Simple pancakes on water: recipe and cooking tips

Pancakes is an original Russian dish with millions of fans around the world. Some of them claim that pancake dough on water is much better than everyone else, since the pancakes are very thin, almost transparent, while having a more elastic structure. This allows you to easily wrap the stuffing in them, without worrying about the pancake breaking. This article describes in detail how to cook pancakes on water: step-by-step recipes with useful tips will help inexperienced young people to master the subtle science of baking this product.

The usual recipe for soda

A simple test recipe for pancakes on water is based on eggs, due to the binding properties of which the pancake structure remains integral. This is very important in order to bake the most delicate products, which indicates the skill of the cook. For cooking, you need the following ingredients:

• 5 eggs;
• 260-280 grams of wheat flour;
• 2 tbsp. l odorless vegetable oil (in the dough);
• a pinch of salt;
• 600 ml of warm water (not more than 40 ° C);
• 1 tsp soda;
• 1 \ 4 tsp citric acid;
• 1-3 tbsp. tablespoons of granulated sugar (the amount depends on the filling: if the pancakes are planned with salt filler - reduce the portion of sugar, for sweet - you can increase).
  

In addition, you will need a little vegetable oil to lubricate the pan while baking pancakes. If the pancakes are filled with sweet, then a little vanilla can be added to the dough when kneading, then the finished products will be much tastier. It is worth remembering that it is impossible to replace soda in pancakes, this significantly affects the taste, and if it is completely excluded, then the pancakes will turn out with a "rubber" taste.

Cooking dough

The thoroughness of the batch is important in this process, since poorly mixed dough will create many problems during baking, and the appearance of the finished products will be far from ideal. Delicious and thin pancakes are obtained only from a homogeneous dough without small lumps, which often form with the wrong cooking technology.

To get the perfect pancake dough, you need to step by step:

1. Beat the eggs, sugar and salt with a mixer until light foam.
2. Add 1 cup of water. It should be tepid, but not hot.
3. Constantly stirring the mass with a mixer at medium speed, add half the flour, mix thoroughly and add the rest. Make sure that the dough assumes a uniform consistency, checking several times.
4. Pour the remaining water in small portions without stopping whipping at low speeds. Mix soda and citric acid in a spoon, add a little water, and when the mixture begins to foam, pour it into the dough. Stir again.

Most simple pancake recipes on water do not indicate that the dough should be allowed to stand for 10-15 minutes at room temperature before baking, so that the gluten of the flour swells. This will allow you to bake thin pancakes that will not tear. Lean oil is added to the dough immediately before baking. This simple secret will allow you not to lubricate the pan every time, but only every 6-8 pancakes.

Some important nuances

The correct technique for baking simple pancakes on water is no less important than a good dough, but it is gained only by repeated attempts and patience with failures. Do not forget that one or two pancakes are lumpy - this is a normal phenomenon in almost every baking process.

First of all, it is necessary to warm the pan well without oil, and only then with the help of a silicone brush grease it and warm it up again to form a protective oil film on the dishes. It is important that the stove fire is not too strong, otherwise the oil will smoke, and the dough will burn, which will lead to new disorders. In order to pour the dough into the pan, it is convenient to use a regular draft spoon for the first dishes, filling it half (or less - it depends on the size of the pan).

How to bake pancakes?

All pancakes - simple on water, on milk, yeast or not - are baked in the same way:

1. Pour the dough onto the prepared pan, tilting it around the circumference so that the liquid mass spreads evenly on the surface. It is important that the thickness of the pancake does not exceed 1-2 mm.
2. Fry it until golden brown over medium heat. When the pancake begins to bake, its edges will begin to move away from the walls of the pan. This helps to turn it over with a spatula without damaging the edges.
3. The inverted pancake is baked for no more than one minute, and then moves to a flat plate.
   

Lubricate the pan with oil as necessary to prevent the baking from sticking. Such simple pancakes on the water prepare very quickly, so the fire of the stove needs to be regulated so that the middle of each product is well baked.

The secrets of delicious pancakes

Finished products are stacked in a stack on a wide plate, the edges of which should protrude 2-3 cm beyond the diameter of the pancake. If the dishes are the same or slightly smaller, the thin edges of the products will wrap and dry. For the same reason, it is recommended to cover the pastries with a clean cloth towel.

Some still wrap a still hot stack of pancakes in cling film, believing that this way they will keep fresh longer. This is fundamentally wrong, since warm pastries will give off steam, which will settle on the inside of the film, making pancakes moist and unpleasant in taste.

To get more delicious thin pancakes, you need to spread a thin layer of each with butter, which will soak them in a pile and prevent the pastries from becoming coarse or sticking together. This does not have to be done if the filling is wrapped in them, but if the pancakes lie just one on one for more than two hours, then, of course, they can stick to each other.

