Hungarian Pancakes (Palacsinta)

Yesterday I tried my hand at Hungarian Pancakes! In the words of my kids “they were the best Pancakes ever” which I assure you is purely down to the fact that these pancakes are much sweeter than your regular fluffy breakfast sorts or crepes, and more of a dessert pancake, so therefore being the little sugar monsters that they are, I wouldn’t expect anything less.

We have a little bit of a tradition in our home, that on the weekends I tend to make a breakfast instead of the usual grab some toast and cereal in the weekly rush. We enjoy the opportunity to sit together and make breakfast more of a thing, start the weekend off a little differently and you can guarantee that the kids will always opt for Pancakes!

I love this little thing we have going, because to me pancakes were only a thing we did on “Pancake Day”, and my mum would make a tonne of Crepe style pancakes that we would enjoy first with a savoury mince, and then with Lemon juice and sugar (and in later years chocolate spread!). It must have taken her ages with 4 of us and them, and perhpas that is why they were only a yearly treat!

Having spent some time living in the states in my early 20s, I began to enjoy American style pancakes with maple syrup as a breakfast, and these are the ones I tend to go for on our weekend pancake breakfasts. We enjoy them with berries, natural yogurt and either honey or maple syrup, and as if Megan plays it right she can often bag herself a sneaky midweek pancake breakfast before school because we love them so much.

As we approach Pancake Day Next week, we have teamed up with Expedia to inspire you to try a new “World Travel” inspired pancake creation. As our regular pancakes are already inspired by America, we decided to opt for something completely different, hence yesterday I made Hungarian Pancakes…

Hungarian Pancakes

Like all pancakes, the Hungarian variety require the usual cupboard staples of Flour, milk and eggs, the difference however is the added sugar and soda/sparkling water, thus making them a lot sweeter,  and less appropriate maybe as a breakfast! They are thin, similar to crepes and have all manner of jams and spreads inside, rolled up and topped with powdered sugar.

Ingredients/How to:

• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 150 grams of plain flour
• 300 ml of whole milk (though I used Soya and it was fine)
• 150 ml of sparkling water or ½ teaspoon of baking soda + 150 ml water (2/3 cup)
• pinch of salt
• icing sugar for dusting
• oil for frying

In a bowl whisk the egg with sugar and salt and then add in milk and flour a little at a time to avoid lumps. When its smooth add any remaining milk and the sparkling water.

Batter should cover a hot pan as a very thin layer with no holes!

What we liked

The kids loved how they were rolled up and sooo sweet. They found them to be a real little treat and easy to eat, and this too was a novelty about these pancakes.

I really like them as a quick/cheap dessert and will probably go ahead with them this pancake day as just that. They certainly are tasty to follow up a regular nutritious dinner ! I thoroughly enjoy trying out new recipes and seeing other countries take on an old fave. Its so interesting how different parts of the world can take something and yet eat it in a totally different way.

Why not take your kids on a tasty trip around the world this Pancake day by making some travel inspired pancakes! Its so much fun to mix things up…and who knows you may find a new family fave that might just inspire you to book a little trip yourselves.