Around the World in Pancakes: From Sweet Appam to the Rain Pancake Pannekoek, here’s how to celebrate your birthday

This is part 2 of Pancakes from Around the World, and there are too many to count, as each country has their own way of making pancakes. Not all of them are eaten as desserts and we only care about the dessert bit because who doesn't love a sweet little thing as a snack or as a breakfast item? Pancakes are light and most of the time, do not have the excessive calories that are typically associated with desserts, so these are a great idea to bite into during your travels, or even make at home, when you feel stuffed to the core with calorific food and desserts, and can’t take no more. So here’s how to celebrate your birthday with variety.

Syrniki

Straight from Russia, Syrniki is more on the savoury side, being made from cottage cheese with the usual glutinous elements. The cottage cheese is turned sweet by the addition of sugar and mixed with the gluten to form a batter, which is fried until it's golden brown.

Like most pancakes, this Russian one too is topped with jams, honey and applesauce. Russians love it, so do Belarus, Latvia, Ukraine, and Lithuania. It is popular during breakfast, but also as a dessert after a heavy meal in the Slavic households and beyond.

Pannekoek

Not too thick and not too thin, Pannekoek is from the country of Netherlands, its Dutch. It’s made with the usual flour, milk, salt, and eggs and for a change these aren’t eaten for breakfast. The Dutch love them during lunch, dinner or as a dessert after meals. Savoury and sweet versions both coexist, but the sweeter ones have molasses syrup, apples, cinnamon, and sugar on them. It’s also popular in South Africa and Beliguim and in the former, it is eaten during “pancake weather” i.e., when it is chilly and rains in the country.

Hotteok

This is a popular street food from South Korea, a fried pancake of sorts, that traces its roots to the late 1900s. It is said that Chinese merchants who followed their soldiers into Korea had invented them, based on the pancakes that are largely made in China. They adapted the recipe based on how the Koreans liked it to make money off them. In Korea, these start cropping up during winter, sold by street vendors, that are filled with nuts, cinnamon, and brown sugar. They have a crisp shell that encases a soft interior with the filling.

Lívance

From Czech, Lívance uses yeast instead of baking powder, and eggs in their batter and are a traditional breakfast item. They are crispy on the edges and incredibly pillowy and a beautiful shade of golden. The locals prefer their Lívance topped with jam, cinnamon or simply a light dusting of powdered sugar.

Khanom khrok

This rice-based pancake is from Thailand and doubles as a cake and also a pudding-like dessert, because it uses coconut milk along with rice flour to make this pancake. It's traditionally made in large, heavy iron pans with round depressions where the Khanom khrok cook. The rice batter goes first then the coconut milk filling. It's a staple street food that is enjoyed as a quick filling snack with additions like taro, pumpkin, and corn added to the coconut pudding-like filling.

Appam

Hear us out on this, appam might be considered a breakfast or late evening meal, which are of course pancakes popular in the Southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, but they are also eaten like desserts. The batter that is made for appam with rice flour, is made thicker and with the addition of jaggery, fruits, appam that is usually this concave and paper thin pancake, transforms into desserts, which are cake-like and small enough to be eaten in a few bites. Consider nei appam, therali appam and karthigai appam.

Pannukakku

This one's from Finland and unlike the rest of the pancakes world over, this one is actually baked, inside an oven. Because it is baked, it has the features of a souffle and is close to what the staple American pancakes are like. All you need to do is mix the regular pancake ingredients and pour the batter into a baking dish and voila! Before you know it, you have a delicious Pannukakku ready to eat. It's usually topped with sweet syrups, fresh fruits and berries.