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| cookie cutter shape, jacket and jazz hands optional |
Happy Pancake Day!!
Spring is in
the air, well not really, it is still cold and snowy, but the first sign of
spring is upon us. It is pancake Tuesday
also called Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras.
Shrove Tuesday is the last day before Lent begins, which is a holy
season for Christians that starts on Ash Wednesday and ends around Easter. In historical times, Lent was a time for
fasting and prayer and so to prepare for the fast of lent, households would
take the day before to use up the indulgent ingredients they had in their
pantries.
Pancakes are
associated with Shrove Tuesday as forbidden "indulgent" food items
included butter, milk, eggs, dairy and sugar, which are common ingredients in
pancakes. I heard a story on the radio
once that said that in ancient times, unrisen cakes similar to pancakes were
eaten as treats and were forbidden during the fast of lent, so people made them
up the day before with their left over ingredients to enjoy.
In 2006,
American franchise IHOP began celebrating Shrove Tuesday as "National
Pancake Day" as a fundraiser for various causes.
In
Newfoundland, where I was born and raised, there is a special custom involving
pancakes on pancake Tuesday. Parents
would put certain items (washed and wrapped in tinfoil) into the pancakes, which
had different meanings for the kids opening them.
finding:
a penny meant they would grow up to be poor
a quarter
meant they would grow up to be rich
a ring meant
they would get married
a button
meant they would not marry (bachelor's button)
a nail meant
they would become a carpenter (or marry one)
a string
meant they would become a fisherman (or marry one)
a thimble
meant they would become a tailor or seamstress
My wife
recalled that as a child, they would try to feel the pancakes before taking
them as to try to get the quarter pancake and her parents eventually just put
money in all of the pancakes, but it took away the fun and mystery of the
different items.
Old
fashioned pancakes
Ingredients:
1 C flour 1 C milk
1 tbsp sugar 1 egg
1tsp baking powder 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt 1/2 C chocolate chips (optional)
Method:
Preheat
lightly oiled pan over medium heat
In a bowl,
mix dry ingredients and make a well in the centre of the ingredients.
In a
separate bowl, mix wet ingredients.
Add wet
ingredients into the well of dry ingredients and whish until smooth.
Pour batter
into hot pan, using about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake. Cook pancake until
slightly browned on both sides (pancake should be ready to flip when bubbles
start to form on the surface of the uncooked side).
