No. 3077

Pancakes with Brown Sugar—Light

Crepes Legeres a la Cassonade

Put one pound of flour into a basin; make a hollow in the center and break in the eight egg-yolks; dilute with a glassful of milk, add three spoonfuls of sugar and a grain of salt. Work in the flour slowly so as to have a smooth and light paste, then add to it three-quarters of an ounce of yeast dissolved in a little warm milk and strained. Let the paste rise for two hours in a mild temperature, afterward mixing in with it five well-beaten egg-whites and one pint of whipped cream, then leave it stand for ten minutes longer. Put some clarified butter into a small saucepan and use it to brush over the bottom of a small frying-pan; pour in two or three spoonfuls of the pancake preparation, spreading it all over the pan, and cook in the oven. Before turning the pancake over cover the surface with the clarified butter; when done slip it on a baking tin, sweeten both sides with brown sugar, and when all are cooked dress and serve them very hot.

← No. 3076 Pancake Sticks, Royeaux Hot Entremets — Puddings, Fritters & Soufflés No. 3078 Pancakes with Orange Flower Water—Large →

For the Modern Kitchen

A yeast-raised crêpe batter lightened twice over, with beaten whites and whipped cream folded in at the end. The instructions assume a professional pastry section, so a few of Ranhofer's quantities need translating before you start.

The hinge: keep the pan barely greased and the batter thinThis is a raised batter, not a plain crêpe batter, and it will puff and stick if the pan is dry or overloaded. Brush the pan with clarified butter for each pancake and use only enough batter to coat the base.
Liquid is under-specifiedA pound of flour with eight yolks and a single "glassful" of milk gives a stiff dough, not a pourable batter, on any of the likely readings of that measure. Expect to work up to something like 2 to 3 cups of milk in total to reach thin-cream consistency; add it gradually after the flour is smooth.
Spoonfuls and glassfulsA spoonful in The Epicurean is generally a tablespoon. A glassful is not a fixed measure here; read it as somewhere between a half cup and a cup. "A grain of salt" means a pinch, not a measured grain.
YeastThree-quarters of an ounce means fresh compressed yeast, about 21 g. That is roughly 2 1/4 teaspoons of instant dry yeast, dissolved in a few tablespoons of warm milk as directed.
"A mild temperature"Around 75-80F for the two-hour rise. Cooler than that and the batter will not lift; much warmer and the yolk-rich batter sours.
Cooking in the ovenRanhofer has the batter poured into the buttered pan and cooked in the oven rather than on the stove, and he gives no temperature; judge by the batter puffing and setting before you turn it. A heavy ovenproof skillet or small crepe pan with a metal handle is essential.
CassonadeFrench unrefined cane sugar, less molasses-heavy than American dark brown sugar. Light brown sugar or turbinado is the closer substitute; dark brown will dominate.
Work fast after foldingThe ten-minute rest is all the batter gets once the whites and cream are in. Have the pans hot and the sugar ready, and cook the lot without pausing, or the foam collapses.
YieldA pound of flour with this much liquid makes a large quantity of small pancakes at two or three spoonfuls each -- a couple of dozen at the very least. They must go to the table hot; they will not hold.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this recipe sits in a long run of numbered pancake variations — sticks, orange-flower-water, brown sugar — the kind of small hot sweet a restaurant needed to be able to turn out on demand. Cassonade is the French term for unrefined cane sugar, which in the nineteenth century was cheaper and coarser than refined loaf sugar and carried a faint rum-like flavor from the residual molasses; sprinkling it on both sides of a hot pancake gives a thin caramel crust as it melts. What marks the recipe as high-kitchen work rather than domestic cooking is the triple leavening: yeast for flavor and lift, beaten whites for volume, whipped cream for richness, all in a batter that is finished in the oven rather than simply flipped on the stove.