Thinking about my recent trip to Israel, I realize that fresh and good food was so easy to find there, and at relatively inexpensive prices. The restaurant at the beach, the little falafel shop, the pastries at the grocery store at 10 PM, the street corner Shawarma place…  It was all good, fresh, and cheap.

I haven’t seen any junk food chain stores! Can you believe it? Well… besides McDonalds… McDonalds is everywhere, isn’t it? But it’s not very popular in Israel. (They say that even Starbucks did not make it there.) So, you get my point, good, fresh food—and coffee!—was all around. Oh, and fresh juice too. Freshly squeezed juice stores like this one below were on every busy street.

Inspired by that, we started drinking freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast at home. (The doctor says is has lots of fiber…)

We made fresh juice using these tools which failed to squeeze every sweet drop out of the fruit,

… and it was also somewhat messy and time consuming (Who has extra time in the morning to make orange juice?), so we went back to the boxed juice only to discover that the juice from the box, organic or not, with pulp or not, with added vitamins or not, tastes like nothing.

We are never buying/drinking that stuff again ever!

4 days later we rushed to the store and bought an electric juicer. (In case you’re curious where, click here.) What do you know? It takes only 5 minutes from start to finish, cleanup included, and the kids can do it!

Then, at 12:31 AM—Yes, 12:31 AM!!!—it hit me. None of the oranges we used had seeds!

In the morning, I had to test my revelation.

I cut all 4 different varieties we had in half. To my surprise, I found out that heirloom or not, organic or not, Navel or another… the oranges don’t have seeds besides a lonely, random speck of seed, see?

What happened to the seeds?

Who took them out of the oranges?

What does it mean?

And who’s gonna make fresh orange juice?

If you live in the US, I’m sure you’ve made pancakes before. Probably numerous times—am I right or am I right?

But, the question is, have you been faithful to only one recipe? Or are you jumping from one recipe to the next?

As for me, I’ve been using the same recipe since 1996. Back then I was an M.A student and I shared a tiny apartment with a roommate, a sweet guy named Guy. He never cooked or was too interested in food so I don’t know how we got to talk about pancakes in the first place. The recipe was given to me by his mother whom I’ve never met in person. Her “recipe” came in the form of a list of ingredients—like all the recipes I was given back then—the rest I had to figure out: the order of adding them, what to do with them, the technique, etc.

I’ve been using this recipe since then but in the past couple of years I’ve become a bit bored with our long-term relationship and started looking around for some excitement in other places. I had a taste of other pancakes like Ina Garten’s banana sour cream pancakes—if you have to be unfaithful to your pancakes, this is the recipe to go for. There is also a recipe for some “old fashioned” ones but I have no memories of our encounter besides an incriminating evidence that was found in my recipe binder in the form of a printed recipe… So… With a lack of alibi, I’ll confess that I probably made them. Possibly even ate them. Who knows…

However, overall, I’ve been loyal to that same old recipe 95% of the times. It’s my one and only true love. I’m sure there are better, sweeter, richer, more sophisticated pancakes out there but at this point in my life I stopped looking—I stick to this one pancake recipe.

The recipe and I go together a long way. Now there are lil’ kids in our lives.

The lil’ kids want to make pancakes.

The lil’ kids fight over who does what, they whine, and argue, and… Then I’ll raise my voice, “if you are not nice, then get out of the kitchen.” And the kids will settle down.

Then I figured it out, a division of labor is needed! (Taking turns didn’t work.) THANK GOD for inventing the separation between dry and wet ingredients. That helped my enthusiastic children behave and we had fun preparing the pancakes.

Up until yesterday I’ve made the batter in the order of ingredients as the “recipe” that was handed down to me specified. However, from now on, especially when the kids are around and wanting to pancake (I really think it should be a verb), we’ll apply the wet-dry method.

I noticed my recipe has less flour (about 1/2 to 1 cup less) compared to other pancake recipes I found online. Maybe this is why they very much reminded me of the Blintzes I made a while ago. After comparing the two, what do you know, the recipes are very similar only the blintzes have 1/2 more milk—ha! And, therefore, make thinner ‘cakes. So maybe my pancakes are somewhere between a classic American ones and European blintzes/crepes… but I love them just the same.

