Swedish Pancakes with Lingonberry Butter are delicate, buttery, tangy, and delicious… are just a few adjectives that describes how good these are. Lingonberries are the authentic jam to use for this recipe, and they have become more readily available in supermarkets. You can serve these with plain jam, but I decided to add the jam to whipped butter which gave these extra richness.
I can remember, a couple of decades back, the first time that I ate Swedis It was at the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) in Lake Tahoe, California. I remember how much I loved the tartness of the lingonberries, mixed with the whipped butter.
Last November, I discovered a restaurant across from the hotel where I stayed in San Francisco. According to the reviews, their signature dish is their Swedish Pancakes. My blogger friend, Monica, and I eagerly ordered a plate of the pancakes.
The October 2010 issue of Cook’s Country Magazine published a recipe for Swedish Pancakes. My mouth watered, at the mere memory of the crepe version of these pancakes. I wanted to make them that very day, except I didn’t have three of the key ingredients– club soda, Wondra instant flour and lingonberry jam. After bookmarking the recipe, a few months passed before I spotted lingonberry jam at my local Cost Plus World Market. (I have since spotted it at my somewhat local IKEA store.)
I was surprised that neither my husband nor son had tasted lingonberries jam before. They remind me, a bit of cranberry relish. The berries are a beautiful red color, and the jam is a perfect balance of tart and sweet. The batter for the pancakes was actually quite simple to do:
Why use instant flour? According to Cook’s Country:
“To avoid a lengthy resting period, we used instant flour in the batter, which dissolves faster than regular flour and requires less whisking.” The reason for using club soda, “unlike American pancakes, Swedish pancakes contain no baking powder or baking soda. To get a little lift without breaking tradition, we added some club soda to the batter.”
This recipes requires nine tablespoons of butter. Yes, nine. Melt and cool four tablespoons of butter, then add to the batter. Brush the pan with the remaining butter. I decided to do a quick clarifying of the butter for the pan, but skimming off the milk solids (clarified butter doesn’t burn as easily). Other ingredients includes eggs, and half and half.
I used two pans to make the crepes all at once. Cook’s Country uses a non-stick 9″ pan. I also used a French crepe pan
— I wanted to compare which pan worked best. I had my “work station” close to the stove and the oven preheated on WARM.
The art of making crepes takes a bit of practice. It’s important to have the pan just hot enough that the butter sizzles when you brush it in the pan.
Using a 1/3 cup measure, add the batter to the center of the pan and then tilt it so the batter spreads evenly. I use a silicone spatula to loosen the edges. Once the crepe has browned on the bottom, grab it and flip it over.
NOTE: This batter is so delicate, that it was more of a challenge to work with. I couldn’t flip these by tossing the pan.
On the left is my De Buyer Crepe Pan, and the non-stick is on the right. Both pans worked well, though the crepe pan browned more in the middle.
The Best Swedish Pancakes with Lingonberry Butter
Ingredients
For the batter:
- 2 cups instant flour see notes below; I used Gold Medal Instant Flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
- 1 1/2 cups club soda
- 9 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled
- 2 eggs large
- 2 yolks lightly beaten
For the butter:
- 4 Tbsp butter softened
- 1 ½ Tbsp lingonberry jam this is traditional. Strawberry is a good substitute
Instructions
- Combine flour, sugar, and salt in large bowl. Slowly whisk half-and-half, club soda, 4 tablespoons butter, eggs, and yolks into flour mixture until smooth.
- Brush surface and sides of 10-inch nonstick skillet with 1 teaspoon butter and heat over medium heat.
- When butter stops sizzling, pour 1/3 cup batter into skillet, tilting pan to evenly coat bottom with batter. Cook until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes per side.
- Transfer to plate and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Repeat with remaining butter and remaining batter. Serve.
- Swedish pancakes can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for up to 1 month. Layer cooled pancakes between parchment paper, wrap in plastic, and transfer to zipper-lock bag. To serve, microwave stack of 3 pancakes on 50 percent power until heated through, 10 to 20 seconds.
For the butter:
- To the softened butter, add the jam and whip together until combined.
Notes
“Lighter and more delicate than the American pancake, Swedish pancakes have lacy, buttery edges and a barely custardy middle. They’re made in a special Swedish plett pan that produces silver-dollar-size pancakes. Even if we didn’t have a special pan, we were determined to make our own version of this Scandinavian favorite. Unlike American pancakes, Swedish pancakes contain no baking powder or baking soda. To get a little lift without breaking tradition, we added some club soda to the batter. To avoid a lengthy resting period, we used instant flour in the batter, which dissolved faster than regular flour and required less whisking. — Cooks Country”
Wow Debbie – your panckes sound delicious and so so as well.
