Shrove Tuesday Pancake Day
is celebrated on the Tuesday before Lent. It’s also the start of Mardi Gras.
Here in the States it is often referred to as Fat Tuesday and in Britain and Ireland it is known as Shrove Tuesday.
In New Orleans and in Rio on this Tuesday before the start of Lent there is a Mardi Gras celebration.
There’s a lot happening on this one Tuesday. But as legend has it on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent, pantries were to be cleared of milk, butter and eggs which were not to be eaten during Lent.
Making pancakes was a way of using up the eggs and milk to make a traditional thin pancake.
Today those thin and light pancakes would be very similar to a crepe. The light pancakes were simply topped with sugar and lemon. Today everyone has become creative and toppings can be whatever you choose to add to your favorite pancake or crepe.
I’m not one to shy away from a delicious pancake or crepe so I’m making the traditional light pancakes today to celebrate Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday and Pancake Day.
This traditional thin pancake recipe for Shrove Tuesday is very easy. The ingredients are basic flour, eggs, milk and butter, no more, no less. In my usual fashion when making a recipe I haven’t tried before I make it several times which I did with this pancake recipe.
I found that mixing the batter in the blender was quick, easy and yielded a smoother batter than mixing the batter by hand. This is just a personal preference.
I also found that if I added a tablespoon or two more of flour the batter had a little more body and I was able to make a very thin pancake that was more like a pancake rather than a crepe. I folded it like the traditional thin pancakes. Again this is just a personal preference. You can be as creative as you wish.
- 1 cup AP flour
- pinch of salt
- 2 eggs
- 3 tbls. butter, melted
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tbls. additional butter for coating pan
- In a medium size mixing bowl sift the flour and salt. Make a well in the center of flour.
- Add in the eggs, milk and melted butter into the center of the well and whisk just until well blended. The batter should be a very thin pancake batter consistency.
- Let the batter rest for at least 30 minutes.
- Coat an 8 inch saute pan with butter and heat on medium to high heat. When pan is hot pour in the batter in a thin stream while swirling the pan. The pan should have an even coating of batter.
- Turn over the pancake as soon as the batter looks dry - this only takes a few seconds. Flip over and cook the other side for another few seconds until lightly browned and place on a platter.
- Continue this process until all the batter is used.
- To serve the pancakes you can either roll them and sprinkle with sugar or your favorite syrup - OR - fold them in half then in half again and serve with desired topping.
I didn’t go overboard with creativity today. I just made a simple fresh blueberry compote but I did splurge by adding a tablespoon of brandy to the blueberries. Well, it is Mardi Gras time!
I just added the blueberries to a small sauce pan with 1 tablespoon of brandy and a little bit of water and simmered until the liquid thickened. They cooked down beautifully and then I added some vanilla extract and orange zest.
There has to be a drizzle of chocolate sauce whenever possible, no??? Yes, of course . . . these light pancakes were calling out for chocolate.
It was the perfect topping for the traditional thin pancake on this Shrove Tuesday Pancake Day!
Mmmmm! I love pancakes!
We do as well Carlee, thanks for stopping by.