Recipes / Dessert
Cinnamon sugar pannekoek
A heritage recipe: thin Cape pancakes from a 1908 recipe book, cooked in a pan over the coals, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and rolled up.
- Prep
- 15 min
- On the fire
- 30 min
- Plan ahead
- 30 minutes for the batter to rest
- Serves
- makes about 12 pancakes
Ingredients
Batter
Cinnamon sugar
Method
Cooking on gas?
- Preheat with the burners on high and the lid closed for 10 minutes, then turn them down to medium so the lid thermometer settles at 175 to 200°C (350 to 400°F). Brush the grates clean and oil them.
- Close the lid between turns. It cooks a little faster than an open braai, so start checking about 5 minutes early.
- Whisk the eggs well in a large bowl. Whisk in the melted butter, then the flour and salt a little at a time.
- Add the milk and water slowly, whisking, until the batter is smooth and thin, like pouring cream. Rest it for 30 minutes.
- Mix the sugar and cinnamon.
- Heat a heavy pan on the grid over medium coals and wipe it with a little butter.
- Pour in just enough batter to cover the bottom thinly, tilting the pan. Cook for about 1 minute until the edges lift and the underside is golden.
- Flip and cook 30 seconds more. Slide it onto a plate, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and roll it up.
- Keep the rolled pancakes warm on a plate covered with foil at the side of the fire while you cook the rest.
Done when: each pancake is thin, golden in patches on both sides and soft enough to roll without cracking.
Tips
- The original recipe whips the whites and yolks separately for a lighter pancake. Try it if you have time.
- The first pancake often sticks while the pan finds its heat. Use it to judge the coals.
- On the stove, use medium heat. The method is the same.
Hildagonda Duckitt credited this pancake recipe to a Mrs Brink and called it an old one even in her day. She grated sugar and cinnamon between the pancakes and sent them in very hot, as South Africans still do at church bazaars and on cold evenings round the fire. Follow them with malva pudding if there are guests.
Source
Adapted from Hilda's "Where is it?" of Recipes by Hildagonda J. Duckitt (1908), public domain.