- 11 hours ago
Ever wondered what pancakes look like around the world? Epicurious brings together 11 chefs from 11 countries to showcase their pancake recipes. From American buttermilk pancakes to Japanese soufflé hotcakes, discover how cultures around the world transform pancakes into their own mouthwatering delicacy.
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00:02You're about to see 11 different chefs from 11 different countries make pancakes.
00:14Today we're making Japanese buffet pancake, hottokeki in Japanese. It is a little fluffier and taller. We are making the
00:24classic batter, but then we will be baking it in the oven instead of steaming it.
00:29And it will create a little crispier edge. Flour, some sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. So we're using two
00:38leavening agents.
00:39Next we're going to combine the wet ingredients. So we have whole milk, we have an egg. We're just going
00:45to mix this to combine.
00:46Combine the dry and wet mixture here. And we don't want to stir too much. We don't want to overwork
00:52the batter.
00:53Next we're going to take some lemon juice. The lemon juice helps to activate the baking soda. And you're going
01:00to start to see some bubbling.
01:02So next we're going to make the meringue. Take two egg whites, make them into stiff peaks. So it's really
01:09loud, but you want to keep doing this till you form stiff peaks to make the meringue.
01:15Okay, that was like a construction zone. I'm going to add the meringue. Careful not to deflate this meringue. So
01:22you want to fold it in pretty gently.
01:24These pancakes get really fluffy when you chill the batter for a bit. So we're going to put this in
01:30the fridge for a couple of hours.
01:32I'm heating up a cast iron pan. You want to put a healthy amount. Vegetable oil, any neutral oil will
01:40be okay. It really helps to get the edges of the pancakes crispy.
01:45This will make two stacks. So we're going to make the first stack now. This goes straight into the oven
01:50at 400 degrees. Bake that for six minutes and then we will flip it once and bake it for another
01:58five minutes.
01:59So now the pancakes are cooked and we are going to put the toppings on. We have a caramel sauce.
02:06I'm going to add some of these bananas here as well. And then I like to make this a little
02:12over the top with a scoop of red peen azuki ice cream on top.
02:22Mmm. Really crispy and fluffy. Delicious.
02:27This pancake originated in Austria is very widely known. It's called the Kaiserschmarrn. The emperor, what is called in German,
02:36the Kaiser, came to a restaurant.
02:38The chef was not too happy with the order and he ordered a pancake and he was not too happy
02:42and just ripped it apart.
02:43If you rip something apart and you want to just eat a bunch of pieces, it's a Schmarrn.
02:48The Kaiser ate that and he loved it so much. So that recipe was named after the emperor, the Kaiserschmarrn.
02:56It's a great dish.
02:57So let's make the batter here. We start with the flour, the milk, a pinch of salt here and then
03:02you put the eggs in there.
03:03We separated the eggs from the egg white, the yolks. So the main batter is made here. Instead of using
03:10baking powder, we just use a beaten egg white.
03:13It makes it really nice and fluffy. Nice and stiff. That's how you like it here. And then you fold
03:22it in.
03:22But you want to keep it as light, as fluffy as possible. Yeah, we have the batter.
03:27We have tapen now. A nonstick is really crucial. We have here clarified butter. If you don't have clarified butter
03:33at home, regular butter will do as well.
03:36You don't have to do it too hot. It will go in the oven anywhere. We're gonna put this all
03:41in here.
03:42Here I have some raisin. I soak them in rum. I just put them in here and let's put it
03:48in the oven.
03:49Oh yeah. It looks ready. The way how it's really done, you just go check first. It's cooked. Yep, it's
03:57cooked.
03:57Don't really worry about ripping it because that's the fun part. It should be ripped. Look at that.
04:03My mother always cut it in four pieces. It was easier to flip it over like this. We give it
04:09a little bit heat.
04:10So the bottom side can also grab a little bit harder. Just break that thing up in the pan. It's
04:17ready to eat now.
04:19And here I have the rum I use to soak the raisins in. And there's a little bit sugar here.
04:25There was nothing in the batter that was sweet.
04:29So we do need somewhere, as a dessert, some sweetness to it. A little bit caramelized sugar.
04:34Now we're gonna do a fun part. Here's the rum. Never put the rum in here over open fire. Always
04:40go away a little bit.
04:41And then we have it here. And if you want to make fun. Yeah, there it is.
04:48Put this back in here. One quick toss. That's it. That's all we need.
04:57So we put definitely powder sugar on there. And there it is. Nice, fluffy. It goes all good together.
