Crempogs!

Lately I've gotten really interested in learning more about my heritage.  As part of the learning and exploring experience, I have (of course) been cooking traditional recipes like crazy!  So many of these recipes are meat heavy, which generally presents a challenge.  As a result, I try to find breakfast and dessert recipes that animal-friendly.

Which brings me to..Crempogs!  A Crempog is like a Welsh buttermilk pancake.  The recipe I'm about to give you dates back to the 18th/19th centuries, but the original yeast one is even older (but I kind of hate working with yeast, so buttermilk it is!).

The cakes are traditionally cooked on a cast iron bake stone, so I used a regular cast iron skillet.  If you don't have one, I'm sure they'd come out fine with a regular pan.  The recipe I originally found was in odd (at least for an American girl) measurements, so I had to covert them to regular cups, etc.  What follows is my interpretation, with a link to the original recipe below.  Enjoy!

3 1/3 cups of all purpose flour
1 3/4 cup buttermilk
3 eggs, beaten
2 tsp. baking soda
butter for frying

Whisk the baking soda and the buttermilk in a bowl, then add the flour and beaten eggs.  The batter should be really thick, much more so than a regular pancake batter.  Put the batter in the refrigerator for an hour or two.

Note: Do normal people really keep buttermilk in their refrigerators?  I don't.  It always seems to go bad before I end up using it, which is why I was SO OVERJOYED to find powdered buttermilk in my grocery store.  Four tablespoons added to one cup of water is equal to (and tastes like) a cup of regular, store bought buttermilk.  For this recipe, I used seven tablespoons to the 1 3/4 cups of water.

Heat up the skillet and bring the batter out of the refrigerator, giving it a quick stir before using it.  The pan is hot enough when you flick water on the surface and it sizzles and bubbles.  Using a tablespoon, drop the batter onto the skillet and cook like regular pancakes.

                                                                           Yum!

Crempogs are traditionally served with golden syrup and sugar, but I found other things that were also phenomenal with it.  I tried the original golden syrup/sugar combination, but also tasted strawberry Brummel & Brown, maple syrup, and wild cherry preserves.  I basically tried a different topping with each one!

                                                   Golden Brown & Absolutely Delicious!!

The original recipe, along with a little history, can be found here:

http://historicalfoods.com/crempog-ffroes-recipe