Friday’s are turning into Breakfast Day here at the Fabulous Food Bolog! But there’s nothing wrong with that. Today, I submit for your approval the Giant Stuffed Savoury Pancake, a creation of noted recipe blogger and food fiddler Josh Elkin, and the trigger for more childhood memories…
Savoury Stuffed Pancakes à la Josh Elkin: What you see here is just
two of the 4 cakes the recipe makes, cut in half. In real life,
they’re the diameter of a 12 in. / 30 cm frying pan!
Elkin’s mega-pancake brings back fond memories for me. Again, it was my dad who made those memories, as he did with those stewed tomatoes we talked about last Friday in relation to Shakshuka.
When I was just a little squirt, Dad used to make fancy pancakes for special occasions. One of his ‘big pancake events’ was super-light and fluffy Buttermilk Buckwheat cakes with strips of pre-cooked crispy bacon embedded in them. A little sweet and a little savoury, they presented a perfect flavour balance – at least to my unsophisticated kiddie tastes. But that was nothing compared to the breakfast-in-a-pancake Elkin has created.
Before I go any further, I should note that the plural of ‘pancake’ is used here as a conventional term only. One of the massive pancakes Elkin demonstrates in his new Instagram video is probably enough to feed 4 (see ingredient list below). But you know your appetite better than I do.
Get your ducks in a row
The ingredient list for the Giant Stuffed Savoury Pancake (GSSP) is inordinately long – for a pancake:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika
1 tsp salt
2 cups buttermilk
4 eggs
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup melted butter
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tsp smoked paprika
4 eggs
4 strips of bacon
8 slices of cheese
1/4 chopped chives for garnish
… But that formidable grocery list will make 4 of the monster-cakes Elkin envisions. I hope you have a houseful of family and friends to feed if you don’t scale down the recipe according to your needs.
Some tips and tricks
Elkin uses a leading-edge ‘granitestone’-coated non-stick pan. I usually pooh-pooh non-stick pans as a culinary cheat, but I think a non-stick pan is a really good idea in this instance. You’ll see what I mean when you view his video. Success is all about flipping the beast at just the right moment. Note: You’ll need a pan with a lid.
Elkin just flips the huge cake with a big spatula. But I suggest a safer method. When flipping the cake, slide it out of the pan onto a large plate like you would an upside-down cake. Then face the plate up to the pan, and flip the whole assembly to get the cake back into the pan to finish cooking the top.
Note that the batter recipe is engineered to produce a very light, fluffy cake that puffs up to the max in the pan. But the cornmeal also makes it strong enough to support the ‘stuffings’, and still hold together through flipping and serving.
I know a tablespoon of Baking Powder seems like a lot, but this is a big recipe, and the cakes need all the help they can get puffing up light and fluffy.
The teaspoon of Smoked Paprika is optional, if you wish. Or you can add a tsp. of some other spice to customize the dish to your taste.
Now you know…
… Everything you need to make Josh Elkins’ Giant Savoury Stuffed Pancakes. Not just fun and filling, but (arguably) a work of art. I hope you’ll give them a try!
~ Maggie J.