05:08We Mexicans love corn. So I'm making corn hotcakes, pancakes, with pomegranates, piloncillo, brown butter, cajeta, and ricotta cheese.
05:16I'm gonna be making everything in the blender. So we make everything here, blend it together, and then cook the
05:21pancakes as we need it.
05:22I want my pancakes to be sweet and also want the flavor of the corn. I'm gonna add some buttermilk
05:28and we're going to puree this.
05:29Because I want the corn to disappear. My butter is gonna be more on the fluffy, soft, sweet side.
05:36So now I'm gonna add two eggs.
05:39Baking soda. Baking butter. Salt. A little bit of extract of vanilla. I'm gonna add some piloncillo.
05:45Piloncillo basically is raw sugar with a caramel taste, and it's delicious. All-purpose flour.
05:51Now I'm just gonna start slow. I like to make things easier, and this way it's faster. You don't have
05:56to use so many utensils.
05:58And then I'm gonna do a little bit of brown butter. It's gonna add the butter flavor that everybody loves.
06:03Our pancake butter is ready, medium heat. I'm gonna do like around six to eight pancakes.
06:08And this is the beautiful part about doing this in the blender, because there is not a lot of mess.
06:12So I'm gonna do six of this. I'm gonna do a little bit of pomegranate.
06:16Pomegranates are very common in Mexico. We use that a lot in chiles and nogala.
06:20Every single bite, I want you to have an explosion in your mouth. Be like, whoa, where is this came
06:23from? That was the pomegranate.
06:25And I'm gonna do a little bit of corn, because I want the sweetness and flavor of a corn.
06:29One, two, three, go.
06:30If you see one thing, like right here, it's a lot of all here and not here, that's telling you,
06:33turn me around.
06:34Okay, let's see this one.
06:36Oh, my God. It's like a gift. It's full of surprises.
06:41Whoo! Okay. Dos, tres, cuatro.
06:45My pancakes are done. Now we're gonna garnish.
06:47I'm gonna do a little bit of ricotta with lemon zest and piloncillo.
06:51Creamy, sweet, with a little bit of acidity.
06:55Cajeta, goat's milk, caramel.
06:57This is our Mexican syrup.
06:59And pomegranates. Everything in one plate.
07:02Nice and fluffy. Holy moly, guacamole.
07:10That's it.
07:13Today I'll be making homestyle buttermilk pancakes.
07:16I like it simple. I'm gonna do a version that's an ode to the classic American pancake, perfect for your
07:21diner plate.
07:22We'll start off by making the batter. You don't want to mix your batter until you're ready to cook, because
07:26the leavening agents rise and you want to catch that perfect moment where you're gonna get the fluffiest pancakes.
07:31So to start, buttermilk, whole milk, three farm eggs with those beautiful yellow yolks, melted butter, and some vanilla extract.
07:39And you just want to mix so everything's nice and combined and homogenous.
07:42Next, we'll move on to our dry ingredients.
07:44All-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, which helps it rise, baking soda, which helps flatten.
07:50Last ingredient, salt.
07:51Next, you're gonna mix just until combined.
07:54You want to make sure that you're not over mixing, which will give you a tough and hard pancake.
07:58My favorite thing to use is a stainless steel skillet, around 12 to 14 inches, so you can get those
08:02nice big flapjacks that you want.
08:04You can always use nonstick if you're afraid of things sticking, but if you made your batter right,
08:08and you're using the right amount of grease, you can cook them on this.
08:11I mix olive oil and butter together.
08:13I want the flavor and the crispiness from the butter, but I want the olive oil to keep the butter
08:18from burning.
08:19Kind of matches each other up.
08:20Between medium to low heat, the thing with pancakes, you never want to keep it at the same temperature.
08:25You always want to play when it gets too hot.
08:27Turn it down if you feel like it's getting too cold.
08:29You know your pancakes are cooking nice and good when you see some bubbles rising through to the top.
08:33Once you see you've started to cook a little bit around the outsides, and you're just set in the middle,
08:37it's time to flip.
08:38Tap around the middle a little bit, and once it starts to feel a little bit firm, that's when you
08:42know it's ready to take out of the pan.
08:47Now we've got our last pancake. Time to dress them up.
08:50My favorite way to do it is the simplest way of all.
08:53A little pat of salted butter right on the middle, and then you can put as much or as little
08:58syrup as you want.
08:59You can put it on the side and dip, but if you're a real one, you're drenching it.
09:02And there's the pancakes.
