Pannari or Finnish "oven pancake"

Yes, this is the fun part nro 2 for tonight: Pannari or traditional Finnish oven-baked pancake. I remember this as an absolutely tasty evening snack from my childhood, which was easier to prepare than the usual pancakes and satisfied the sweet teeths of the whole family. There is also salty versions of it topped with cheese, ham or other things, but I have never tried any of them. Pancakes must be sweet ;)

I looked for the traditional grandmother's recipe for a while and this one from Sorsanpaistaja blog was selected as a pretty good match with my pancake memories! I think if I continue making pancakes all the time, this soon is going to turn into a pancake blog ;)

Pannukakku

6 dl täysmaitoa
2 munaa
1 1/2 dl sokeria
1/2 tl suolaa
reilu 3 dl vehnäjauhoja
50 g (tai omantunnon mukaan) voita sulatettuna

1. Kaada maito kulhoon, hajota sekaan munat. Lisää muut aineet ja sekoita. Anna turvota.

2. Lämmitä uuni 200-225 asteeseen. Kaada taikina leivinpaperilla vuoratulle uunipannulle ja kaada sulatettu voi tasaisesti päälle. Paista noin 20 minuuttia kunnes pannari on kauniin kullanruskeaa.

3. Tarjoa heti esimerkiksi mansikoiden kera.

Finnish pancake

6 dl milk
2 eggs
1,5 dl sugar
0,5 tsp salt
about 3 dl wheat flour
50 g melt butter (or according to your taste...)

First advice: no fat-free milk, no margarine. It only tastes like the real thing, if you use real milk and real butter, and maybe add an extra egg ;) I reduced the amount of sugar to 1 dl though.

1. Mix milk and eggs in a bowl. Add sugar, salt and flour and whisk well. Let it rest for some time.

2. Heat the oven to 200-225C. Cover a baking tray with baking paper and pour the dough on it. Pour the melt butter on top of it. Bake about 20 minutes until the pancake is golden brown.

3. Enjoy with strawberries. Jam, curd, whipped cream or ice cream also work with it :)

Rice and Banana Pancakes

In less than two months I will be going to Indonesia for four weeks. As I have started to look for the travelling information, like train timetables and interesting things to see, I have also searched for websites about Indonesian food. I found some prtty good websites like Tasty Indonesian Food that provides the readers with a great variety of recipes and other food-related infromation. I hope to cook some vegetarian main dishes before I leave :)

Today I tried for the first time the famous banana pancakes. I don't know if these are THE Famous Banana Pancakes that the Southern Asian travellers eat for breakfast on Banana Pancake Trail (!) since I have never traveled there, but at least they were my first attempt! I found the recipe here.


Rice and Banana Pancakes

Ingredients

3 Medium Ripe Bananas
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
1 Cup Warm Water
1 Cup Rice Flour
Corn Oil -- for brushing skillet

Directions

In shallow dish, mash bananas to a smooth consistency. In a bowl, dissolve sugar, salt and yeast in the water. In another bowl, combine banana, flour and yeast mixture. Stir the mixture until it has the consistency of pancake batter. Let stand 30 minutes. Brush skillet with oil. Heat until hot. Pour in 1/3 cup of batter. Cook pancake on both sides over moderate low heat until golden and risen. Continue with remaining batter. Serve warm with syrup.

Hmm, to be honest, there were some slight difficulties in preparing these banana pancakes! The dough was very coarse compared to the usual pancake dough, so I was afraid of them being too thick and uncooked inside. On the other hand, as we discovered after a few attempts, you can move the dough on the pan with a spoon and make it thinner so that it fries faster. We also needed a bit more oil than just "for brushing skillet". However, patiently you can manage to make pretty pancakes which have a slight taste of banana, and which indeed are delicious with honey, syrup or jam!

Today's mood

Today's mood is as grey as the weather and requires pancake therapy! Nothing makes the day sweeter & brighter than a pile of pancakes: first I make some with cheese and tomato filling, then add a little bit of sugar in the dough and prepare some sweet ones :) Mmmmh!

It's also very inspiring how many different recipes there are..in almost every country I have ever been to, there's some pancake speciality!