IHOP must be everywhere since we even have one here in our tourist town. I didn't get the opportunity to have the pancakes at Sears…maybe next time!
I know I would love these! Yum!
These look so wonderful. I recently had my first Swedish pancakes with lingonberry butter made from a real Swedish cook who owned a doughnut shop on my town. These look exactly like his and I'm sure they taste as delicious too. Unfortunately he suddenly closed up his shop. I will have to try your recipe. Thanks!
I love Swedish pancakes, though I've never had them with lignonberry butter. I remember my burnt fingers after making them last year, but the delicious confection outweighs a bit of physical discomfort, lol. Your photos are wonderful.
oh, dear me, Debby! I fell in love with these pancakes and lingonberries a few months ago, but lingonberry butter sounds just too wonderful! What creative recipe! Thank you for sharing this!
I'm pretty sure the IHOP near me does NOT serve swedish pancakes…that would be a little too classy 😛 Yours look fabulous! I'm sure I would find myself eating that butter with a spoon.
Your tutorial is excellent, Debby. The crepes can sometimes be a little tricky to make so I usually make extra batter to replace the few I don't flip over right. Adding a little club soda and clarify the butter are two excellent suggestions for this recipe.
Lingonberries and butter make the perfect topping for this delicate pancakes. My son and I always order these pancakes when we go to the local breakfast place.
these look dangerously good, yum 🙂
ahealthyjalapeno.com
Laura
One of my very favorite breakfasts and I also made it from that same magazine, I know we were seperated at birth! I have never seen those smaller sized pancakes referred to as Swedish before!
I had to "pin" this to my Food board on Pinterest so I don't lose track of it. It looks mouth-wateringly good! Thank you.
Hi Debbie! I've been looking for Swedish recipes (part of my heritage) and this is perfect! What a delicious dessert! I can't wait to try them!
so good
YuM! I don't care what kind of pancakes I eat, I want that lingonberry butter! And hurry up and find a good recipe for those swedish meatballs so I can make 'em too!
Nice pictures. Swedish pancakes (plett) are usually small. Very easy to make with a plett pan (plattar). I have at least 8 vintage pans. Here are pictures of the pans: http://www.food.com/bb/viewtopic.zsp?t=285035. Chees!
Hello, I'd like to know what is exactly that "half and half" ingredient as I'm not from usa..
Thanks! It looks yummy
It's basically half heavy cream and half whole milk. We use it in our coffee.
This recipe sounds so good! Even if it seems to be very different from the one my Mamma used to serve when I grew up.
I have seen that Americans serve this with the lingonberries, while in Sweden we eat pancakes with strawberry jam or just caster sugar. The other big difference is that we never have 'our' pancakes for breakfast, always as dessert, mainly on Thursdays after soup (which for some reason always were yellow pea soup).
I l-o-v-e your blog! Thank you so much for sharing! I have just recently started my own food blog and are looking for inspiration all over and your blog is certainly a big one!
//mia
Just tried these this morning, and it was really fun to read your review! We loved these! I read an article yesterday about crepes vs. swedish pancakes, and besides the differences in origin and when/how they're eaten, the author compared a ton of recipes and found them nearly identical but for the flour/water ratio, which correlates with these being thicker, which also works well for the pans used to cook crepes vs. these. We love crepes and we loved these too! We would prefer them with butter and syrup vs. the lingonberry jam we had this morning, but I also read that lots of Swedes don't have them woth lingonberry jam either, which BTW someone called the "ketchup" of Sweden :). I am looking forward to trying the Cooks illustreated recipe for Swedish Meatballs with the jam though…yay!!! Loved your review, loved this recipe, and I love Cook's Country and their cheery photos and delicious food! Your butter idea is brilliant too!
PS These are only 100 calories each so two is a very moderate 200 cal…we had ours with fruit,coffee and yogurt so pretty healthy! My http://www.bigoven.com software automatically calculates calories, which I ocassionally get curious about!
These look and sound delicious! I make something similar but I’m curious to try the recipe with the carbonated water. I’d like to try that jam too when and if I see it. Thanks for sharing.
Renee, the carbonated water was new to me and it really made a difference! Lingonberry jam is much easier to find, nowadays. I hope you enjoy these as uch as we did.