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Cream Pancakes
981. Take half a pint of cream, four eggs well beaten, two ounces of butter, a table-spoonful of brandy, and a little sugar and nutmeg; melt the butter in the cream, and mix all together with a spoonful of fine flour. Butter the pan for the first pancake, and let them run as thin as possible. Serve with sugar sifted between each pancake. This quantity will make about ten; the pan should be smaller than for common pancakes.
FRITTERS. 982. Make them of any of the batters directed for pancakes, by dropping a small quantity into the pan; or make the plainer sort, and put pared-apple sliced and cored into the batter, and fry some of it with each slice. Currants, or sliced lemon as thin as paper, make an agreeable change. Fritters for company should be served on a folded napkin in the dish. Any sort of sweetmeat or ripe fruit may be made into fritters,
A very rich, eggy batter — closer to a crêpe than a pancake, with cream standing in for milk and barely any flour. The whole point is thinness, so resist the urge to thicken it.
- Half a pint of creamAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, about 1¼ US cups. Single or light cream is right; double or heavy cream makes a batter too heavy to run thin.
- The flour is deliberately tiny"A spoonful of fine flour" is unspecified in the original, but a tablespoon is the likeliest reading — the batter is bound by egg, not starch. Expect something that pours like thin custard. If it seems alarmingly loose, it is correct.
- Egg sizePeriod eggs were ungraded and often smaller than a modern large egg. Four modern large eggs against 10 fl oz of cream will give a firmer, more omelette-like result; three may be closer to the intended balance.
- Butter in the batter, not the panThe two ounces of butter melted into the cream is what keeps these from sticking. Grease the pan only for the first one, as written, and wipe out any excess — pooled butter fries the edges instead of setting them.
- Pan and heatA 6–7 inch crêpe or omelette pan over medium heat. Enough batter to coat the base thinly, swirled at once; about a minute a side, until just set and lightly freckled.
- Brandy and nutmegA tablespoon of brandy is a flavouring here, not a leavener. Grate the nutmeg fresh — pre-ground has little to give against cream and butter.
- Yield and servingAbout ten thin pancakes, serving three or four. Stack them with sifted sugar between the layers as directed and serve warm; they stiffen quickly as the butter sets.