09:08Mmm, yum. Salty, crispy, buttery, exactly what you want for a pancake.
09:15Okay, so today we're making Shrove Tuesday-style pancakes.
09:19Shrove Tuesday, it's a religious holiday. It's 40 days before Easter, signifying Lent.
09:23So we're going to take all of the fatty things out of the cupboards.
09:26We'd usually eat these in the evening time, like after dinner.
09:29On Shrove Tuesday, it would kind of like be the dessert and get us ready for a period of abstinence.
09:33This is going to be a flat, thin pancake.
09:35Fun thing to make. Kids love it. Milk in a bowl.
09:39Two eggs.
09:40You don't want to incorporate too much air into this mix.
09:43The important thing here is to make it a nice, smooth batter.
09:45Dump the flour in.
09:46A little pinch of salt, a little pinch of sugar.
09:49You don't have to worry about making this in advance.
09:51It's not a batter that needs to rest for a long time.
09:53Super quick, super easy.
09:55And that's our batter pretty much ready to go.
09:57Ready to cook these guys.
09:58I've got a stainless steel pan. It's ripping hot.
10:00So just a lick of oil in the bottom of the pan.
10:02We're going to go in with about three ounces of our pancake mix.
10:04You want to see that sizzle. That's great.
10:06And then we're just going to let this guy sizzle away and cook.
10:09Presents a lot like a crepe at this point, but we're going to cook this harder than a crepe.
10:12We want to have a nice bit of color on here.
10:14And you'll see just around the edges, the batter starts to set.
10:17It's going to come away from the pan itself.
10:18And then it's going to be ready to flip.
10:20This freely moves in the pan here.
10:22And that's exactly what you're looking for.
10:23Got to get this right or my mom will kill me.
10:26There we go.
10:27And that's exactly what we're looking for.
10:28A nice bit of color, fully cooked.
10:31I'm going to put a little bit of butter in the bottom of the pan here,
10:33which is going to help with the color on the other side.
10:36You want to finish this in the center with a touch of orange,
10:38a little bit of sugar, and then quarter it in the pan.
10:42And that's our pancake.
10:43I'm just going to finish with a touch of butter.
10:45Just a little bit more sugar.
10:46It's actually been years since I made one of these,
10:49so I'm excited to try it.
10:54It tastes like childhood.
10:56Yeah, that's great.
10:56My mom would be proud.
10:59So we are making Barlil.
11:02Barlil is the Algerian pancake.
11:05In France, we actually call it the crepe of 1,000 whole.
11:08Due to the fermentation, mostly serve for breakfast
11:11and mostly serve for afternoon tea.
11:14I'm going to start with adding some semolina
11:16that I'm going to put into the blender.
11:19Regular flour, 00 flour is totally fine.
11:22Salt, just for the fermentation.
11:24And the water has to be a little warm
11:26to help the fermentation to go a little bit faster.
11:28Baking powder.
11:31Usually, I always wait like five to 10 minutes
11:34to add the second baking powder, levure,
11:38because it will help the fermentation
11:40to be really bubbly.
11:42You want to blend it 30 to 40 seconds,
11:44so it's mixed in with the rest of the dough.
11:46Sit it in a warm area, at least 30 minutes.
11:49You're going to see the texture of the dough is bubbly.
11:52You don't need to add any butter to the pan,
11:55because then it will fry the pancake.
11:57So the best way is to have a non-stick pan with nothing in it.
12:00Cook for at least until the bottom is a little golden.
12:04And you only have to cook one side of it.
12:06So I'm going to take that one away.
12:09I'm going to make another one.
12:11I just want to really show you, like, the texture of the crepe
12:15and how you can see the thousand holes.
12:17We usually top it with some butter.
12:21Oh, this is so good.
12:22Adding some beautiful orange blossom honey.
12:25And I like to top that with some fresh mint.
12:28And I like to spray the date.
12:30The honey and the butter, it's like everything goes into each hole,
12:33and that adds the whole flavor into the pancake.
12:36So when you eat it, roll it like a tortilla,
12:39and you get all the flavor of the butter, the mint, and the date.
12:45Mmm, trop bon.
12:47Non, c'est trop bon.
12:49I didn't grow up eat, like, the American pancake
12:52that you guys have it here, but I grew up eating tapioca.
12:55Tapioca is made from cassava.
12:57It's basically hydrated cassava starch.
12:59Here, I'm going to teach you guys how to make those, like,
13:02tapioca crepes that I grew up eating it for breakfast.
