Greetings, dear readers of Alexey Shevchenko’s blog “Healthy Lifestyle”. Entire encyclopedias have been written about such a popular dish as pancakes. The variety of recipes and tastes is simply colossal. This dish is always welcome, but every year for a whole week it takes on special meaning. During this period, even those whom doctors categorically advise against eating it eat it. As you probably already guessed, we are talking about Maslenitsa treats.
This year, Maslenitsa week begins immediately after Defender of the Fatherland Day - February 24, and the end of Maslenitsa (Forgiveness Sunday), respectively, falls on March 1. Thus, the cheerful feast of the “men’s” holiday is replaced by Maslenitsa treats.
Pancakes for Maslenitsa with sour milk
Before moving on to the recipes, I want to say a few words about the intricacies of the science of “pancake baking,” namely: how to avoid the most unpleasant situation when not only the first, but also the second, and third, and so on, the pancake comes out lumpy.
Stubborn dough sticking to the surface of the pan can greatly spoil the mood. Of course, the resulting scraps will still be tasty, but for the sake of the holiday, you want the dish to look perfect.
The main reason for sticking is an improperly heated pan. It's either too cold or too hot.
A stainless steel frying pan will make you suffer and ruin a lot of your pancakes. The least problems arise with old cast iron models and with expensive cookware that has a high-quality non-stick coating.
Another useful note: chicken eggs in recipes can be replaced with quail eggs at the rate of 1 chicken (medium size) equal to three quail eggs (you can read about various dishes made from quail eggs here and here).
Fluffy pancakes.
If you have sour milk, you can make an excellent Maslenitsa treat using it. But nowadays, getting good sour milk is a real problem. A store-bought product, despite all the tricks, in most cases does not turn sour, but goes rancid. In the summer you can buy natural milk at the market, but at the height of Maslenitsa the village cows are not milked. Therefore, if the milk does not sour, then it can be replaced with store-bought curdled milk or unsweetened yogurt without flavoring additives.
Ingredients:
- wheat flour - 2 cups;
- eggs – 4 small or 3 large;
- sour milk (yogurt or yogurt) – 400 grams;
- fat cottage cheese – 250 grams;
- sparkling mineral water – 250 milliliters;
- vegetable oil – 50 milliliters;
- sugar – 1 tablespoon;
- salt - a pinch;
- baking powder for dough - on the tip of a knife.
I would like to immediately focus on the number of eggs. The insidiousness of this product lies in the unevenness of the sizes. And proportions are very important to obtain an impeccable result.
If there are too many eggs in the dough, then the finished pancakes will taste like an omelet or will be too hard.
To achieve the right balance, you have to watch the sizes, and if they are too large, you need to reduce the number of pieces.
Sugar plays an equally important role. If you over-sugar, the pancakes will stick to the pan like magnets and will also burn very quickly. If you want to make it sweeter, then it’s better to sprinkle additional sugar on already prepared pancakes, or you can serve them with jam, syrup, honey, and so on.
Before cooking, remove all foods from the refrigerator and allow them to come to room temperature. This will ensure good mixability.
The flour, of course, must be sifted through a sieve, otherwise there is nothing to think about the splendor of the dough.
You need to beat the pancake dough the old-fashioned way - using a whisk or spoon. A mixer or blender is, of course, faster, but they change the consistency of the products so much that the pancakes turn out tasteless and too dense.
So, when all the important points are taken into account, let's move on to cooking.
Step 1. Beat eggs with sugar and salt.
Step 2. Add cottage cheese, butter, flour, baking powder, stir thoroughly.
Step 3. Now, with constant stirring, gradually add sparkling mineral water. As a result, the mass should acquire the consistency of thick sour cream.
Step 4. Place a non-stick frying pan on the fire, heat it up, pour in a small portion of the dough and bake until it turns straw-colored. Then turn the pancake over and bake it on the other side, too, until it turns straw-colored.
The finished dish turns out so soft that you don’t even have to chew it, but simply grind it with your tongue in your mouth. This is very convenient for those who have to wear dentures or have recently suffered from gum disease.
Pancakes on sourdough.
One of my favorite options is pancakes on sourdough. It takes longer to tinker with them, but the result is incomparable.
Ingredients:
- wheat flour – 1 kilogram;
- milk – 4–5 glasses;
- water – 2 glasses;
- melted butter - 3 tablespoons;
- eggs – 2 pieces;
- sugar – 2 tablespoons;
- salt – 1 ½ teaspoons;
- yeast (regular unpressed) – 40 grams.
