Burmese Pancakes

These Burmese Pancakes are a souvenir from my trip to Myanmar last September.  Myanmar Pancakes just don’t have quite the same ring so Burmese Pancakes they remain!  I liked them so much I asked the hotel chef for his recipe and have been meaning to record and share it with you ever since.  Burmese Pancakes are made using rice flour and jaggery, which means they are suitable for those following a gluten free and refined sugar free diet.

The recipe I received, scribbled down hastily on the back of a receipt, was enough to feed a small army, so I made some minor alterations to suit a family size serving.  I’ve kept the basics as close to the original as possible, in fact the only change is the addition of  a couple of tablespoons of nut butter and some extra seeds for the topping.

You may find it quite difficult to source Burmese Jaggery in Hong Kong or anywhere outside of Burma for that… luckily I brought plenty back with me!   If you can’t source Burmese Jaggery replace with either palm sugar or maple syrup.

Burmese Pancakes

Method:

• Start by combining your dry ingredients, the rice flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a medium sized bowl or in the bowl of a food processor, pulse a couple of times to blend in all the dry ingredients.
• If using jaggery or palm sugar, split the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds, put the seeds and the pod into a heavy based pan with the jaggery or palm sugar, add a few drops of water, heat over a medium heat, once all the sugar has dissolved, turn heat off, set aside to cool.
• Whisk the eggs with 30g of the melted butter, make a well in centre of the flour mixture and gradually pour in the whisked eggs, milk and cooled vanilla jaggery, palm sugar syrup mixture or maple syrup, whisking (pulse if using a food processor) all the time until you have a batter the consistency of single cream.

• With the remaining butter, or coconut oil if you prefer, grease a non stick frying pan. Pour a ladle of pancake mixture into the hot pan and cook for a few minutes or until golden. When bubbles appear on the top sprinkle over a teaspoon of the seed mixture to the upside of the pancake before flipping over and cooking for a while longer on the other side.

• Add the seed mix and slivered coconut slices or almonds to the upside of the pancake mix before flipping.

• Remove the pancakes from the heat and keep warm whilst you continue to make the rest.
• Once all cooked, stack them as desired, scatter over any remaining seeds and drizzle with the remaining vanilla palm sugar syrup and serve.

Stack of Burmese pancakes with jaggery and vanilla

Burmese Pancakes

Best served and eaten immediately accompanied with plain yoghurt, stewed or fresh fruit, a scoop of nut butter and scatter over any remaining seeds.

The Burmese Pancakes are not as light and fluffy as their American counterpart, but  that’s what makes them so much more filling and satisfying.  They are packed full of good things and will fuel you all morning long.

Let me know if you give this recipe a go.  You can leave me a note in the comments box below.

gx

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Burmese Pancakes

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Burmese Pancakes

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

Total Time

25 mins

 

An exotic take on your regular breakfast pancake. Burmese style pancakes are made with rice flour and jaggery. Making this a gluten free and refined sugar free pancake. You could also make it dairy free by switching to soy milk instead of cow's milk and use coconut oil instead of butter.

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: Burmese

Servings: 10

Author: Gillian Thompson

Ingredients

• 250 g rice flour
• 300 ml cow's milk or soy milk - I've used both types and the results are the same
• 50-100 g palm sugar - use palm or maple syrup if you cannot find jaggery jaggery
• 2 eggs
• 30 g butter melted or 30ml of coconut oil
• 20 g desiccated coconut
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tbsp almond butter or other nut butter of your choice optional
• 1 vanilla pod - split with a sharp knife
• 3 tbsp mixed seeds - traditionally poppy or sesame seeds I also added hemp & buckwheat groats
• slices Toasted coconut or almonds sliced
• pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Put flour, baking powder and pinch of salt in a medium sized bowl or in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a couple of times to blend in all the dry ingredients.
2. If using jaggery or palm sugar, split the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds, put the seeds and the pod into a heavy based pan with the jaggery or palm sugar, add a few drops of water, heat over a medium heat, once all the sugar has dissolved, turn heat off, set aside to cool.
3. Whisk the eggs with 30g of the melted butter and pour into the bowl of flour.
4. Make a well in centre of the flour mixture and gradually pour in the whisked eggs, milk and cooled vanilla jaggery/palm sugar syrup mixture (or maple syrup), whisking (pulse if using a food processor) all the time until you have a batter the consistency of single cream.
5. With the remaining butter grease a non stick frying pan.
6. Pour a ladle of pancake mixture into the hot pan and cook for a few minutes or until golden.
7. When bubbles appear on the top sprinkle over a teaspoon of the seed mixture to the upside of the pancake before flipping over and cooking for a while longer on the other side.
8. Remove the pancakes from the heat and keep warm whilst you make the rest.
9. Once all cooked, stack them as desired, scatter over any remaining seeds and drizzle with the remaining vanilla palm sugar syrup and serve.