every Sunday into a battle between me and my bed. However, there was one rare exception that could flip the whole situation: the aroma of melting butter. Whether I slept for twelve hours or four, the sound of sizzling butter on a Sunday morning would wake me up instantly. In most households, the smell of butter can mean almost anything, but in my family, Sunday mornings and melting butter can only mean pannkakor, or Swedish pancakes. Paired with powdered sugar or jam (lingonberry and raspberry are the most common), these pancakes bring sweetness and a sense of joy, to even the groggiest of mornings. With simple ingredients and very little prep time, Swedish pancakes are an easy, traditional comfort food with variations existing across all of Northern Europe as well as some *mild* similarities to French crepes. Just don’t let any other Swedes hear you calling them crepes—that might end in a bloodbath.
RECIPE
Makes 7-10 pancakes 2 eggs ¾ cup flour 1 ½ cups milk ½ teaspoons salt 1 tsp vanilla sugar (or use normal sugar with a couple drops vanilla extract) 2 tbsp butter (plus more for frying) Instructions: 1. Combine all dry ingredients (flour, salt, sugar) together in a medium-sized bowl. 2. In a separate small bowl, Whisk together eggs and milk 3. Melt butter and combine into milk/egg mixture with the dry ingredients until uniformly mixed. 4. Melt butter in a frying pan and pour a thin layer of batter (just enough to cover the bottom). 5. When the pancake hardens and begins to turn matte, flip the pancake and fry for approximately 1 more minute until golden brown. 6. Repeat until all the batter is used up, greasing the pan with more butter in between every couple pancakes. 7. Serve with your choice of jam (lingonberry or raspberry is recommended) or powdered sugar!
PHOTO: Maria DiGiovanni
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