Shrove Tuesday Pancake

Shrove Tuesday. Fat Tuesday. Mardi Gras. This day has so many names. But my most favorite name for the day is Pancake Day. Whence all the names? Time for a history lesson:

This Tuesday is always celebrated the day before Ash Wednesday. Back in the day (like centuries back, not decades), Lenten sacrifices went some steps further than abstaining from chocolate (except for those times that, "Oops. I forgot it's Lent. Oh well, I might as well finish this chocolate bar, right?" happened). Eggs and dairy products were completely taken out of the faithfuls' diets. Eating food like pancakes, which tend to call for such ingredients, would use up the last of these indulgent foods before the penitential season began. Such abstinence is also the reason eggs are so popular at Easter time: people were celebrating finally adding dairy and eggs back into their kitchens and I'm-sick-of-being-vegan bellies.

As last year, I wanted to celebrate with some tasty pancakes. Lenten suffering must have been out to get me early, because I dropped and shattered the jar of Jif's chocolate hazelnut spread. Oof. I was able to (painstakingly) salvage about half of it..

To be fair, I'm incredibly clumsy.

Here's my tasty pancake breakfast inspired by and adapted from Joy the Baker's Single Lady Pancake recipe.

This is not a pretty, so much as a delicious, pancake.

Shrove Tuesday Pancake
(makes 1 large pancake)

1/3 cup whole wheat flour

2 Tablespoons whole oats

1 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

1 Tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1/4 cup milk

dash of vanilla extract

handful of pecans

handful of dried cranberries

swirl of honey

tablespoon of chocolate hazelnut spread

Preheat a medium sized skillet on the stove top and add your handful of pecans to get them toasting, swirling the pan every so often so they don't burn.

In medium bowl, mix flour, oats, baking powder and salt together. In separate bowl, mix 1 T oil, milk and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture. Now add about half the pecans and half the cranberries to the batter and stir until it just combines. The mixture will be thick. (If you like thinner pancakes, add a couple tablespoons of milk. I wanted a thick and fluffy pancake so the batter was just fine for me.)

Add the remaining 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil to the pan and pour the batter into the pan. Cook on each side for 2-3 minutes, whenever the pancake has browned to your desires.

Once the pancake is cooked, flop it out onto your plate and dress it up with the remaining pecans and cranberries, a swirl of honey and a nice dollop of (glass-free) chocolate hazelnut spread.


Then enjoy it because this is your last hefty dose of sugar before Lent begins. Muahaha. ;)

Categories: breakfast, chocolate, oats, pancake