Christmas Update part 2 - Saffron Pancake

Someone once said that to make an apple-pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. If there was ever any dessert worth reinventing the universe for, saffron pancake would be it.

It's one of those enduring family traditions around Christmas - as essential, if not more, to me, than even the Christmas tree. And it's very, very easy to make.

Saffron Pancake
The best dessert in the known universe.




Saffron pancake contains very few ingredients, and is so easy to make, it's almost embarrassing (let's just say I'm thankful that saffron is so expensive, or I'd be eating this every day). All you need is this:


2 kg of plain rice pudding (ready-made)
4 eggs
10 grams of powdered saffron
some sugar
some cream
chopped almonds to taste

The basic recipe is "mix it in a bowl and stick it in the oven", but there's a little more to it than that. But you can see how delightfully simple it is.

First, take the 10 grams of saffron and mix it with roughly a tablespoon of sugar and a tablespoon of cream, just to make it easier to mix into the rice pudding later. Then, crack your four eggs in a separate bowl and whisk them to break them up - also for the purpose of making the final mix easier.



Then, mix the eggs and the sugar-saffron-cream mixture into the rice porridge, and mix until it turns into an even, yellow colour - then, mix in the chopped almonds. Pour the whole batter into a greased glass container and put it into the lower part of the oven at 175 C.



The baking time depends on your oven, and I can't give you a definite time, so check it every now and then; once it stops wobbling when you shake the container, it's ready.

If you make your rice pudding from scratch, you're going to need a bit more cream than I've indicated; we used a ready-made sort, which already contains quite a bit of cream, and so it's unnecessary to add any more.

Tradition dictates that saffron pancake (all hail) should be eaten with lightly whipped cream and jam - in its home region of Gotland, said jam is always dewberry, but I can attest that it is equally tasty with raspberry jam.

... I would love to post an image of a slice of it with some jam on top, but in my household, saffron pancake exists in only one of two states; unfinished and eaten.



Recipe-summary
2 kg of plain rice pudding (ready-made)
4 eggs
10 grams of powdered saffron
some sugar
some cream
chopped almonds to taste

Mix all ingredients, pour in greased glass container. Bake in lower part of oven at 175 C until it stops wobbling. Eat with whipped cream and jam.