7. Turn Them When the Bubbles Stay Open

Anton: In the year 1843, so the story goes, in a smoky city of workshops, a chemist was trying to cook for a wife who could not eat eggs or yeast. He mixed a dry powder that made a batter rise by itself, with no yeast and no waiting. Before long, cooks everywhere kept a tin of it on the shelf.

Vera: Baking powder. I have used it all my life and never once wondered who made it first.

Anton: Most good things in a kitchen come from someone trying to feed a person they love. Inside that powder are two dry ingredients that do nothing until they get wet. Then they meet and breathe out tiny bubbles of gas, and the bubbles lift the pancake the way warm air lifts a gull.

Saturday, Before the Walk

Vera: Benno is kneeling on the chair by the sideboard, flipping the cardboard mats as if they were pancakes. He has already asked three times when the real ones start.

Anton: Tell him soon. These thick, soft pancakes are made wherever there are hungry children and a hot griddle, from the farmhouses of the far west to the snowy villages of the north, and they are never better than on a cold Saturday morning.

Vera: And never worse than when they come out flat.

Anton: Flat pancakes come from too much stirring, old powder or a cold pan. We shall avoid all three.

At the Work Table

For about 12 pancakes, each 10 cm across: 190 g plain flour (1 1/2 cups), 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 egg, 300 ml milk (1 1/4 cups) and 30 g butter (2 tablespoons), melted, plus a little for the pan.

Anton: A child mixes the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl and makes a hollow in the middle.

Anton: A child beats the egg and milk together in a jug. A grown-up melts the butter in a small pan and lets it cool a little before it goes into the jug.

Anton: A child pours the jug into the hollow and stirs with a few slow strokes, only until no dry flour shows. Small lumps are good. Leave the batter for five minutes while the pan heats.

Anton: A grown-up heats a heavy frying pan or griddle over medium heat, with the handle turned in, and brushes it with a little butter.

Anton: The grown-up drops 3 tablespoons of batter for each pancake, well apart. Cook for about 2 minutes, until bubbles rise, burst and stay open and the edges look dry. Turn them when the bubbles stay open.

Anton: Cook the second side for about a minute, until golden. An older child may turn them with a spatula while the grown-up stands close beside the hot pan. Keep the cooked pancakes warm under a clean cloth while the rest are made.

Vera: And on top?

Anton: Melted butter, sliced fruit, or a spoonful of thick yogurt. In the snowy villages they add a spoon of berry jam and nothing else.

The Guesthouse in the Pines

Vera: My mother's friend Esme kept a guesthouse in the mountains, and her kitchen window looked straight into the pine forest. Her griddle was as wide as a cartwheel, and on Sundays she cooked pancakes for twenty walkers at once.

Vera: I stayed with her the summer I was ten. She let me pour the batter while she turned, and she sang the same song every time, one verse per batch. When the song ended, the pancakes were ready. I still hum it at the stove.

Anton: A song is a good clock. It never needs winding, and it keeps the cook calm while the pan does its work.

Beside the Griddle

Question: Benno asks why the bubbles tell us when to turn the pancakes.

Answer: While the top is still liquid, bubbles close up again. Once they stay open, the batter has set most of the way through, and the pancake is firm enough to turn without tearing.

Three quick questions. One: What makes these pancakes rise? Two: Are small lumps in the batter a mistake? Three: How long does the second side cook?

Answers. One: Baking powder, which breathes out gas when it gets wet. Two: No, they are good. Three: About a minute.

Vera: Wait. Benno has eaten four already, and now he wants to know what Esme's walkers drank.

Anton: Warm cocoa, I would guess. A grown-up heats a pan of milk until it steams, stirs in a spoon of cocoa powder and a little sugar for each cup, and pours it out. Hold the cup with both hands, like a bird's nest, and blow on it first.

8. The First Pancake Is Always a Lump

Anton: There is an old saying from the cold lands of the east, much older than anyone at this table: the first pancake is always a lump.

Vera: I have heard it said whenever something new goes wrong. I thought it was only a kitchen joke.

Anton: Grandmothers keep sayings the way riverbeds keep stones. It means that the first try at anything is allowed to fail. With thin pancakes it is also simply true, and nobody should be sad about it.

Early, With Frost on the Glass

Vera: Alma is sitting at the corner of the table nearest the warm stove, drawing pancakes with her finger in the frost on the windowpane. She wants to know how these are different from the thick ones.

Anton: These have no baking powder. They are made thin on purpose, rolled around jam or folded around cheese, from the farmhouses of the west to the snowy towns of the east. Two eggs hold them together, and a long rest makes them soft.

Vera: Rest? For a batter?

Anton: Yes. Half an hour. The flour drinks the milk slowly, like moss after rain, and the little bubbles from mixing float away. A rested batter flows smoothly and makes pancakes that bend without tearing.

The Frozen Market Square, Long Ago

Anton: One winter I worked in a town in the cold east. At the corner of the market square, beside a brazier of glowing coals, Dora sold thin pancakes from two black pans, wrapped around jam in twists of paper.

Anton: Every morning I watched her pour the first one, look at its torn and lumpy face, and eat it herself without a word. Then the next fifty were perfect, round and thin as autumn leaves, and the queue stretched past the fountain.

Vera: She never sold the first one?

Anton: Never. She said the first one belongs to the cook, as a lesson and as breakfast. I have eaten every first pancake of my life since then.

At the Work Table

For about 10 pancakes in a 20 cm (8 inch) pan: 125 g plain flour (1 cup), 2 eggs, 300 ml milk (1 1/4 cups), 1 tablespoon sugar, a pinch of salt, 1 tablespoon melted butter, a little oil for the pan and about 150 g jam (1/2 cup) for rolling.

Anton: A child mixes the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl, makes a hollow, cracks in the eggs and whisks in a little of the milk to make a smooth paste.

Anton: The child whisks in the rest of the milk slowly, so no lumps form. A grown-up melts the butter and stirs it in.

Anton: Leave the batter for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Anton: A grown-up heats the pan over medium heat, handle turned in, and wipes it with a folded paper dipped in oil.

Anton: The grown-up pours in about 50 ml of batter (a scant 1/4 cup), lifts the pan off the heat and tilts it in a slow circle until the batter covers the base thinly.

Anton: Cook for about a minute, until the edges look lacy and lift. The grown-up turns the pancake with a spatula, cooks it for 30 seconds more and slides it onto a warm plate. Stacked pancakes do not stick together.

Anton: When the pancakes are cool enough to touch, a child spreads each one with a spoonful of jam and rolls it up like a carpet.

Vera: Only jam?

Anton: Soft cheese with a little sugar, sliced banana or a spoonful of apple purée. In the east they fold them into neat parcels around sweet curd cheese and warm them in butter.

The Corner by the Dresser

Question: Alma asks why the first pancake really does come out a lump.

Answer: The pan is not yet evenly hot, and the oil is not yet spread evenly over it. The first pancake takes the extra oil and evens out the heat, like the first footprints that pack down fresh snow for those who follow.

Three quick questions. One: How long does the batter rest? Two: Why is the pan tilted? Three: Who eats the first pancake?

Answers. One: Thirty minutes. Two: So the batter spreads thin over the whole base. Three: The cook, as Dora did.

Vera: Alma has eaten our lumpy first pancake already, very seriously, as if it were a duty.

Anton: It is a duty, and she has done it well. Now the rest are hers to roll.

Key Words

Resting: leaving a batter to stand before cooking, so the flour takes up the liquid and the pancakes come out tender.

Tilting the pan: turning a pan in a slow circle off the heat, so a thin batter runs across the whole base before it sets.