Pancakes

menu_book picture_as_pdf book Sonya Muhlsimmer Bushcraft Australia

BWA_April_2023-58

Did you know there is a day dedicated to pancakes? There is a day in February and it always falls on a Tuesday, 47 days before Easter Sunday at the beginning of Lent and the day goes by the name of Shrove Tuesday. The word shrove is derived from the word shriving, which means to listen to someone’s sins and forgive them. So how does a pancake have anything to do with this? I am glad you asked. In some countries during Lent Christians would give up certain foods such as butter, eggs and sugar and these are the classic ingredients for pancakes.

Pancakes

Text and photosSonya Muhlsimmer

Pancake Rock, Punakaiki, West Coast New Zealand

58 | Bushwalk April 2023

Apparently this tradition has been around since 1445 and it originated in England when a woman lost track of time while she was making pancakes. She heard the church bells ring, realised she was late and ran as fast as she could to church, still holding the pan she was cooking with. I found this from Shrove Tuesday. Go and check it out for more information, it is very interesting. It even has a perfect pancake recipe to try.

I was not brought up in a Christian house as such so I only found out about the importance of this day recently, when I worked for a food manufacturing company that produced pancake mix. Well this was a good day to be at work as someone was on the BBQ all day cooking pancakes. But for me, any day is a good day to have pancakes.

So, to make pancakes on the trail, it can be a little fiddly but if you have the right gear it will be a bit easier. And I must say it is pretty good having a hot cooked breakfast in the bush. There is also so much variety to be had with the pancakes such as buckwheat, wholemeal, blueberry, chocolate, just to name a few.

If you didn’t want to go through the hassle of creating your own, you could just buy the packet mix, they are so simple, just add water. You could decant some or all of the mix into a bag and add water to the bag, or just carry the container – but then you would be stuck carrying the container out.

So much choice in the supermarket for ready made pancake mix

And I must say it is pretty good having a hot cooked breakfast in the bush.

Apparently this tradition has been around since 1445 ...

Buckwheat pancakes

Ingredients

Buckwheat flour

½ cup

Bag 1

Coconut milk powder

2 Tbsp

Egg powder

2 Tbsp

Vanilla sugar

1 Tbsp

Cocoa powder

2 tsp

Baking powder

½ tsp

Salt

Few pinches

Ghee

3 tsp

Container

Nutella

2 Tbsp

Container

Water

½ cup

At home preparationPlace all ingredients into the bag and containers. Label the bag and copy the method at camp and keep together with the bag.

Method at campAdd the contents of the bag to a bowl and slowly stir in the water, mixing constantly to make a thick paste. Alternatively, if you have a zip lock bag big enough, keep the contents in the bag and add water to the bag and mix by squeezing the water through. In a hot pan add 1 teaspoon of the ghee then pour in about a third of the mix. Swirl the mix to cover the base of the pan and cook until bubbles appear, about 2 minutes. Flip the pancakes and cook for about 2 minutes. Repeat until the mix is used up. Spread the Nutella over the top and enjoy.

HintsIf you don’t have a non-stick fry pan cut 2 pieces of greaseproof paper to the size of the pan, and place in the pan before adding the mix. Another alternative to greaseproof paper, and what I use, is silicone paper. The benefit of the silicone paper is that it is reusable. You could also top the pancakes with some trail mix, dried fruit or honey - the choices are endless. Enjoy.

60 | Bushwalk April 2023