Swedish Pancakes/Lazy Crepes (the recipe!)
Yesterday I posted a photo of the pancakes we had for dinner, and some of you asked for the recipe, so today is your lucky day!
A reader (from Sweden) commented yesterday that traditional Swedish pancakes are very thin, more like a crepe.
So, these are probably meant to be fairly thin, but growing up, my mom always made them on the thicker side. And that's how I'm used to eating them.
As a result, I'm not really sure what to call these! They're not exactly Swedish pancakes, and they're not exactly crepes, and they're definitely not like American pancakes.
When I was a kid, we typically sprinkled these with sugar and rolled them up. But of course you could fill them with fruit or whipped cream or whatever else suits your fancy.
They don't exactly make a super nutritious meal, but here's how I look at situations like I had the other night:
I had a long day, my original dinner plan wasn't going to happen, and so my choices were to either make something super quick and easy at home, or go buy takeout/fast food/pizza.
Compared to a roasted chicken with salad, Swedish pancakes with sugar are sort of fail nutritionally.
But compared to, say, chicken nuggets, I don't think they're all that bad.
And they're much cheaper. 😉
The batter is really simple-you just beat eggs and milk together with a bit of sugar and salt, and then mix in flour.
My batter is never perfectly smooth, but this doesn't seem to present a problem.
You could make these in a round frying pan just like you would crepes, but I do it the easy way my mom did, on a big griddle.
(In case you missed yesterday's post, that spoon is there to plug the grease drainage hole!)
Since these tend to be a little on the sticky side, I give the griddle a quick grease with butter before I pour the batter onto the griddle.
You can vary how much batter you pour, depending on how thick you want these to be, and once you pour, you can tip the griddle from side to side a bit to spread the batter evenly.
Once the batter has cooked a bit and the pancakes are slightly browned on the underside, use a plastic spatula to cut the batter into rectangles.
Then you can gently flip the pancakes over and cook them until they're lightly browned on the other side.
Sprinkle them with sugar, roll 'em up, and eat them!
I've also seen people spread jam and/or yogurt on these before rolling them up, and of course, you can never go wrong with fresh fruit and whipped cream.
(Whipped cream = pretty much always right.)
Swedish Pancakes / Lazy Crepes
(I double this recipe for my family.)
3 eggs
1 ¼ cups milk
1 tablespoon sugar
½ t. salt
¾ cup flour
Beat eggs, milk, sugar, and salt together. Whisk in flour until the batter is mostly smooth.
Heat an electric griddle to 350. Grease griddle with butter, then pour batter directly onto griddle (vary amount based on your desired pancake thickness.)
Cook for a few minutes (until lightly browned on the underside), then use a plastic spatula to divide the batter into rectangular pancakes. Gently flip and cook until second side is lightly browned.
Serve immediately with desired fillings (jam, yogurt, whipped cream, fresh fruit, sugar).
It is so interesting to see how various cultures have similar foods - tortillas, crepes, pancakes, dumplings, blintzes - all make a perfect folding wrapper for any filling you want. I wonder if leaving the sugar out of the batter would give you a more versatile option for savory fillings.
I grew up neighboring Sweden, and my mom made these crepes almost weekly. If you wish to make a dinner out of it, you can omit the sugar from the recipe and make a filling out of sauteed veggies, ground beef, etc and roll it into the finished crepe like a taco. You can also lay them on a tray like enchiladas and grate some cheese on top and finish them off under a burner in the oven.
I make the oven pancake version for my kids, which is the same recipe but in a deeper oven pan, and baked in the oven for a bit longer. It makes a nice, deep pudding like pancake.
My mom would make these once in a while,(my mom 1st generation American) (I am not sure of her recipe) But we were told there were Norwegian pancakes.. (Hey I think you are Norwegian right?) We ate them buttered and sprinkled with sugar. My moms were/are thin like crapes.
Yep, my mom is Norwegian. We ate lefse sometimes growing up- a thin potato pancake that's about the thickness of a crepe. We spread those with butter and sprinkled them with sugar, and I remember liking them a lot!
Eat Lefse also. My mom and sister make it around the holidays. Since my Grandma isn't baking much anymore... at 90+ don't blame her!
These look delicious! But here's my question: I only have two kids, but one is an 11-year-old boy. I feel like he'd have to eat the entire tray of these to be even remotely full. This kid is growing like a weed and shovels in the food. Easily outeats me at dinner most nights (and I'm 5' 9"). If your kids are similar to mine, are they invited to forage for supplements (like PB&J)? I find it very frustrating to cook what I consider "dinner," only to have one or two family members tell me an hour later, "I'm still really hungry!" Anyone else deal with this?
Yep, my two teens (Joshua and Lisey) frequently do end up foraging for a snack later in the evening. Sonia and Zoe are rarely hungry after dinner, but Joshua and Lisey are just at a hungrier stage of life.
I don't mind if they make themselves a snack or small meal later on...neither of them are remotely approaching anything near overweight (they are both tall and super slim), so I never tell them to stop eating! And since they put together their snack/small meal themselves, it really doesn't bother me.
German pancakes are typically a little thicker than these, but thinner than American pancakes and thicker than Crepes.
