Pancakes

Traditionally in Iceland, whenever there is a birthday party, a funeral, a graduation or any other social gathering, Icelandic women (and nowadays men as well) make pancakes and they make a lot as usually there is a huge stack which vanishes at lightning speed.

Usually pancakes are served with a drizzle of sugar and nothing else, however when there is a special celebration, they are filled with whipped cream and jam and they are renamed as "Cream Pancakes" (Rjómapönnukökur in Icelandic). We never use lemon juice with sugar as they do in England and other places (although it is not a bad idea). When I started making pancakes, several years ago I found it really difficult and they always, always turned out bad. I have since found out that you need a very good pan (heavy pancake pan) and spelt is not the best flour for making pancakes (the gluten combination is different to gluten in wheat) but I still use it with slightly better results than when I first started making them. Also as someone said to me...."Our grandmothers had 60 years experience making pancakes, no wonder they always turned out perfect". I still remember when I was a little girl and I used to go with my grandparents gathering sheep in the Western part of Iceland. Sheep gathering takes place in the autumn when the sheep are gathered from the mountains and wilderness of Iceland. Afterwards there was always lots of pancakes, hot cocoa and other goodies. That was the part I looked most forward too because I loved pancakes with cream and I still do. As I have told you before I never eat real cream and I never use full fat cream in any of my recipes, the only exception is cream pancakes although I sometimes used whipped, organic soy cream. My version of pancakes is slightly healthier than you would find in the usual Icelandic household since I don't use butter and I use spelt flour instead of wheat.