Now, do you remember Simone from Jungle Frog cooking blog? She made pancakes too and I am curious to see what she came up with.

Simone and I cooked a few types of pancake-like recipes in the past year:

It started with Dutch Poffertjes (Simone is Dutch and lives in the Netherlands)

Jewish Blintzes

Swedish Aebleskiver

Also, you must try—I insist, these Zucchini Pancakes

So, what is your favorite pancake batter?

My first and only pancakes

Makes 10 pancakes

2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
Butter for frying
Maple, butter, jam for serving

Mix the wet ingredients in one bowl. Mix the dry ingredients in another bowl.

Gradually add the dry mix into the wet one and whisk vigorously until the batter is lumpless.

Melt a small piece of butter in a small non-stick skillet over medium heat. Pour 1/4 cup of batter and cook until bubbles show up on the surface. Flip to the other side and cook until it is golden brown. Remove to a plate.

Repeat this process with the rest of the batter, adjusting the heat as needed.

A confession:  I like my pancakes best served with butter; more than maple syrup (too sweet).

I’m not quite sure really what it is…

I think it qualifies as porridge but some might say it’s a pudding, or even a crema. Definitions asides, this was one of the few memorable breakfasts of my childhood.

Sweet, thick, milky farina porridge.

I remember loving it, asking for it, sometimes even begging my mother to make it. We never had the recipe written down and had to guess the ratio of milk : farina and reinvent the wheel all over the again each time we made it.

It was a special breakfast, made only on weekends, when we woke up late and didn’t have to rush to work and to school. On weekends, we had the extra 5 minutes it takes to cook it!

Fast forward 20+ years. I was in my thirties, when one day I came across this

… at a local Middle-Eastern store.

From that day on, farina porridge has re-entered my life and our family’s weekend breakfast menu (Together with ebleskiver). Served until 11 am.

My kids love it, ask for it, sometimes even beg me to make it.

I always say, “Yes”. On a weekends.

They can barely wait the 5 minutes it takes to cook!

Have you heard of farina? It’s similar to semolina but a bit coarser.

The definition on Wikipedia says:

Farina is a cereal food, frequently described as mild-tasting, usually served warm, made from cereal grains. In contemporary English use, the word usually refers to semolina or Cream of Wheat made from soft wheat. Wheat farina is a carbohydrate-rich food, often cooked in boiling water and served warm for breakfast, or cooked with milk and made into semolina pudding.

The word farina comes from the Latin “farina” meaning meal or flour.

Farina is made from the germ and endosperm of the grain, which is milled to a fine granular consistency and then sifted. (Click here if you want to know more.)

***

“When I was a child, we didn’t have the things you have today…” I remember the grown ups saying it to me when I was a child, and even later when I was a grown up. I have always found it extremely annoying!

Well… When I was a child, we didn’t have sprinkles.

No siree… There were no sprinkles sprinkled on my porridge.

We sprinkled cocoa powder or more sugar, maybe added a teaspoon of jam, and that was it.

No sprinkles back then, at the olde days.

Ah, the kids today… They don’t know how good they got it.

And now I got it good too. These days I have a collection of sprinkles.

Every time I see an interesting color or shape, I buy a new jar.

We use it a lot on homemade birthday cakes (See Chocolate Roulade and Dirt cake) as well as on our farina porridge.

Well, the kids do. I don’t.

I’m a grown up now. (Is it too late for me?)

But the kids just love it. Of course…

As with their birthday cakes, I let them make their own creations.

Ah, the kids today… They don’t know how good they got it.

“Wohaaa, easy Girl!”

Someone got busy while mommy got chatty…

… and used a wee bit too much vibrant sugary sprinkles while mommy was busy snapping photos…

I’m not a big fan, to say the least, of food coloring and colored food, but I let this one slip by.

So…

What was your favorite childhood breakfast?

Farina porridge

Makes 2-3 servings

2 cups milk

1/4 cup farina

2 tablespoons sugar

Put all the ingredients in a heavy bottomed pot, mix well and bring to a boil, stirring from time to time. Watch that the flame/heat is not too high; it will scorch the milk.

