These little silver-dollar Swedish Pancakes will never be mistaken for your typical American flapjack. The outside is beautiful with just the right amount of crispiness, the inside, light and airy. Ethereal. Insanely good, it’s almost an insult to even call these pancakes!
Fair warning: of course, that perfection takes just a little bit of fuss and bother so these might not be the pancakes you’ll want to whip up any weekday morning. You might want to save them for the weekend or when you have a little time.
About Swedish Pancakes:
I certainly don’t want to whip them up on a weekday, anyway – not that I hardly ever make any pancakes for breakfast, anyway. Nope, not me. I like them for brunch or breakfast for dinner. There’s a reason my sister tagged me in the photo, below!!
But when I’ve had a chance to get moving, especially on some snowy, winter morning when I’m not going anywhere, I’ll pull out the mixer and go to town on these! You’ll have to separate eggs and whip egg whites, then do a little folding in but as long as you’re up for it (mentally and physically) know just how delicious these are. They’re gonna be so worth it.
I found this recipe originally in Fran McCullough’s and Molly Steven’s Best American Recipes, they were credited to the New York Times.
Making Swedish Pancakes:
There are a couple of secrets to success when making Swedish Pancakes:
- Very gently fold the egg whites into the batter only the absolute minimum to just combine. Don’t worry about a few whisps of flour or egg white, or you’ll risk making the pancake tough.
- Make these pancakes small; a larger pancake won’t rise as well as the darling, little ones.
- Cook your pancakes using lots of butter and cook them over fairly high heat. And don’t forget to have even more butter for serving (below.)
Serving for Swedish Pancakes:
As far as serving, I don’t care how you serve these – but do serve them. You’ll fall in love. Even if you aren’t a pancake lover, per se. But especially if you are!
These are so good, you can get away with just a sprinkle of powdered sugar, but I generally serve them with a little extra butter, maybe some special preserves, or at the very least a good jelly. You might want to try a little dab of yogurt or sour cream. I know it sounds weird, but trust me on this one!
Now and then, I might just make them for a casual dinner in front of the fire. Gotta love breakfast for dinner! I might even serve them for a little dessert with a touch of whipping cream. Someone, of course, will always want syrup!
Storing and Reheating:
There’s no sense in trying to stash the batter to make more later; in a short amount of time, it will deflate and never be the same again. If you have a little extra batter, just cook them up and stash the pancakes in the fridge or the freezer.
You might want to double the recipe and freeze half for later after they’ve been cooked. Just freeze them by laying them out on a plastic lined sheet tray(or use a silpat) and once frozen, wrap well. I personally like to put a little plastic wrap or parchment between each pancake. I’ll take a strip of either, add a pancake, roll it, add another, roll it, and so on.
Whether you have your extra Swedish pancakes in the fridge or the freezer, just heat them quickly in the microwave. If frozen, heat from the frozen state.
Saving Money on Swedish Pancakes:
One of the wonderful things about pancakes is how much bang for your buck you get! A couple of eggs, a little flour, and some milk? That, along with a few basics, and you are set for a meal! It’s magic.
You will want to shop well for your basic items, and this applies to all basic items across the board. The more you use or buy any particular item the more you should be looking for a bargain on it – or at least a great price.
We tend to apply the notion of saving money on larger ticket items, often items that might be bought once or twice a year…we discount in our minds the smaller amounts saved on smaller items and tend to pick them up whenever we want them.
Just a quick for instance…it is a pretty common practice to scan the ads around Christmas and Thanksgiving for great prices on hams or turkey or whatever protein you might want. You might save 15, maybe 20 bucks. Let’s say you run out of milk every week between your grocery runs and get in the habit of picking up a gallon midweek at the gas station. If you pay $1.50 a gallon more that adds up to 78 bucks over the course of a year.
Keep in mind it’s the small items that we pay just a bit more for than we should that could add up to a significant amount of savings over time. If you can’t buy at a discount store or buyer’s club for items like flour and eggs, watch grocery store sales. See my post, Win at the Grocers).for items likely to be on sale around any particular holiday (coz that’s when the best sales are.)
Swedish Pancakes
Swedish Pancakes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: breakfast or brunch
- Cuisine: Swedish
Ingredients
- 3 eggs, separated
- 1/4 cup sugar
- Pinch salt
- 1 cup whole milk (other % work just fine)
- 3/4 cup flour
- 3 tablespoons melted butter, more for cooking
- Confectioners’ sugar for dusting. if desired
Instructions
Separate eggs. Beat yolks in a medium bowl with sugar and salt. Add milk and flour alternately, stirring by hand gently after each addition, to form a thin, smooth batter. Stir in melted butter. (Batter can be covered and refrigerated at this point for up to a day.)
Beat egg whites until shiny and glossy and they hold stiff peaks. Gently fold them into batter; do not worry about fully incorporating them.
Heat a cast iron, heavy skillet or griddle over medium-high heat; when a drop of water skips across it before evaporating, it’s ready.
Melt some butter in pan (don’t be shy with it) and using a tablespoon, scoop up a bit of batter and put it in pan. Cook as many pancakes at once as will fit comfortably, turning them when they are brown.
Cook the pancakes quickly over fairly high heat. Total cooking time is less than 3 – 4 minutes per pancake.
Serve with powdered sugar, preserves or jelly, sour or whipping cream. Have syrup at the ready; someone will inevitably want some.
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You know I’ll be bringing this to our Throwback Thursday #20 Link Party, hosted by Quinn of Dad What’s for Dinner, Meaghan of 4 Sons are Us, Alli of Tornadough, and Moi! That’s right – me! Click over to our Throwback Thursday post for rules and more info or just click on the blue leapfrog, below, to view all the posts or enter your own!
I’ll also be linking up with Angie of Fiesta Friday, her 101st consecutive party! Her co-hosts this week are Juhls of the Not so Creative Cook and Mr. Fitz of Cooking with Mr. Fitz. I can’t wait to see what those two come up with!!
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