13:05Once I put the tapioca here, they stick together like magic
13:08and become this little crepe.
13:10So you don't need water, you don't need egg,
13:12you don't need, like, anything.
13:13My pan is warmed up.
13:14I'm going to put, like, my tapioca here.
13:17I want it even.
13:19I don't want it to get, like, thicker in one side,
13:21thinner in the other one.
13:22And then if it's too thin, you just add a little bit more.
13:26See how it sort of, like, to stick together?
13:28It's a very thin layer.
13:29If you do, like, a very thick tapioca,
13:31it gets too chewy.
13:33Thin as a paper.
13:34And then I can add, like, my dulce de leche.
13:36Dulce de leche is our version of caramel,
13:38but please don't call it caramel.
13:40It's not caramel.
13:41Make with milk and sugar.
13:42Use it for cakes, for crepes.
13:45And I'm gonna put my bananas.
13:48And then I'm just gonna close the crepe.
13:50It's so simple.
13:52It's like magic.
13:53Are you guys ready for some crispy, messy Brazilian pancake?
13:58Ooh, look at this.
14:00Sexy.
14:00And it's, like, crispy, too.
14:09It's a really good pre-workout.
14:14So what we are making today, we call khanom krok,
14:18a Thai-style pancake.
14:20It's so simple and so easy to make.
14:23Khanom krok is something that you can find
14:25at any French market in the morning.
14:27It's small, and it's sweet, and it's delicious.
14:31Ingredients for khanom krok, it's so basic.
14:33Rice flour, coconut sugar, salt.
14:36Coconut sugar has less sweetness,
14:38but then it has the creaminess and aroma.
14:40So we add the sugar for the sweetness.
14:43Water.
14:44In the end, it's coconut milk.
14:46Now we're trying to make all the coconut sugar melt into the batter.
14:51Jasmine rice will make the texture firmer.
14:55The second one will be the sauce on the top.
14:58I'll add coconut milk into the saucepan.
15:00Rice flour, because we need the second layer to be a little thicker.
15:04We want to use the medium heat.
15:06Then we're gonna add some coconut sugar,
15:08a little bit of regular sugar.
15:09We're getting the consistency that we need.
15:11It's a little thicker for the second layer of this pancake.
15:14This is the pan that we're going to use for khanom krok.
15:18Now we're gonna spray them with cooking spray.
15:22We're going to use a medium heat first.
15:24Now we're gonna put the first layer,
15:27just not too full because you need the space for the second layer too.
15:31It's a little bit shallow.
15:32The way we use the batter, if it's too deep,
15:35it will be really hard to make the texture cook perfectly.
15:39Now we're gonna cover it.
15:40I can't really say how long it would take.
15:43This is something about Thai cooking that we don't really have specific timing.
15:48Everything has to be relation between you and your food.
15:51It's a little firm around the edge and still a little bit liquidy in the middle.
15:57And now we're gonna top with the second layer.
16:00Just only a little bit.
16:02Cover again.
16:03We'll wait until the whole thing gets firm.
16:05It smells so nice from jasmine rice, coconut milk.
16:10This is the texture that you want.
16:11It will melt in your mouth when you eat it.
16:14Oh, yeah.
16:15Look at that.
16:17The golden bottom, that's what we're looking for.
16:19You can see that.
16:20And I can see it's crispy out there too.
16:23You can offer your guests to choose their own topping and do it themselves.
16:27I have young coconut meat, corn, and scallion.
16:30This is it.
16:31Khun Nam Krok.
16:31Or Thai pancake.
16:33I like it more savory, so I'm gonna try the one with the scallion.
16:38Mmm.
16:39I don't know if you hear that.
16:40The crunch from the skin.
16:42Mmm.
16:43Perfect.
16:44So delicious.
16:45We are making a Nigerian-styled pancake.
16:48Jebe jebe.
16:49That means just to eat it like that.
16:51It's very thin, not fluffy at all.
16:53We make them from home.
16:54It's not really something you would see in a restaurant.
16:57We don't add syrup to this, no.
16:58This pancake is just like eating bread and an egg for breakfast.
17:02It's just another alternative.
17:03To make the Nigerian pancake, we're gonna start off with our flour,
17:06a pinch of salt, baking powder, sugar, and we have some cinnamon.
17:11Nutmeg is also optional.
17:13Now for our wet ingredients, two eggs, melted butter, chopped onion,
17:18and the star of the show, some scotch bonnet.
17:22Can't really ask an African person how spicy something is because...
