Erin FoxLent is fast approaching which also means it’s time to get the pans out for Pancake Tuesday! Lent is about sacrificing luxuries to show our devotion to God, and Pancake Tuesday – or Shrove Tuesday – serves as a final day of indulging in goodies before 40 days of fasting.
The name Shrove Tuesday comes from the word ‘shrive’, which means to hear a confession, assign penance, and absolve from sin. Shrove Tuesday reminds us that we are entering a season of penance. Pancake Tuesday got its name because years ago people searched their cupboards the day before Ash Wednesday and used whatever ingredients they could find to create one last sweet before fasting. The combination of flour, milk and eggs resulted in the famous pancake.
A classic Pancake Tuesday flavour is freshly squeezed lemon juice and sugar, but everyone has their own favourite pancake topping. From savoury such as cheese, chive and tomato to super sweet like nutella, vanilla ice cream and strawberries, or blueberries and maple syrup. If you have pancakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner you can plan some very gourmet pancake dishes for the occasion!
For this recipe you can add the eggs all at once, but separating them makes the pancakes extra fluffy.
- 2 cups of flour
- 2 cups of buttermilk
- 2 tablespoons of caster sugar
- 2 large eggs separated
- pinch of salt
Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar. Make a well in the centre of the flour. Combine the egg yolks with the buttermilk and slowly add to the flour, whisking after each addition.
In a clean, greaseproof bowl, whisk the egg whites and the salt with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. You can do this by hand but you will need to be fast and have a lot of patience as it takes times to get the stiff peaks to form. However this will strengthen your muscles for some serious pancake flipping later on.
Fold the egg whites with a large metal spoon into the milk and flour mixture. Heat a frying pan to medium high and brush with oil or melted butter. Ladle some pancake batter into the pan and cook for three minutes on each side. When flipping the pancake, it’s best to gently loosen it from the pan first with a spatula.