Another savory version is to omit the sugar of the batter and to fill them with ham and grated chesse. Typically you fill them in the pan, flip one half over the other and then turn the pancakes over so that the cheese melts... It is delicious and a French version 😉
I make a similar recipe to yours, except we call them skinny pancakes. That's what my mom grew up calling them and I have carried on the tradition with my kids.
They are very similar to Dutch pancakes, without the sugar in the batter!
I am sure these are delicious and obviously not cut out with a pot lid; but as soon as I saw the pic of the griddle full of batter I couldn't help but think of Green Acres. LOL
Reminds me of an oven pancake I make and we eat with fresh lemon juice and sugar. I love these quick and simple suppers. So homey and practical.
These look so yummy! My family loves crepes, but I rarely make them because of the effort. These look easy, will have to give them a try for breakfast this weekend. Thanks!
Hi Kristen,
Looks yummy. I'm curious though: how many of your family does this satisfy as an evening meal?
My husband (& 2 kids) could easily eat this for dessert, which is what it really is, AFTER something like a roast chicken dinner. It looks fine for breakfast and maybe lunch, but is it enough for your husband and kids as the main meal of the day? It just doesn't seem like it would be filling enough; do you know how many calories this would be. My husband would be quite unimpressed with pancakes for dinner actually, though simple things like eggs on toast are probably my favourites.
Oh, I wouldn't serve this on a night when everyone is really hungry. I tend to pull out breakfast for dinner when we've had a late lunch or when not all of us are hungry for dinner (which was the case when we had these the other night. Roasted chicken would probably have ended up being too much food for us that night anyway!)
This is brilliant! We used this recipe to make our favorite strawberry, banana, nutella crepes this morning. I hardly ever make them because making the crepes is so time consuming for our family. I doubled this recipe and cooked multiple batches in thin layers using an electric skillet. So much easier even than cooking regular pancakes. Thanks for sharing!
Yay!!! So happy it worked out well for you.
I need to find me a 4-sided griddle instead of the 3-sided one I have because these look incredible!!!!! I can't wait to try them!
Thanks for sharing.
Jillynn
I grew up eating these too!! We also called them Swedish pancakes and ate them rolled up with butter and sugar, although we make ours in a pan. The recipe did come from my grandpa whose mom was from Sweden, so maybe they're some kind of Swedish-American immigrant hybrid? 🙂 My boyfriend totally doesn't get it, he thinks they're bland, but I looooove Swedish pancakes 🙂
We like to make cinnamon/sugar apples to put inside and then sprinkle with powdered sugar. YUM!
I want to try this exact method, but use my own pancake recipe, which is egg-free due to a food allergy. Compared to most pancake recipes, my recipe substitutes 1 tbsp of baking powder and 1 tbsp of vegetable oil for each egg. So do you think I could just add 50% more milk to it or add some water to it? I also use a bit of fruit puree (usually apple sauce, pumpkin or banana) to keep it moist without the eggs. Mostly, I'm just wondering how thin to make the batter without ruining a whole batch.
Hmm, I'm not sure! This is such an eggy batter, it seems like it would be difficult to make without using eggs. I'd maybe google to see if there are egg-free crepe recipes, and kind of go from there. You might find some substitution principles for crepes that could apply.
My crepe recipe is basically the same as my pancake, with more milk and less flour. I'm sure you could simply add milk to your pancake recipe and get there. 🙂 Also, I use just one egg all the time, and am sure that your egg substitution would work for most crepe recipes. They don't need much egg or baking powder to rise because they are much thinner than pancakes.
These are "Pfannkuchen" in Germany, on the thicker side as well. We would have them plain and filled with jam or we would put very thin apple slices on the uncooked side, flip over and later sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
When we were older we also made them "salty", with cheese or bacon/ham. If there´s no sugar in the batter, you can make them any way possible.
Right now I am thinking... peanut butter and nutella? (I am hungry 🙂 )
If you wanna add some nutritional stuff then sprinkle in some Hemp seeds, flax seed or things like that. I always do this in our waffles or pancakes.
We make something very similar, if not identical! We call them Egg Roll Em Ups
If you want to make them more filling, use more eggs and half white/half brown flour in the batter. I like using vanilla sugar in the batter.
wonderful sweet fillings:
- golden syrup
- white sugar and lemon juice
- ahorn syrup and butter
- dark brown suger
- cheese spread and red jam
When I was a teenager I dated a boy and his father came from Holland we used to eat this off and on but in his house they called it Panicoo(not sure if I spelt it properly) just yummy this recipe brought back great memories thanks for sharing I had forgotten this crepe I’m going to make a batch
Love the with Sour cream and freezer strawberry jam!
Just cut/pasted the recipe and all the variations submitted. Found my mom's crepe maker yesterday, but remembering how time-consuming to make one at a time. Love the griddle option. Thanks for the recipe, and all the contributor's variations.
They look like German "Pfannkuchen" (=pancakes). We eat them with cooked apple slices or cinammon and sugar. You can also make a hearty Version with ham and swiss cheese, similar to your hot pockets.
My very German grandma used to make this in s big cast iron skillet - they were huge and they
came to the table in a huge stack. I used to make for my kids too and always a hit. Now I think I will have to make some again just for me.
Such a simple method and far less time consuming than making many round crepes. My mother is English and we often had crepes with lemon and a little sugar sprinkled on them. NO sugar would go into the crepe mix.