CANDLEMAS. The day after the crêpe party, discover all our simple or original crêpe recipes: easy-to-make crêpe batter, crêpe Suzette, crêpe cake or even a Farz Buen. To your stoves!
[Mis à jour le 3 février 2022 à 08h00] While Candlemas was celebrated on Wednesday February 2, why not extend the pleasure of making good pancakes? While some insist on respecting the classic pancake recipe, others like to add a bit of fantasy to the tradition by opting for a regional or completely original version. And all ingredients are allowed.
On the historical side, you should know that Candlemas is for Christians the day when Jesus was presented in the Temple, 40 days after his birth, or 40 days after Christmas, according to the calendar chosen by Christianity. This period also corresponds to the duration of Lent, these days of fasting of Jesus in the desert. But if we eat pancakes, it is not at all out of respect for a biblical tradition. Discover a selection of recipes below, then, below, the origin of this pancake festival.
While some insist on respecting the classic pancake recipe, others like to add a bit of fantasy to the tradition by opting for a regional or completely original version. And all ingredients are allowed. Here first below, a easy pancake recipe in video, then you will find below the classic crepe recipe, followed by more original recipes, from the crepe Suzette to the apple crepe with the Sabayon of Calavados via the crepe cake, the Breton recipe of Farz Buen or Austrian from Kaiserschmarrn.
“Simple as pancakes”
- Classic recipe (ingredients for 4 people) : 250 grams of flour, 0.5 liters of milk, 50 grams of melted butter, 4 eggs, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 pinch of salt.
- Preperation : First, put some flour in a salad bowl. Add next sugar, eggs and melted butter. Then beat everything, pouring milk little by little: you will thus obtain a fluid and smooth batter. It should then be let rest the dough at room temperature for one to two hours. An ultra-important phase, which should not be avoided.
- Cooking : After the preparation and the waiting time, you can pour the batter onto a heated pan. Don’t forget to spread oil on the pan between each crepe using a paper towel. Without this, it will be impossible to blow it up, as required by the tradition of Candlemas. To make it fly well, first loosen it slightly with a spatula, then shake the pan to make sure that the pancake is well unstuck. Next, a dry and firm blow of the wrist should give the expected result!
- Accompaniement : Depending on taste, the accompaniment varies: sugar, chocolate, salted butter, honey, caramel, jam, chestnut cream, lemon, fruit… In short, the pancake filling is endless. And there are also regional particularities: calvados and apples in Normandy, beer in the dough in Alsace…
- The Crepe suzette is a traditional crêpe flambée recipe for purists. She mixes orange zest, butter, sugar cubes, orange juice with a cup of Grand Marnier. With the remaining Grand Marnier, it is traditional to flambé the pancakes in front of the amazed guests. Discover the recipe for Grand Marnier crepe or the simple recipe Crepe suzette.
- In Brittany, the Farz Buen is a very thick pancake batter, which mixes in the pan as if it were scrambled eggs, with lots of butter and sugar. Reduce the mixture into small golden and lightly toasted pieces using the spatula. Decorate everything with jam or cocoa powder. Recipe.
- Austrian specialty, kaiserschmarrn is the favorite pancake recipe of François-Joseph II and Empress Sissi, a real delight for those who usually miss their pancakes! This is a pancake batter lightened by whipped egg whites, which is cut into large irregular pieces, very easy to make. Decorated with raisins soaked or not in rum, it can be accompanied by plum compote or plums. Discover the recipe.
- the crepe cake is the result of a dozen pancakes stacked in multiple floors. Then, it’s up to you to decorate it with the ingredients you prefer. The pancake cake can be dark chocolate, nutella, lemon cream, strawberry coulis, caramel, and even in its salty version, with hard-boiled eggs and tuna, salmon or crab/avocado! Discover all the variations of the crepe cake recipe.
- Looking for even more original pancakes? Sushi of sweet pancakes, rainbow-colored pancakes, small banana pancakes, gluten-free lace pancakes, chaplain or pancake lollipops, lime and coconut pancake, samosas pancakes, intense chocolate pancakes, cone pancakes, bouquet of pancake roses… Our 47 most original pancake recipes.
At the beginning of the 21st century, most French people perpetuated this gastronomic rite, with regional particularities that have become more evident in recent decades: Calvados and apples in Normandy, beer in the dough in Alsace and in the North, Froment flour in Brittany, etc Find all our suggestions for fillings below, with the recipes that accompany them when it can be more complex than a simple addition of jam:
Depending on taste, the ingredients vary: banana and chocolate, salted butter, Orange Blossom, honey, apple and caramel, Chestnut cream, apple and Val de Rance cider, jam, beer, lemon, fruit, maple syrup, candies or simply with a little sugar.
La Chandeleur is not only celebrated in France. This pancake festival is celebrated in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Mexico, where it is called “Día de la candelaria”. Mexicans gather around tamales, a kind of pancake with South American sauce. The feast resembles that of the Magi, since during Candlemas in Mexico, a cake of kings is eaten, in which is hidden a bean representing the child Jesus. Whoever pulls the bean is responsible for preparing the tamales. This practice was exported by Mexican communities that settled all over the world. It is part of the intangible cultural heritage in France.
In Luxembourg, pancakes are not the only stars of Candlemas. As expected as in France by schoolchildren, Candlemas overlaps somewhat with Halloween in the country. The children, armed with colored lanterns, called Liichtebengelcher and generally made in class, roam the streets in search of a few coins or sweets. In the United States and Canada, Candlemas has given way to “Groundhog Day”, which consists of patiently waiting for a groundhog to come out of its burrow. Like a prediction, depending on the movements of the animal, we could thus know if the winter will be long.
The origins of Candlemas remain disputed. In the Roman Empire, it was customary, in mid-February, to celebrate the Lupercalia. This period, rich in unbridled celebrations (like the Saturnalia of mid-December, which would have spawned Christmas), was celebrated at the Lupercal, a grotto located at the foot of the Palatine in Rome, in honor of Faunus, divinity of herds and fertility. However, the month of February marked, in a society based on agriculture, an important period: that of the first sowing.
The period also corresponds, in northern Europe, to the ancient Irish Celtic cult ofImbolc. The peasants then celebrated the divinity of fertility by organizing parades with torches. Not sure, however, that these pagan festivals directly generated the festival that we know. Christianity appropriated the date of February 2, at least from the fourth century, before the event was formalized by Pope Gelasius. Rejoicings celebrating the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, forty days after the vigil of Christmas, are reported in texts from the Near East as early as the 4th century. Pope Gelasius would have “officialized” the rite a little later, extending it to all of Christendom, which was not yet divided (the Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant churches will appear much later). The holiday is also said to have been popularized by Byzantine Emperor Justinian.