Pancakes are popular all over the world, and each country has its own shape and structure for them, which makes pancakes wonderfully diverse.
What Is a Pancake?
A pancake is a flat cake made from batter, a mixture of flour with milk, butter or sugar. The batter is fried in oil or butter in a pan until cooked. You can eat pancakes plain, or drizzle them with honey, cream or syrup if you have a sweet tooth. To make pancakes even more appealing, stack them and decorate them with berries such as strawberries and raspberries.
Pancake Styles by Country
- United States: American-style pancakes add baking powder to the flour, milk, butter and sugar to make them thicker and softer. Americans often eat pancakes for breakfast, served with maple syrup and bacon, or as a dessert topped with sweet fruit or yoghurt instead.
- Scotland: Scottish pancakes are similar to American ones and are called drop scones, because the batter is dropped onto the pan. They are usually served with jam or cream as a snack.
- France: the French pancake, which many people know as the crêpe, is made from wheat flour, eggs, sugar, milk and butter mixed into a batter and poured into a pan to form a thin round sheet. As it starts to cook, you can add savoury or sweet fillings as you like. It is the original style of pancake, as it contains no baking powder, unlike pancakes in the US and other countries.
- Germany: the German pancake is called Palatschinke or Palačinka. It is thin like the French crêpe, but the pancakes are rolled and filled with chocolate cream, whipped cream, jam, nuts or cinnamon.
- Australia: Australian pancakes are called pikelets, made from milk, flour, eggs and a little icing sugar. The Australian pikelet is a kind of blini-crumpet crossover. Pikelets are small like Scottish pancakes and are served with jam, cream or butter.
- Indonesia: the Indonesian pancake is called kue serabi, made from rice flour and coconut milk and cooked on one side only, without flipping. It is mostly eaten as a dessert but can be paired with cheese and meat as a savoury snack. Some Indonesian recipes add pandan juice to turn the pancakes green.
- Korea: the Korean pancake is called jeon, made from egg, wheat flour, rice and spring onions. Unlike many pancakes that are topped or used as wraps, Korean pancakes mix fish, meat or vegetables into the batter so they cook inside, making a pancake that is a distinctive dish in its own right.
- Morocco: the Moroccan pancake is called msemen and is clearly different from other countries' pancakes: it is square, made from wheat flour and semolina, and served with spicy food and meat.
Pancakes use easy-to-find ingredients and a simple method, which is why every country makes them differently depending on culture, available ingredients and whether they're adapted into savoury or sweet dishes. In Thailand, pancakes are enjoyed as a sweet treat and are made in all sorts of shapes, such as animals and cartoon characters, as sold in markets everywhere. Pancakes served in restaurants, however, are usually American-style.