Mineral Water Recipe

This is an interesting recipe for thin pancakes with holes in the water, but without eggs, so it’s ideal for vegans who also like to eat this dessert, as well as for ladies who are overweight but do not want to refuse delicious pastries. The basis of pancakes is mineral sparkling water, which gives the test the necessary friability and airiness, as well as complete neutrality. This is very convenient, since you can use one dough for different types of fillings. The recipe for pancakes on water without eggs includes the following proportions of products:

• 2 cups of mineral water (it should be at room temperature);
• 2 incomplete glasses of wheat flour (it needs to be sifted at least two to three times);
• 3-4 tbsp. l high quality vegetable oil;
• 1 tsp without top salt;
• 1 tbsp. l without a hill of granulated sugar.
  

There is also a recipe that uses mineral water without gas, but such pancakes taste worse. Gas bubbles are an excellent substitute for soda, loosening the dough, and if the mineral water is still, then, accordingly, the friability of the dough will be reduced.

Step cooking

To make such pancakes on water according to the recipe is easy and simple: dissolve sugar and salt in water, constantly stirring with a mixer at low speeds, add flour and continue kneading until the dough turns into a homogeneous smooth mass. It takes no more than 5-8 minutes. At the end, adding oil is a must for all thin pancakes, because batter often sticks to the pan without lubrication. Be sure to let the dough go to condition, leaving it alone for 10-12 minutes, and then bake in the usual way.

Pancakes are the thinnest, laced, but have one drawback: when they are cold, they lose their palatability, the dough acquires some “rubber” properties, so you need to bake in small portions to eat everything at once.

What if pancakes are torn?

Given that a simple pancake water dough has a more fragile structure, sometimes the product breaks during baking. Why is this happening? Most often, for a banal reason: the pancake stuck to the pan due to insufficient oil. There are two ways out of the situation:

1. Grease the pan more often and thoroughly using a silicone brush.
2. Add another 1 tbsp. l vegetable oil into the dough, while stirring it well.

Experienced housewives usually use two pans to bake pancakes, because this reduces the time spent at the stove by half. If only one dish is used, and a lot of dough is kneaded, the process drags on, and the dough in the bowl begins to delaminate: the liquid rises, and the heavy gluten of the flour settles to the bottom. And if, not knowing this subtlety, an inexperienced chef scoops the dough with the ladle on top, without stirring it properly, then in the end you will get a pancake with a low content of binder - flour. Naturally, such a pancake will break when turned over, so you need to mix the dough every time before putting it into a teaspoon.

Good pan - 50% success

Another important reason for baking pancakes is a quality pan. One of the main conditions is thick walls, so if you can buy (or inherit from your grandmother) a real cast-iron skillet - you can consider yourself lucky.

Such a pan for pancakes will last a very long time, even if it has an unsightly appearance (such as Teflon). Products are evenly baked throughout the diameter, light and much tastier than those cooked in an ordinary thin frying pan. Thin, modern dishes do not give the desired taste and color to the pancake, no matter how hard you try.

Yeast pancakes

Yeast dough in any form is an indicator of the special skill of the cook, and especially in the case of pancakes. Few people are able to accurately select the proportions and the fermentation time of the dough so that the baking succeeds well. This simple recipe for pancakes on water with yeast will provide an opportunity to get acquainted with such a test and, perhaps, it will become a favorite in the cookbook. For cooking, you need to take:

• 500 ml of warm water;
• 2 cups of flour;
• 1 \ 2 tsp. dry yeast;
• 1 tbsp. l granulated sugar;
• a pinch of salt;
• 50 g of vegetable oil.

This type of pancake goes well with salty fillings, as well as a variety of seasonings. Their thickness is slightly larger than that of yeast-free, so the heavy filling does not fall out of them.

How to cook pancakes with yeast?

Kneading dough with yeast is slightly different from the method of preparing simple pancakes on water: it first combines the flour with yeast, sugar and salt, and then the water is poured in small portions. Stirring the flour mass with a whisk, bring it to a homogeneous state, removing any small lumps. Then tighten the top of the dish with cling film and place it in a warm place so that the dough comes up.

At a temperature not lower than 20 degrees, the dough begins to ferment very quickly, literally after 30-40 minutes, and you can bake pancakes. A good indicator of readiness is gas bubbles on the surface of the yeast dough. Stir it thoroughly before baking, and also do not forget to grease the pan, because such pancakes stick more strongly than ordinary fresh ones. The dough is poured into a pan with a thickness of about 3 mm, while you need to make sure that its layer spreads evenly throughout the pan, without tuberosity and depressions. To do this, you need to skillfully turn and tilt the dishes, controlling the flow of batter. The finished structure of the yeast pancake is more porous, and the whole product is lush with a pleasant bread flavor. It’s best to eat yeast pancakes that are still hot, because they are less tasty than cold pancakes, like all yeast pastries in a pan.