This is the third installment of pancakes from around the world, and the final one, where we list pancakes that are commonly eaten as desserts with their different names and slight variations. Be it Seoul, or Brussels there are different kinds of pancakes each and a staple of their country that is part of their cultural fabric. special sweets have always been the way of the world and it’s no surprise pancakes are eaten with a dusting of sugar or any kind of jams or sweet syrups.
This is perhaps the prettiest pancake of the lot because South Korea legit uses seasonal flowers, spring flowers – azaleas, pear blossoms, rose petals or chrysanthemums – to decorate their rice pancakes. The female monarchs started this ritual of Hwajeon where they would consume Hwajeon during their springtime picnics called Hwajeon Nori. These picnics were their time of leisure where they would socialize, wax poetry, dance and eat these rice pancakes with relish.
These are also called Scotch pancakes, which are small in size and quite thick, and have a souffle-like quality to them. While these are from Scotland, it is said that the late Queen Elizabeth II was so fond of these, that she had them made and served to the visiting US President D. Eisenhower at Balmoral castle.
This pancake from Indonesia is said to be inspired by South India's appam and also goes by the name serabi Jakarta, because that is the place from where Kur Ape is. This pancake’s batter is made with wheat flour, coconut milk, palm sugar and yeast. And like its other rice pancake counterparts, it's crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Like most sweets from this country, Kue Ape uses Pandan leaves, a local plant to dye its batter green. It's a popular street food and one can find them easily being sold by street vendors.
From the heart of Latin America comes the Cachapa, Arepa de choclo, Chorreadas, Tortilla de choclo or Güirila. These Latin American pancakes have many other names but are essentially pancakes. Unlike the Western world which largely uses wheat and the East, rice, this Latin American version uses its staple crop, maize. Corn flour is used to make this pancake which either gets fried or cooked on griddle by street vendors, who cook and sell them directly to customers. They are eaten plain topped with sweet or savoury events or sometimes have a filling of sour cream and folded into half like a quesadilla. They are a popular choice for breakfast, a light dinner or even a savoury or sweet snack when the munchies hit.
One of the good things to come out of Berlin is the Eierkuchen, that is Germany's version of pancakes. The batter is plain and usually includes vanilla and cinnamon to flavour the otherwise plain pancake. They are also locally known as Pfannkuchen and are cooked with generous amounts of butter until both sides of the pancake are browned. It's usually eaten with applesauce, jams, fruit preserves and chocolate-hazelnut spreads. It's popular both as a breakfast item as well as a dessert.
Morocco and Algeria are associated with this pancake they locally call Baghrir. They use semolina in the batter because of which the batter isn't as cohesive. And thanks to the yeast, Baghrir ends up looking like the surface of the moon with its innumerable craters, and in this case, perforations or holes. The yeast makes the pancake form bubbles on its surface which burst and leave behind the holes, and the pancake cooks that way. It only cooks on the bottom, like a sunny side up and typically eaten with fruit jams and a local syrup of honey and butter.
Æbleskiver are Danish pancakes that, just like the Thai Khanom khrok, have a separate equipment that is used to cook them. The hollowed pans make these little pancakes that look like whole doughnuts. In the olden days, Aebleskiver used to be made using apples but that’s no longer the case; these days anything goes into them from vanilla, and citrus to spices like cinnamon. Like your regular pancakes, these too are served with a simple dusting of sugar and eaten with fruit preserves.