Finnish crepe pancakes -A typical Finnish dessert or snack.

Texture of the pancake crepe

Traditional Finnish crepe pancakes are thin and moist. Fry them up the size of your palm, or as large as a standard size frying pan.

Tasty Tip: After hiking in the woods you feel hungry. Time to make a an open fire. This Finnish food tastes great after preparing it over an open fire in a special pan lättypannu. Make some batter and bring it with you on your hiking trip.

Finnish crepe pancakes normally contain wheat flour. For those seeking a wheat free alternative, here is our recipe using barley flour. You may need to play around with mixture ratios, depending where you live. This recipe also works with wheat flour.

8 dl water

3 eggs

1 dl skimmed milk powder

5dl wheat flour

1 tsp. salt

1-3 tbsp. sugar

4-5 tbsp. oil, or butter (do not use Olive oil)

We are using 2,5 dl barley flour and 2,5 dl dark gluten free flour with seeds.

Directions:

1. Melt the butter and let it cool.

2. Mix everything together: Butter, Water, Eggs, Flour(you may want to gradually add the flour while stirring), Salt and sugar(optional). Beat the eggs and whisk together in a bowl.

Test the batter...since...you may want to add milk to thin out the mixture.

Let the batter sit for 15 - 20 minutes.

3. Heat up a large frying pan. Get it real hot! After the pan is hot enough, throw on some butter or oil. Sizzle!! Since we are using and iron pan getting an optimal temperature is tricky. You may need a bit morebutter at first.

Frying Finnish crepe pancakes in a heavy iron pan.

Buttering the pan

Buttering the pan

4. Pour on a .75 dl ladle full helping into the pan to fry the crepe. Sizzle!!!

The first pancake

The first pancake may not turn out right.

Look at the edges of the batter

Bubbles immediately start forming on the surface. Usually starting at the sides.See the small bubbles near the sides below!!

Holes indicate it is time to flip our Finnish crepe

Spread the batter thinly, and evenly over the pan. The same way french crepes are fried.

Tilting the pan

Tilt the frying pan to help spread the batter evenly across the iron surface.

5. Once the surface bubbles are visible, flip the crepe over. Make sure the batter is firm before flipping, otherwise you get this...

Our first one

Ooops!! Do not worry...there is plenty more batter...and this is just our first one.

Stir the batter occasionally for de-clumping. If the frying pan is too cool, bubbles may not appear, sometimes 1 centimeter to 3 centimeter bubbles form as trapped air under the pancake. If this occurs, turn up the heat.

Hint: If you want to use less butter/oiluse a non-stick pan. A healthy option is to use a Duramic pan.

6. Fry until golden brown, then flip em over.

If the side lifts off, but it looks like the center of crepe is going to tear, then add butter on the sides...Lift the sides up and let the butter melt into the center of the pan. Then try lifting again.

Well browned on both sides. -Yep, they are done!

Savory or zesty? Add carrots, spinach, or nettles. Finely graded raw carrots give Finnish crepe pancakes a more savory taste. For spinach, buy ready frozen spinach. Let it thaw to use in the batter.

For nettles...If you like the color of the nettles in you pancakes:

Boil the leaves then drain the water. Repeat twice.

Collect the nettles before mid summer since after this, the leaves are tough and have less minerals. Store the nettles in the freezer and use them again later.

Or... if you prefer making the nettles invisible, but present in the batter. Allow the leaves to dry. Hand-crumble them into the batter before frying it up.

How to eat Finnish crepe pancakes:

Serve them immediately since they cool off fast. Strawberry or apple jelly makes them into a sweet dessert. Sprinkle sugar on top. Spread your choice topping over the Finnish crepe pancakes. Ice-cream perhaps?

Roll them up and dip them in melted chocolate. Enjoy these crepes like American pancakes: Stack them serving them with syrup or mollasses on top.

This is what it looks like

Our's...We ate our Finnish crepe pancakes for a sweet evening snack, with a glass of cold milk.