Pages

Tuesday, August 15, 2023

French Pancakes a la Gelee feat in Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron

 



Recipe

French Pancakes a la Gelee


The recipes included in Bayou Book Thief are all culled and adapted from my own collection of over 100 vintage cookbooks. This recipe for French Pancakes a la Gelee is from The Ford Treasury of Favorite Recipes from Famous Eating Places (1950 edition). This was the first vintage cookbook I ever bought, and it’s still one of my favorites.


Created to appeal to Americans road-tripping across the country—hopefully in their Ford vehicles!—the book includes recipes from some of the nation’s most well-known restaurants of the time, complete with beautiful color illustrations of the locations, many of which were historical. In keeping with the Big Easy setting of Bayou Book Thief, I’ve chosen to share my version of the recipe from New Orleans’s legendary Antoine’s Restaurant, founded in 1840.


Ingredients:


½ cup all-purpose flour

1 egg

1 egg yolk

⅛ teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons milk (more, if needed)

5 tablespoons currant or red raspberry jelly

1 tablespoon melted butter

Powdered sugar

Directions:


In a large bowl, combine the flour, egg, egg yolk, salt, and milk. Either whisk or beat with an electric beater until smooth. To make the batter the consistency of light cream, add more milk if needed. Cover and then chill for half an hour.

Dip a sheet of parchment paper into the melted butter. Heat a skillet or heavy pan and wipe the pan with the butter-coated parchment paper, which you can then discard. Pour in enough batter to just cover the bottom of the skillet or pan, tipping the pan to evenly distribute the batter.

Brown a pancake on one side, and then flip to brown on the other side.

Remove the pancake from the heat and place on a plate. Spread with a thin layer of jam and then roll the pancake jelly roll–style. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. (You can place the pancake under the broiler to glaze the sugar or skip this step.)

Repeat the process until you’ve used up all your batter.

Serve immediately.

Servings: 12–15 five-inch pancakes


No comments: