Three Wise Men

Every now and then even a geek/nerd can get hungry. When caffeine is not enough and you are in desperate need of some carbo-hydrates, pancakes are a way to go. But what kind of a pancake? There are bazillion of different kinds of pancakes. From North American hamburger like pancakes to thin french crêpes with ham and cheese or chocolate and cream to go with. Sweet, sour or salty, you can have them in any flavor you desire, basically only the sky is the limit. From egss to batter and from batter to pancake, read on to find out how to make the finest french crêpes.

Ingredients:

• Eggs, shell can be of any color, around here we mostly get light brown ones
• Flour, there are many many flour types around, take plain white, the most common kind for a start
• Salt, not really a necessary ingredient, but most of the people like batter a little salty, I personally don’t care and I tend to avoid salt
• Milk, low-fat, full-fat, who cares if it looks like like milk, if it tastes like milk then it is good enough

Equipment:

• Bowl for batter
• Whisk for making batter
• Spatula¹ for TheFirstTurn(TM)
• Frying pan for frying, make sure your frying pan has low edge
• Two flat plates as temporary storage for new pancakes
• Pot cover for above plates
• Ladle for pouring the batter into the pan

The amount of ingredients will vary. From two eggs you can make anywhere from five to twenty pancakes. Twenty is already a stretch, but it can be done. The amount of milk and flour will be determined later. Batter has to be liquid enough so that will pour smooth enough to cover whole pan.

Eggs

Get the eggs in the bowl and make sure there is no egg shell in the bowl unless you want crunchy pancakes. ;) Then give them a good whisk. If you want to bother, you can separate egg white and make egg foam if you want. Then you use all the other ingredients and make the batter and add the foam in the end. I just didn’t bother to do that, it takes some time and people around me were already hungry, besides making an egg foam with a whisk will put some strain on your wrists and we just can’t afford a carpal tunnel problems, can we? ;)

Eggs being whisked

Give your eggs a good whisk and then start adding milk. Slowly whisking away don’t forget about the salt. The amount of milk will vary, it mostly depends on the size of your ladle, pan and the number of pancakes that will be consumed. Rule of thumb goes that one ladle should fill one pan and that an average person can eat at least three to five pancakes, depends also on filling and dressing. Cases where people have had ten to twenty pancakes are also known so make sure that you know all the people that will feast with you. Now you have eggs and milk. Frying this will result in a very milky scrambled eggs so we better add some flour.

Pretty white goo..

There, the gooey, yet liquid batter is ready. A secret ingredient here could be also 1/4 cup of sparkling water. It will make the batter lighter and smoother, some people claim that. But we’re not complicating things today so no sparkling water. As said before, batter should be very liquid. While adding flour you must be careful that you add it in very tiny amounts, whisking away while doing it, because flour will stick together and you will end up with a batter full of tiny little clumps. At this point you can taste the batter if you want it.It is really nothing special, you can add more salt if you want to, but don’t over do it unless you’re planning to eat your pancakes with ham and cheese.

Heating it up

Batter is ready and we have to prepare for frying. On the left side: a plate with a cover, on the right side: frying pan which I use only for pancakes, few drops of oil in it and the spatula. Heat is essential. When you think you pan is hot enough try tilting it a little and watch the oil in it. Does it flow almost like water? If so, then you’re basically ready. The best is to have oil heated up almost to the smoke point. Now pour batter in the pan. Use ladle, pour in the middle of the pan and then tilt it to the sides so that batter covers whole pan. Minimize the amount of batter you need to cover the whole pan. It will take some practice until you reach the perfection. One of the important things is to use the same ladle every time you’re making pancakes so that you always know how much batter you’ll be pouring in the pan. When batter is evenly distributed around the pan settle it down on the cooking top. Cooking top should always be on maximum setting.

Waiting for the first one

Turn, baby turn

Now you wait it will take about two minutes before you turn the pancake. First the outer edges will start to curl inside. When that happens use the spatula to go around the pan making sure that pancake won’t stick to the pan. After a minute or so you’ll notice that batter is solid and a little darker, this is the time when you use spatula to go under the pancake and make sure it doesn’t stick to the pan on the bottom. We took care of the edges before. At this point you’ll see if you used too much batter. If that happens just spread it evenly around the pan or lift the pancake on one side, tilt the pan and let the batter flow under the pancake then give it few more seconds on the heat. For the first turn I always use spatula. Tossing the pancake in the air in first turn can be risky. All other turns, which are not needed anyway, can be made with tossing. No problems there, but as I said, they are really not needed. When you turn the pancake, put the pan down for a minute or so and you’re done.

One down, fifteen to go

There, your first pancake. Now rinse and repeat for next thirty one. You do realize that the number of pancakes you make should be either a prime number or a power of two, aren’t you a geek or what? Freshly done pancakes can either be eaten or put on the temporary stack. It is a standard LIFO stack and it serves as temporary storage for pancakes. Temporary storage should be covered with a cover to keep the moist and heat inside. Dried up and cold pancakes are as good to eat as doormats, so be careful. I always turn on the cooking top where the stack is on minimum setting. So the plate also heats up, take care when you pick it up and carry it to the table.

Stack of 16

Ending stack will look something like picture on the right. All pancakes are done and you have no batter left. True art is when the amount of batter is divisible with the exact number of ladles you needed so that you end up with no batter when you make the last pancake. Only true masters can do this. ;) Notice the condensed water on the cover? Without the cover all this water would escape in the atmosphere drying up pancakes and turning them into doormats in best scenario.

Now all that you have to do is to decide on what to put on the pancakes and how to serve them. Usually they are rolled up and you eat them with your hands. In a restaurant they usually serve them folded in triangle with fork and spoon. Fork for eating and spoon for cutting. Who came up with this silly idea I don’t know. I use knife instead of spoon.

The end result?

Needs more chocolate