When the milk comes to a boil, lower the heat just a little and stir constantly, watching that the mixture doesn’t overflow (but you have to let it “bubble” for 1-2 minutes, this causes the farina to thicken). Then lower the heat to a gentle simmer, stirring from time to time, and cook for another 3 minutes, or until it thickens a bit more.

Pour into bowls (it will thicken more as it cools) and let cool a bit. Serve.

Serving suggestions:

I eat it plain

The kids like to add more sugar/sprinkles

Suburban Cowboy likes to add jam (he’s such a kid)

Try cinnamon, cocoa powder, a knob of butter (Oh, I love to add a little butter… I almost forgot about it!)

NOTES:

As a rule of thumb, I prefer the porridge to be too thick than too thin. If it’s too thick, add a little milk to loosen it up, this will also cool it a bit (it is very hot when you take it off the heat).

If it’s too thin to your liking, add more farina, 1-2 teaspoons at a time, and cook some more.

***

Blintzes… I’ve been making them since high school. That’s… never mind how many years ago.

I’ll be 40 in a few months! I hear the preparations for the celebrations are underway. (No pressure, Suburban cowboy.)

Back in high school, I used to make a batch of these crepe-like yummies and take them with me to my room to nourish my brain and pamper my soul which helped me study better. I was skinny back then. I walked a LOT.

There’s no way I can eat the whole thing by myself these days and live to tell.

The blintzes are part of the series of all sorts of pancakes and their likes I’m virtually making together with Simone and Trissa. Before blintzes we made Poffertjes and Ebelskivers. This week the three of us are making… well, you guessed it, Blintzes! I am curious to see what was their twist on the blintzes. Let’s check: click here to see Simone’s and here to see Trissa’s.

Blintzes are different from Poffertjes, Ebelskivers, and American pancakes. I think they are more like crepes; The batter is thin which results in a delicate flat cake with a smooth and silky texture. Like crepes, they are filled; Blintzes are usually filled with sweet fillings but I’ve seen them with savory ones too. (I once ate a lovely blintzes filed with liver pate. Yummmm…. And Suburban cowboy had them this morning for lunch with savory cheese.)

Here’s the recipe I’ve been using since 1997 with a few changes I’ve made as years went by, and with much more details added, so future generations can create them the same way I do. If they’d want to…. Just in case they miss them after I’m gone.

But that might take a while. I’m only going to be 40.

Sweet Blintzes

You can make the blintzes a few hours ahead; refrigerate them covered. Warm them in the microwave (about 10 seconds each) before filling and serving.
The recipe makes… eh… If I ate 2 and there were 9 left, how many did I have?

Makes 10-11 blintzes in an 8-inch skillet (measured at the bottom)

For the batter:
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons sugar
Butter, for frying

For the filling:
Ricotta cheese or sour cream
Strawberry/cherries jam (or whatever you have/like)
Fresh berries, chopped, sprinkled with a bit of sugar. (Nectarines and peaches work great too! But not yet in season.)
Or, mix together Ricotta cheese/sour cream with a little sugar, lemon zest + a little lemon juice, vanilla, cinnamon, and raisins.

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and whisk until the batter is smooth. (Optional – you can do this an hour ahead and let the batter sit in the fridge.)

Melt 1-2 teaspoon of butter in a non-stick skillet over medium heat (if you work fast) or medium-low heat (if you work slow).

Pour about 1/4 cup batter and spread it evenly over the bottom of the pan. Fry for a few minutes until the edge is brown and dry. Flip to the other side and fry until the second side has light brown spots. Remove to a plate. Continue the same way with the rest of the batter adding a tiny bit of butter before each one.

When you’re done frying all the blintzes, spread your choice of filling and either roll tightly like a wrap or fold from 4 sides to make a rectangular shape, or… whatever shape you like.

See lots of photos below.

***

Melt 1/2 tablespoon butter

Over medium to medium-low heat, lightly grease the pan

First side

Adjust the heat as needed. If you work quickly, use medium heat; if you need more time lower to medium-low.

