Pancake recipes from Norway

Recipes for warming cinnamon spelt pancakes and a popular Norwegian evening snack, 'kveldsmat' pancakes
Kveldsmat: Norwegian evening pancakes
Kveldsmat: Norwegian evening pancakes. Photograph: Debi Treloar

Kveldsmat evening pancakes

In Scandinavia you'll often come across light supper dishes as an alternative to a full evening meal, a tradition stemming from the days when main meals were eaten at midday or in the late afternoon. My grandparents frequently just had open sandwiches or a bowl of grøt (porridge). Kveldsmat or "evening food" is perfect for those days when you don't feel like cooking up a storm at the end of the day, but still fancy a satisfying bite before bedtime.

In Norway, pancakes are a popular kveldsmat choice. These are rather different from brunch pancakes – evening pancakes have a higher proportion of egg and are traditionally eaten with blueberries (bilberries), lingonberries, fruit compotes or just a sprinkle of sugar. In Sweden and Finland, these pancakes are traditionally eaten on a Thursday evening after a steaming bowl of pea and ham soup.

Serves 4

3 medium eggs
1 tbsp plain bio yoghurt
500ml whole milk
250g refined spelt (or plain) flour
100g butter, melted
1 tbsp golden caster sugar
½ tsp salt

Beat the eggs and yoghurt with half the milk in a large bowl using a whisk or electric beater. Add the flour and whisk again until the mixture looks smooth and there are no lumps of flour remaining. Add the rest of the milk along with the melted butter, sugar and salt and beat again until the mixture is evenly combined. Cover and pop the bowl in the fridge for 30 minutes while you set the table, make yourself a cup of tea and decide what to put on your pancakes.

Preheat the oven to 100C and have a plate ready on which to stack the pancakes.

Put a skillet or large non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat and once it has had a chance to heat up, test with a tablespoon of batter to see whether the pan is hot enough – the batter should bubble up as soon as it hits the surface of the pan. Taste this mini pancake for seasoning and add more salt or sugar to the batter accordingly.

Use a small ladle or a tea cup to pour enough batter for one pancake into the skillet and swirl it around quickly to spread the batter out. Cook for 2 minutes or until the edges of the pancake start to go brown, then flip with a spatula to cook the other side. Another 1-2 minutes on this side should do the trick. Put the finished pancake on the plate and keep warm in the oven. Repeat until all the batter is used up.

Serve the pancakes on four plates or simply put the plated stack, warm from the oven, in the middle of the table and let everyone help themselves.

Cinnamon spelt pancakes

While the Scandinavians didn't invent brunch (apparently that honour goes to either the British or the Americans), we have embraced the concept wholeheartedly. Nothing quite says lazy weekends to me like brunch followed by a walk in the park and an afternoon spent reading the papers. Thick fluffy American-style pancakes are top of my list of brunch favourites, so here is a healthy pancake recipe for winter weekends.

Try them with rhubarb and orange and a dollop of crème fraîche or with fresh berries and Greek yoghurt, or even with the traditional American combination of bacon and maple syrup. I use spelt flour for these pancakes because I think it gives a better texture and flavour; however, if you can't get hold of spelt flour, you can use plain and wholemeal wheat flour instead.

Serves 4

250g wholemeal spelt flour
150g refined spelt flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp golden caster sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
350ml whole milk
50ml plain yoghurt
50g melted butter, slightly cooled
2 medium eggs
butter and vegetable oil for frying

Sift all the dry ingredients in to a large bowl and then stir so that the raising agent, salt, sugar and cinnamon are evenly distributed. Make a well in the middle, add all the liquid ingredients and stir to incorporate into the dry ingredients. Set aside for 30 minutes –this allows the starch cells in the flour to expand and makes a better batter and thicker pancakes.

When you are ready to start cooking, preheat the oven to lowest setting to keep the pancakes warm.

Melt 1 teaspoon of butter and 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil together in a large flat frying or sauté pan (ideally a crêpe pan) over a medium-high heat. Once the fat is hot, place a small ladleful of batter in the centre of the pan and then fry over a medium heat. The batter will sit quite thickly and should bubble as it cooks. When the edges of the pancake start to turn golden, flip it over to cook the other side.

You'll find that the first pancake of a batch never seems to be as good as the rest, and that they improve in consistency as you're cooking. Don't ask me why, they just do. In any event, your first pancake should be a "dummy" one to taste for seasoning. Place each finished pancake on a wire rack in the warm oven as you go along, until you are ready to serve.

These recipes are extracted from Secrets of Scandinavian Cooking ... Scandilicious by Signe Johansen, (Saltyard Books, £20). Order a copy for £16 from the Guardian bookshop. Signe's new book, Scandilicious Baking, will be out in July 2012