17:27You understand?
17:29So if you're like a mild person, probably don't attempt this at all.
17:33If you like to try different things or open to spice levels, feel free.
17:37Add evaporated milk and just a little bit of water here.
17:40Evaporated milk is what's mostly available to us back home.
17:43Unless you live on the farm, it's very expensive offshore.
17:47Normally my fellow Nigerians add a little razzle dazzle and put some Titus fish or mackerel fish
17:53and stir that up and that's their lunch, but we're gonna keep it very simple.
17:56Our batter is ready and we are ready to fry these pancakes.
18:01We have our nonstick pan right here and we have some vegetable oil.
18:05The way that we prepare the pancake is very similar to an omelet.
18:09It needs to be very thin, crispy edges, thin on the inside.
18:12You can just fry it on both sides for about one and a half minutes.
18:16And once it starts to get brown on the outside, you flip that bad boy.
18:19The little lumpy parts are actually the grated onion.
18:24I just want you guys to take a good look at this.
18:26How thin it is, light.
18:29Wow, look at that.
18:30Very simple.
18:36Perfect, perfect, perfect.
18:39Doesn't need any syrup or none of that.
18:41I'm going to make a fermented rice pancakes.
18:46It's been popular in the east part of China for a really long time.
18:49Growing up, I would see every street, there will be a vendor selling these fermented pancakes.
18:55It has a slightly chewy, bouncy texture.
18:58It's very soft and tender as well.
19:00So I have some fermented sweet rice here, traditionally made with leftover rice and congee.
19:06The xiuqiu, the starter culture, will break down the starch in rice into sugars and then convert them into alcohol
19:14and acid.
19:15Think about sourdough, right?
19:17The same concept.
19:18This is how I make them at home.
19:20Warm water, and I'm going to add some yeast to speed up the process.
19:25And then sugar, same thing.
19:27And then I'm going to add rice flour, fermented sweet rice, and the yeast water into one bowl.
19:33Whisk until that you don't see any dry flour.
19:36We'll cover and then let it proof for two to three hours.
19:39You can see now the batter is proved and then you'll see big bubbles.
19:44Gentle stir to remove big bubbles.
19:46We're still keeping the smaller bubbles to make them extra fluffy.
19:49I have the heat on medium.
19:51They are touching, which is okay.
19:53We'll only fry the one side.
19:56And then the top side, we're actually going to steam it.
19:59So I'm going to add just a little bit of water and I'm going to let it steam.
20:03Once you see the bubbles on top and in the honeycomb shape, they're done.
20:07It's golden on both sides.
20:09Pancakes is cooked.
20:10You can actually enjoy them as they are, but I like to enjoy it in an old fashioned way.
20:17Stuff them with yu tiao, the fried curler.
20:19Going to fold them and eat them like a sandwich.
20:23You can serve them with some soy milk or milk.
20:33So good.
20:36It's very comforting.
20:39I'm making a Colombian arepa de choclo.
20:43Arepa de choclo are made with fresh corn.
20:46It's kind of the treat that you get when you are traveling.
20:48You will find these beautiful like road sized restaurants and they make arepa de choclo with cheese there as a
20:55treat in the way to get into your other destination.
20:57We're going to start making our masa, our butter.
21:01So we're going to start with the corn, add our egg, sugar, and then some salt, corn flour to bind
21:09better.
21:10And then some butter, because butter is taste.
21:16I think that we can add a little bit of milk.
21:20Our butter is ready now.
21:22Put it on this stove.
21:24You can put butter, but I'm going to do this spray to create like an even coat.
21:29We're going to drop it like a pancake.
21:31The temperature is going to be medium low.
21:33I want to create a really, really nice color of caramelization, but also to be cooked perfectly.
21:40I love cheese.
21:41Cheese is my love language.
21:42It's really important that you choose a cheese that melts a double cream cheese.
21:47And I check the color over here, then I do.
21:51That's it.
21:51So, okay.
21:52I'm going to remove this from the fire.
21:54Instead of using maple syrup, I make a melao de panela.
21:57Panela is raw sugar, cooked and compact.
22:00We use it for so many different purposes, like agua de panela.
22:04We use it as a sweetener.
22:06If you cook it and reduce it and infuse it with a little bit of spices,
22:10cloves, cinnamon, anise star, I get to do this kind of my own version of maple syrup.
22:20It's like an American pancake, but better.
22:23Way too much better, actually.
22:25These are actually so good.
22:26This should be the Mexican national pancakes.
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