Flip with non-stick tools

They say the first side usually doesn’t turn out, but it did, although a bit pale (I’ll put it back for another minute)

Second side,

First one turned out OK, a little rip there in the middle, but no worries, I’ll eat it.

There… so much better.

Second blitzes (What’s the singular for Blintzes; anyone knows? Blintz, blintze, or blin?)

Second blintzes, turned

Second blintzes, second side

and so on and so on… Until all the batter is gone

The first side looks like this

The second side looks like this. Which side is prettier?

Fill it

You can roll it

or fold it like this

or fold it like that

I tasted a second blintze. It was just as good

But maybe I’ll taste them all, just to make sure they are all good…

Are you still around?

Ha, I thought you’ll be in the kitchen by now. Concocting your own blintzes.

Go, go, go… Make some of your own.

***

I really got into the mood of pancake making, and of course eating, after my Poffertjes travel back in time experience. So, naturally, I was extremely happy when Simone has suggested we make more pancakes together, this time Danish ones called Ebelskiver, and this time Trissa from the beautiful blog Trissalicious joins too. I’m in the US, Simone in Holland, and Trissa in Australia! How cool is that? I think, that’s one of the the fun-nest aspects of blogging.

I have already made those Danish pancakes twice and I can easily predict the future and tell you I will be making them a zillion more times. According to Wikipedia, Æbleskiver (Danish meaning apple slices) are traditional Danish pancakes in a distinctive shape of a sphere. Somewhat similar in texture to American pancakes crossed with a popover, Æbleskiver are solid like a pancake but light and fluffy like a popover.

This brought up the need to buy yet another pan. An ebelskiver pan. After much debate on which pan to buy, I’ve decided to go with William-Sonoma after watching their video tutorial on how to make Aebleskiver. then I headed to the store to see the pan with my own eyes and all doubts were gone. I used the pan twice and I love it.

I found that making ebelskiver was much easier than making poffertjes. I think this was mainly because I only had to handle and flip 7 pancakes at a time instead of the 14 little poffertjes. (Some poffertjes pans have even 20 or more indentations which I can only imagine takes a high level of skill to make.) They also take a bit longer to cook compared to the poffertjes which allows you some time to breathe in between flipping and batches. With the poffertjes, by the time I poured the last teaspoon of batter in the pan I had to immediately turn them to the other side. So, bottom line, ebelskiver is much easier to make.

Flavor wise, they turned out just-right sweet and light as air. They reminded me of little doughnuts, but of the good kind, like those made with yeast and left to rise and then fried in oil. (Yu-um.) Only with ebelskiver what makes them have a light and fluffy texture is whipping egg whites. (Don’t let that scare you or stop you, in case whipping whites is something you think you don’t know how to do. 2 minutes in a mixer and it’s done!) I made them with different fillings: sliced banana, a bit of chocolate, strawberry jam, and plain. Sprinkled with powdered sugar and a drizzle of maple syrup or melted butter – optional, but recommended. My favorite was to eat them plain or filled with jam which reminded me of these Hanukah doughnuts,

Actually, when I served them plain with butter and sugar they reminded me more of the Dutch poffertjes I had 21 years ago on my trip to Holland than the poffertjes I made at home. Hmmm, could it be? Could it be some conspiracy going on in The Netherlands where Danish ebelskiver are being served in the disguise of Dutch poffertjes? I wonder…

You can watch the William-Sonoma tutorial video is here, more recipes here, or in photos and steps here. I used the recipe that came with the pan only I cut it in half since 20 mini pancakes are enough for the four of us. Each time we had leftovers to nibble on later throughout the day. Ah, don’t you love Saturday mornings?

Now, if I hadn’t told you about the little drama we had here on Thursday, could you have guessed? Or the mostly sleepless night we had last night? Ebelskiver are a major distraction from all of that, but this is what’s going on behind the scenes of our presumably perfect lives. The happy face we put on when we interact with the world outside.

