PALACSINTA (HUNGARIAN PANCAKES)

I didn’t plan that the first recipe I’d share with you in the new year would be Paliscinta, or Hungarian Pancakes—shot on my iPhone, on the fly in my kitchen, my kids swinging their legs at the breakfast nook with this week’s renovation debris just out of frame, but that’s 2021 for us so far. very go-with-the-flow.

Go-with-the-flow has never been my style. I’m more of a planner, an over-thinker, hyper-focused on big ideas and often laborious, long-term projects. But 2020 and ten months of quarantine may have broken me of that, at least for the time being, and I’m better for it.

So here we are—late on a Sunday night, sharing the one easy recipe that lit up my kids this weekend—the same recipe that lit up my husband his entire childhood, at the table of his Anya (mother) and Nagymama (grandmother) back in Hungary. Palacsinta, the first thing my mother-in-law ever made for me, and the very thing that we all beg for every summer when we return.

Just like French crepes, or Swedish pancakes (two other family favorites), Hungarian pancakes are thin, and rolled, usually filled with luscious, jewel-toned Lekvar (homemade jam—apricot is our favorite) or túró (farmer’s cheese) mixed with lemon zest, golden-raisons and a small bit of sugar. Unlike crepes or Swedish pancakes, there’s no butter in palacsinta, relying instead on a high ratio of milk and eggs, and carbonated water, which keeps them light and airy.

These take a bit of practice to master, and I’ve found the secret is two fold: First, allowing the batter to rest for a full hour (two is even better) after making it before cooking them in a cast-iron pan. And second, using enough butter on the pan each time (since there’s no butter in the batter itself).

Once you’ve gotten your feet wet, you’ll find a number of benefits for investing a little time to master them. For starters, these are brilliant for getting picky kids to put a little something in their belly (protein rich, but melt-in-your-mouth delicious all the same). Morever, they hold well, so you can make, fill and serve them hot and fresh from the griddle, or stack them to roll and serve at room temperature hours later.

This weekend, as I sat and watched my spindly boy gobble them up, three and four at a time, I understood my mother-in-law, and the lavish-feeling stacks of rolled pancakes she still makes for her sons, and grandsons—week after week, or the hours she’s spent at the stove, cooking them off one-by-one, rolling them spread with her homemade plum or apricot jam. There’s an audible exhale when your children eat heartily, without coddling or coaxing, a sense of relief that feels more rewarding than I can quite describe at the moment.

So I’ll leave it at that, a little nugget for your new year, permission for you and me both to keep it simple, and serve what your family loves best.

RECIPE, BELOW

hungarian pancakes (palacsinta)

serves 4 to 6

6 LARGE EGGS, AT ROOM TEMPERATURE

2 1/2 CUPS ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR OR GLUTEN-FREE ALL PURPOSE FLOUR (CUP-FOR-CUP OR ONE-FOR-ONE BRAND)

3/4 TEASPOON FINE SEA SALT

2 CUPS WHOLE MILK

2 TEASPOONS UNBLEACHED SUGAR

2 CUPS CARBONATED WATER

BUTTER, FOR COOKING PANCAKES

2/3 TO 3/4 CUP APRICOT, RASPEBERRY OR LINGONBERRY JAM

COMBINE THE EGGS, FLOUR, SALT, MILK, AND SUGAR IN A BLENDER AND BLEND UNTIL FROTHY AND SMOOTH, ABOUT 1 MINUTE. COVER AND SET ASIDE 1 TO 2 HOURS. JUST BEFORE COOKING, STIR IN THE CARBONATED WATER (DON’T BLEND IN THE WATER, A WHISK IS JUST FINE).

PREHEAT A CREPE PAN OR CAST-IRON FRYING PAN (ABOUT 8 TO 10-INCHES) OVER MEDIUM-HIGH HEAT. WHEN THE PAN IS READY, A DROP OF WATER SHOULD SIZZLE. ADD A SMALL KNOB OF BUTTER AND BRUSH OR SWIRL TO COAT THE PAN.

LADLE ON ABOUT 1/3 CUP OF BATTER ONTO THE PAN, AND TIP AND SWIRL SO THAT THE BATTER COVERS THE PAN IN A THIN, EVEN LAYER. LOWER THE HEAT TO MEDIUM AND CONTINUE COOKING UNTIL THE PANCAKE IS LACY AND GOLDEN BROWN ON ONE SIDE, AND THE MIDDLE (TOP SIDE) IS SET (NO LONGER WET), ABOUT 2 TO 3 MINUTES. REMOVE TO A PLATE (TO STACK AS YOU COOK EACH PANCAKE, TO BE FILLED LATER), OR ADD A SMALL BIT OF JAM TO THE CENTER OF THE PANCAKE WHILE WARM, AND USE THE EDGE OF A LARGE OFFSET SPATULA TO HELP YOU ROLL THE PANCAKE (I LIKE DO THE LATTER, FILLING AS I BAKE EACH PANCAKE; IT SAVES A STEP!)

TRANSER TO A PLATE OR A PLATTER. SPREAD THE PAN WITH A BIT MORE BUTTER AND REPEAT, UNTIL ALL THE BATTER AND JAM IS USED. SERVE WARM OR AT ROOM TEMPERATURE, OR WRAP AND STORE UP TO 24 HOURS.

PREP TIME: 10 MINUTES

TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR 20 MINUTES

SMALL BATCH PANCAKES: FOR A SMALL BATCH, HALF THIS RECIPE,

MAKE AHEAD: SINCE IT’S BEST TO LET THE BATTER REST 1 TO 2 HOURS BEFORE COOKING THE PANCAKES, I ALWAYS MAKE A FULL BATCH. EXTRA PANCAKES CAN BE STACKED (WITHOUT JAM), WRAPPED IN A WAX WRAP OR PLASTIC WRAP, AND FILLED AND SERVED THE NEXT DAY.

Food styling + photography // SARAH COPELAND

Ceramics // LOST QUARRY