Ever since I hosted “Pancake day” parties in London with piles of crepes crammed with savoury fillings I have used beer for savoury pancakes. I love the slightly sour earthy taste it endows upon a dish without outshining the filling ingredients or perhaps I have a crepe sniffing habit? Anyhow they do smell uber delicious when you cook them and the beery aromas waft through your kitchen. Own brand supermarket beer is cheaper than milk in case you needed any further convincing that beer in pancakes is a good idea.
If you feel confident you can try making square parcels “Bretagne” style but I mainly just add the filling and fold over until the filling is how I want it. There are as many fillings as there are leftovers in a fridge but here are some of my favourites:
Goats Cheese and Red Onion marmalade, Ratatouille, Chicken Forestiere (left over chicken & mushroom pie filling is great too especially with leeks), leeks&bacon&cheddar, Egg & ham, Green Lentils and bacon, Spinach & ricotta
Gadgets & Gizmos
A good pancake pan or frying pan that you have used before and are comfortable with and a spatula to flip the pancakes over.
Timing & Planning
Pancakes can be whipped up at a moments notice although I do think they are better if the batter has been standing 1-2 hours (in the fridge not standing around in a warm kitchen!). Each pancake should take 2-3 minutes to cook only. If you are hosting a pancake party do make them ahead and then you just need to warm with the fillings. Make a batch and freeze them and use them for any stuffed pancake recipe.
Ingredients: (makes 10 x 22cm pancakes)
500ml of beer (a lager type of beer or blond beer for this filling)
250g plain flour or 125g plain flour and 125g buckwheat (faiana de hrisca) flour for a really Brittany earthy flavour which I love. 100% buckwhaet for GF people but you may need extra egg.
3 eggs
60ml sunflower oil
(For 6 pancakes and a glass of beer for the cook use 340ml beer, 2 eggs, 40ml oil and 170g flour)
How To:
Mix all the ingredients together using a handwhisk until just combined. Leave at least one hour (good to leave overnight) until bubbles form.
Use a ladle to pour in the batter to a hot frying pan and swirl around so the batter just coats the pan. Pour off any excess fast and remember how much you added so from pancake number two they will all be perfect. When the pancake kind of starts to curl up at the edges and lift from the pan it can be safely flipped over ( I use a long spatula) The pancakes should be golden brown. Stack them up on a plate as you make them. I find pancake making kind of hypnotic but perhaps it’s the beer vapours?
They should be nice and flexible and be easily filled and rolled up. They freeze well too. Freeze flat in a plastic bag. If you have used bits of baking paper then use these to stack between but I find that mine dont stick together and besides I feel guilty using so much paper to stack pancakes.