My girl had to be weaned off the pacifier overnight after her injury. She likes to have it when she goes to sleep but we had to do it cold turkey. She cried during the night and asked for it so we haven’t slept much. We went in and out of her room a couple of times, taking turns, my husband and me. Then at around 3 am, when all we have tried to do did not work, we brought her to our bed. I only got kicked 2 or 3 times, got punched in the eye once, and got smacked on my head with her little fists 4 or 5 times. On the other hand, it’s just so funny to see her little face within 3/8-inch distance from mine, her soft curly hair in my face and tickling my nose. These are sweet moments.

Ebleskiver

Makes about 20 pancakes (or 4 batches)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, separated
1 (250 ml) cup of milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted, plus more for cooking
For filings: jam, bananas, chocolate chips, apple sauce
Maple syrup, for serving
Powdered sugar, for serving

In a big bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
In a small bowl, lightly whisk the egg yolks, then add the milk and the melted butter.

Whisk the yolk mixture into the flour mixture until the batter is well combined.
In a third bowl, using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites on high speed until stiff but not dry peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the batter in 2-3 additions.
Put 1/4 teaspoon butter in each well of the pancake pan. Place over medium heat and heat until the butter begins to sizzles. Using a pastry/silicon brush, coat surface of wells entirely with the butter. Pour 1 tablespoon batter into each well, then add some of the filling (if using) in the center of each pancake and top with another 1 tablespoon of batter. Cook until the bottoms are golden brown, crispy, and slightly pulls away around the edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Using 2 wooden skewers, flip the pancakes over and cook until golden and crispy on the other side, about 3 minutes more. Transfer to a plate.

Repeat with the remaining batter and fillings.
Dust the pancakes with confectioners’ sugar and serve warm with maple syrup.

*** Let’s check out what Simone and Trissa made…

The pan

My best props

There was hardly any time to take photos as my husband and kids came back home and got all curious about what I was making in the kitchen.

Poffertjes.

The first time I ate poffertjes was back in 1989. I’ll help you out, that’s 21 years ago! Gosh, I sure grew up since. But in the past twenty-one years I could not forget those tiny sort-of-like pancake puffs, very generously dusted with powdered sugar and bathed in melted butter, that I have seen only in Holland. If you must, they also sell them with a “side” of whipped cream and strawberries. Need I say more? I was much skinnier back then, and 21 years younger, and I burnt a lot of calories walking in those pre-car years, so I could eat them with no limits, which is exactly what I did.

I was during a trip to Holland with my father to visit his sister and her family who still live there. It was one of the best trips of my life. We got there in the summer – already a good start since it’s pretty cold in Holland right now, see below? (These are photos my aunt took from the plane on her way to sunny Thailand) – everything was beautiful, new, different, and exciting.

We visited a few towns, Amsterdam (Fries drenched in mayonnaise was the most common street food and I loved it. Forget about ketchup. Mayo is the best!), Den Hagg, Rotterdam (Where we went to a night club and I received a lot of attention form the Dutch boys, who tried to guess whether I am Italian, French, or Spanish and approached me speaking those languages), Delft (Where we had poffertjes again, this time with whipped cream and strawberries. There were lots of bees fighting to have some too. Luckily, we didn’t get stung), and Bergen op zoom (Beautiful train ride, visiting relatives, then a bike ride, and a lovely market. Oh, and the first time I had mashed potatoes with bacon bits in it! It was love at first bite! I can’t forget that either.)

I’ve never seen such a flat land before, and so green, with so much water! Lots and lots of water, bikes, cows, grass, cheese, gorgeous brick houses, red brick paved streets, beautiful people. Here are a few photos I scanned from that trip, taken a long long time ago:

Me and my father on a touristic boat tour

Me in a mini-Holland

I used lipstick back then…

and my aunt Rachel wanted to put more makeup on me… but then she got busy… She loves to shop, dress up, and tan!

Pigeons. (Blech. They’re like rats with wings. I really didn’t want to stand there.) But see the building in the background!

Bike ride near Bergen op zoom. I’m not very good on a bike. Thank goodness this land is flat!

