Oh my gosh, it's Pancake Day!!!

oh fastnachts!! Every year I say I'm going to make them and then they always look like way too much work. If you're PA Dutch, you NEED the Mennonite Community Cookbook in your life. For real. Buy it now (pref. spiral-bound). Holy crap it's amazing.

Anyway, here's their fastnacht recipe:

Fastnachts

1 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cup shortening
1 teaspoon salt
1 small yeast cake
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
4 1/2 to 5 cups sifted flour

Scald the milk, add shortening and salt. Cool milk until it is lukewarm; then add crumbled yeast cake and stir. Gradually add 2 2/3 cups sifted flour, beating batter thoroughly. Put in a warm place and allow to stand until full of bubbles. Mix sugar with nutmeg and combine with beaten eggs. Stir into first mixture and add remaining flour. Knead well, cover and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour. Turn out lightly on floured board and roll 3/4 inch thick. Cut with doughnut cutter or biscuit cutter shaping into a ball, or make into twists. Cover with a thin cloth and let rise on board until top is springy to touch of a finger. Drop into hot fat (375° ) with the raised side down, so the top side will rise while the underside cooks. Drain on absorbant paper. Yields 3 dozen. (Mrs. Paul H. Horst, Millersburg, Indiana; Mrs. Harvey Rhodes, Salem, Ohio)

Raised doughnuts are delicious if dipped in a syrup made by boiling together for 5 minutes the following:

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon white syrup
(Mrs. O. D. Brunk, Hyattsville, Maryland)

Thanks Bookgrl. Bookmarked for another day. Probably not too good for my cholesterol but hey that's what statins are for. 

Pancakes in a can? I couldn't imagine what you meant till I saw it.  What a concept.
Where was all this stuff when I was young and ignorant? 3 cans: pancakes, cream & cheesewhiz. Yea right. What else comes in a can? Butter? I suppose ya can get squeezy stuff.

Just finished a lunch of all kinds of sweet pancakes--DD loved it   Okay, so I'm not that healthy today, but oh it was good.  We had lemon and sugar, lime and sugar, nutella and banana, and kiwi and mango.  Nice.

Kiwi and mango - possibly in our house as well as we have both that need using up.

Somerfield had kiwis 6 for £1 and they just jumped into my basket as I was passing so guess I'll use them.

Just out of curosity what are you supposed to give up for Lent. I know pancakes have something to do with using up milk, eggs etc.

Somerfield had kiwis 6 for £1 and they just jumped into my basket as I was passing so guess I'll use them.

Just out of curosity what are you supposed to give up for Lent. I know pancakes have something to do with using up milk, eggs etc.

It used to be things like eggs, milk, butter but now I think it's anything that feels like a sacrifice. When I was a kid some of the more faithful kids at my school gave up meat for Lent, so like the fish on Fridays thing but for the whole of Lent.
I always used to give up Chocolate, but some people give up TV or whatever (I had a weird religious upbringing as Dad was Catholic, Mum was Muslim, but I went to a Catholic School so know a lot about Catholicism)

Thanks for explaining Cheesebiscuit. It was the boy came home from school and said the teacher had talked about giving up sweets. She probably said more ya know how 6 yo hear only bits and pieces.

oh fastnachts!! Every year I say I'm going to make them and then they always look like way too much work. If you're PA Dutch, you NEED the Mennonite Community Cookbook in your life. For real. Buy it now (pref. spiral-bound). Holy crap it's amazing.

Hey I love this cook book, but I've never tried a fashnacht or made this recipe before!

Tonight we'll make the rest of the batter up and have some salmon, onion and mushrooms.  I like the creme fraiche idea.  Maybe we'll give that a go too.

Do! Creme fraiche makes everything better.

I had way too much and now I'm stuffed to the gills but it was oh so very tasty.

I made a third of the recipe and so.many.  I have frozen half the recipe.  Ugh.  We couldn't even make the pancakes. 

I thought it was really doughy.  There was no way I could roll it out so I just scooped a blob and dropped it in the oil.  It was just what I wanted though.  It reminded me of Mary Ann's krullers with no glaze. 

Yeah I'm excited! One of our neighbours are throwing a big pancake-making party tonight for all the moorings so my fiance's using this opportunity to FINALLY (after 3 years) get out the poffertjes pan we bought in the Netherlands and give that a go there tonight, too.

Ooh, you have a pan for those? Awesome! My mom's from the Netherlands and these were always a special treat served with this thick, sticky syrup called stroop. Better known in the UK as treacle!

I forgot all about pancake day when I got home so we'll have to do it tomorrow, as usual!!

pancakes for dinner was lovely last night!