Step 1. First of all, we need to prepare the dough. I prefer live yeast. With them the dough turns out especially fluffy and tender.
Heat the water to a temperature of approximately 40°C, dissolve our piece of yeast in it, add half the flour (500 grams), knead well until a homogeneous, smooth liquid mass is obtained.
Step 2. Cover the bowl with the dough with a clean towel and place in a warm place for 1 hour. If you have a multicooker, you can set the dough to rise in it. To do this, set the heating temperature to 40°C.
Step 3. After an hour, when the dough is ready, take the eggs, separate the whites from the yolks and pour the yolks into the dough. Also add salt, sugar, melted (but not hot) butter, and stir until smooth. Add the remaining 500 grams of flour and knead again.
Thorough kneading is one of the main conditions for obtaining excellent pancakes.
Step 4. Heat the milk to a temperature of approximately 40°C and pour it into the dough in small portions, stirring thoroughly each time. It is important to remember that both cold milk and too hot milk will interfere with the development of yeast, which will make the dough sour and deprive it of its fluffiness.
The finished dish will still taste good, but the result will not be great.
Step 5. Cover the bowl again with a towel (this is important, since yeast does not like air movement above the surface of the dough) and place it in a warm place.
From time to time we check how things are going, and when the dough rises, knead it and stir.
We repeat the whole cycle again.
Step 6. Now beat the whites into a stiff foam, add them to the dough, knead and let them rise for the last time. As soon as it fits, we immediately start baking.
If we want the pancakes to be crispier, then instead of 1 kilogram of wheat flour we need to take 0.5 kilograms of buckwheat and 0.5 kilograms of wheat. We make the dough from wheat with one tablespoon of buckwheat. And then after rising, add the rest of the buckwheat.
With banana and chocolate sauce
As you know, Maslenitsa is celebrated on a grand scale not only in Russia, but also in Georgia. At the cafe-cheese factory “Mama Gochi”
They prepared for it with all seriousness: they baked golden brown pancakes and prepared a variety of fillings. We tried everything and chose pancakes with banana and a sauce based on aromatic dark chocolate and cream for our sweet treat.
Ingredients:
For pancakes:
- Sunflower oil – 200 g
- Milk 3.2% – 680 g
- Flour – 310 g
- Granulated sugar – 50 g
- Sour cream – 67 g
- Salt – 3 g
- Chicken egg – 4 pcs.
For the filling (serves 4):
- Milk 150 – g
- Dark chocolate – 60 g
- Sugar – 150 g
- Hennessy cognac – 20 g
- Butter – 20 g
- Banana – 2 pcs.
How to cook:
Combine all ingredients and knead pancake dough. Let stand for 1 hour, then fry the pancakes in a cast iron frying pan on both sides, after greasing the pan with vegetable oil. Stack the pancakes on a plate, brushing each with melted butter.
To prepare chocolate sauce, add chocolate (powdered or bar) to cool milk, stirring constantly, pour in Hennessy and heat the mixture to 90 degrees. Add sugar and cook for another 3-4 minutes until smooth. At the end, carefully add the softened butter, continuing to stir, and remove from heat. Let cool slightly.
Cut the banana into small cubes, place in a bowl and pour over chocolate. Fold the pancakes into corners and serve on a plate next to the filling.
Delicious pancakes for Maslenitsa for children
Most holiday treats are too rich. They are heavy for the fragile stomachs of babies. But if you use special lightweight recipes, then Maslenitsa can be arranged for the little ones.
Of course, even baby pancakes can be served to children at least 8 months old, and only if they are already familiar with a variety of solid foods and if they are not allergic to eggs, milk or gluten. If you have any doubts, you should definitely consult your doctor first about the holiday meal.
By the way, the children's version of pancakes is also very tasty, and no adult will refuse it. If you don’t have time to do magic in the kitchen and cook the main symbol of the holiday according to different recipes, then you can safely bake “children’s” ones, and the whole family and guests will be very happy.
Ingredients for babies (from 8 months):
- infant formula - 200 milliliters;
- egg yolk – 1 piece;
- corn flour - in such quantity that the dough looks like thick sour cream;
- butter – 1 teaspoon.
Step 1: Melt the butter and let it cool (but not harden).
Step 2. Mix the butter, yolk and milk into a homogeneous mass.
Step 3. Add flour and knead as thoroughly as possible.
Step 4. Immediately bake pancakes in a non-stick frying pan without using additional fat.
The dish turns out very tender, but quickly loses its fluffiness and aroma, so it must be served warm.
If the child is already familiar with jams and mousses, then his portion can be filled with a small amount of his favorite treat. Adults can flavor their portion with anything - sour cream, honey, jam, additionally pour oil on it, wrap fish and caviar in pancakes.
For preschoolers (and older), apple cinnamon pancakes are great. They cook very quickly.
Ingredients (amount of products is calculated for two large pancakes):
- wheat flour – 0.5 cups;
- baby milk – 0.5 cups;
- sparkling mineral water – 70 milliliters (about a third of a glass);
- egg yolk – 1 piece;
- butter – 1 teaspoon;
- apples – 0.5 pieces;
- cinnamon - a pinch.
As you can see, no salt or sugar is needed for this recipe.
The cooking method is extremely simple. Sift the flour, mix it with water, milk and yolk. Beat the liquid, smooth dough.
Melt the butter, let it cool, add to the dough, mix thoroughly.
Wash the apple, peel it, remove the core and seeds. Grate it on a fine grater and mix it with the dough.
Add cinnamon, stir and immediately bake pancakes in a hot non-stick frying pan.
These pancakes go great with a simple apple mousse, which is prepared as follows.
Ingredients:
- apple - 1 piece;
- water – 3 tablespoons.
Peel and seed the washed apple and cut it into small pieces. Pour water into a small saucepan, add the pieces and cook until they are soft (this takes about 10 minutes). Remove from heat and additionally pound the puree with a masher or rub through a sieve.
Delicate, completely natural mousse is ready.
Thin pancakes with kefir
The most expensive models of modern frying pans have special indicators that show that the surface is hot enough and it’s time to cook. This is very convenient, but generally speaking, you can get by just fine with regular frying pans.
Of course, they are all made of different materials, have different wall thicknesses, and therefore each has its own heating rate. You can use either water or vegetable oil as a handy timer.
Heating with water: moisten the surface generously (but do not pour a layer of water, just wet it) and put it on fire. When the water evaporates, the desired temperature is reached.
Heating with oil: Pour in a very thin layer of oil and slowly count to ten. Pour out the overheated oil and start baking.
Kefir recipe.
The finished dish is particularly tender and rich in taste. Ingredients:
- wheat flour – 1 cup;
- kefir – 400 grams (this is about a glass and a quarter);
- water - three quarters of a glass;
- eggs – 2 pieces;
- sugar – 2 tablespoons;
- vegetable oil – 2 tablespoons + for greasing the pan;
- salt - a pinch.
Step 1. Pour kefir, water, eggs, sugar, salt, butter into a convenient bowl. Beat until smooth.
Step 2. Slowly add flour and stir constantly so that no lumps form.
Step 3. Leave the dough to mature for 30 minutes.
Step 4. Heat the frying pan, pour a little oil into it, pour out a small ladle of dough and shake the pan so that it spreads in an even layer.
Step 5. As soon as the surface begins to swell, turn the pancake over and fry it on the other side for one minute.
Kefir pancakes are good with any sauces and fillings.
With orange and caramel
Another recipe for pancakes with citrus fruits was offered to us by the chef of Le restaurant, Jeremy Uryuti.
. He adds rum and beer to the pancake dough, and liqueur to the filling, and the result is a very interesting effect. And considering that when serving the pancakes, he pours liquor over them and sets them on fire (this is called a flambé), it also turns out to be an element of a culinary show.
Ingredients:
For pancakes:
- Milk – 1.5 l
- Eggs – 2 pcs.
- Flour – 900 g
- Butter – 200 g
- Rum – 100 g
- Grand Marnier liqueur – 50 g
- Heineken – 500 g
For filling:
- Orange pulp – 120 g
- Grand Marnier liqueur – 40 g
For the sauce:
- Sugar – 200 g
- Orange juice – 300 g
- Butter – 150 g
- Orange zest – 100 g
How to cook:
For the dough, beat the eggs, gradually add flour and melted butter. Pour in the milk and stir gently until smooth. Add rum, liqueur and Heineken beer. Let it brew for 20 minutes. Then the pancakes can be baked.
For the sauce, melt the butter, add sugar and heat, stirring until the sugar has melted. Bring the sugar mixture until golden brown and pour in the hot orange juice. Add orange zest, water and simmer over low heat “until confit”. Simply put, you need to simmer until you get a thick sauce.
Place the pancakes on a plate, pour over the resulting sauce and garnish with fresh orange pulp. For flambé, pour in Grand Marnier liqueur. When serving, set the liqueur on fire. Both in terms of taste and effective presentation, this is simply fantastic!