You know what these are

Cows, cows everywhere

A beautiful fishermen village

That trip was so wonderful that since then I automatically love anything Dutch and poffertjes (pronounced: poh-fer-tchuhs) will be forever in my mind. I did have poffertjes a few times in the past years but they were from a boxed mix and my husband was the one who burnt them, eeehh, made them, so it didn’t feel like the real thing. Fortunately, recently I got to virtually know Simone and her lovely blog Junglefrog cooking, and it turned out she is Dutch. (She also had a guest post about food photography and cameras, here). We exchanged a few comments and e-mails that turned into sharing recipes for poffertjes. Simone sent me a recipe that was titled “Oud Hollandse Poffertjes” and it immediately made me smile at the sound of the unfamiliar words and accent.

So finally today was my first time ever of making Poffertjes! It’s a historic day! A dream come true!

A little research on the internet revealed a few versions and we decided to try a recipe with eggs because it sounded richer than those without any. Simone said that buckwheat flour is traditional so we kept that and here’s a little photo she sent me showing her poffertjes pan:

I found that it takes some practice to make them right and you need to work fairly quickly. By the 4th batch I got better.

Of course, after the first batch I could no longer wait (the husb and kids were not at home yet) so I stopped the process and took a little taste break.

It wasn’t quite the taste that I remembered. It was good, I liked it, but the flavor was a bit sour, I think this might have been because of too much yeast (I’ll try to make it next time with smaller amount). I don’t know how buckwheat flour tastes. This was the first time I’ve had anything made with this flour so I think that maybe it added some of the sourness to the flavor as well. I believe the ones I had in Holland a million light years ago were made with regular/all-purpose flour so next time I’ll try to have more of that and less of the buckwheat. By the 4th batch though, the poffertjes tasted better, mellower, maybe because it had more time to sit and develop the flavors. I wonder what it would have tasted like if the batter was left to rise slowly in the fridge overnight.

For frying and portioning, first I used my smallest cookie scoop I have, then I tried pouring the batter from a cup, but I found that it worked best with a small teaspoon. This helped not overfilling the pan cavities which results in overflowing poffertjes.

I know there’s a special fork for turning the poffertjes in order to fry them on both sides but I don’t have one, so I used two heat-proof (silicon) spatulas. I also used a silicon brush to grease the hot pan with melted butter as well as the cooked poffertjes (instead of pouring a stream of melted butter on top. I know, it sounds better.)

If you don’t have a poffertjes pan, try adding teaspoonfuls of the batter to create the mini pancakes in a regular non-stick pan.

OK, ‘nough with technicalities, here’s the recipe:

Poffertjes

Makes 80-100 tiny pancakes

3dl (1 1/4 cups) milk
10g (2.5 teaspoons) dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
100 grams (3/4 cup; 3.5 oz.) all-purpose flour
150g (1 cup; 5.25 oz.) buckwheat flour
2 eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons melted butter, plus 4-5 tablespoons for frying
Powdered sugar
Whipped cream – optional
Fresh fruit – optional

Warm the milk in the microwave for about 40 seconds to 35 C (90-100 F) degrees.

In a small bowl, mix the yeast, sugar, and milk until dissolved.
Sift the flours together in a big mixing bowl. Make a little hole in the middle and pour the yeast mixture in it. Do not stir. Cover the hole with flour and let it rest for 15 minutes in a warm place.

Mix the yeast mixture and flour, then add the eggs, vanilla, salt, and 2 tablespoons of melted butter and mix until smooth. Let the dough rise, covered, for 1 hour in a warm place.

Put the poffertjes pan on the stovetop over medium-low to low heat and lightly grease the cavities with melted butter using a heat-proof (like silicon) brush. Fill the cavities only half-way with batter.
Cook over medium-low to low heat (adjust as needed) until the poffertjes are golden brown, then flip to the other side and cook to golden brown (They are ready to be flipped when tiny air bubbles appear on top and the bottom has set).

If the pan gets too hot, take it off the heat, grease with melted butter for the second batch and fill with more batter. Return to heat and continue the same way with the next batches.

Arrange the cooked poffertjes on a (warmed) plate, dust with powdered sugar and pour/brush melted butter on them before serving. Extras: Serve with whipped cream and fresh fruit.