Swedish pancakes are one of our favorite things to eat for breakfast. I (Kate) loved them growing up because they tasted so good. I love the flavor just as much as an adult, but my love has grown as I’ve learned more about Esther Lydia Akerberg, my adopted ancestor, who made these for my grandpa and his sisters as they grew up. Then they made them for their own children. I wish Esther had lived long enough that we could have made them together.
When she was in her early thirties, Esther emmigrated from Zinkgruvan, Sweden to Salt Lake City, Utah. It was February 1911, and my great grandma was having trouble keeping up with parenting. She had 8 and 10 year old daughters and had lost two sons—one when he was about three-years-old and one who died even younger. Now she was pregnant again, and overwhelmed with worry. So her husband put an ad in the paper, looking for domestic help. Esther, one of eleven children, apparently emmigrated alone. She responded to the ad and moved in, staying after the children left home and after my great-grandfather died. She lived with my great-grandma until her own death in 1946.
Swedish Pancakes
Makes 6 to 7 large pancakes
4 eggs, slightly beaten
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
1 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar (plus more for sprinkling)
Melt butter on the stovetop in the same pan you’ll use to cook the pancakes (this saves dirtying another pan or getting little butter explosion sprays on the inside of your microwave). Set aside (still in pan) to cool.
Stir dry ingredients (flour, soda, salt, and sugar) together with a whisk. Mix together eggs, butter, and milk (we do this in a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup). Add liquid to dry ingredients and stir just until combined (over-stirring leads to tough pancakes).
Pour a ladle full of batter onto a pan preheated over medium-high heat. Turn the pan in a circular motion--you want to spread it out a little but not nearly so thin as crepes. When the surface of the pancake is less shiny and has lots of little bubbles around the edges, flip it over. We aim for a golden brown color. The first pancake will brown a little more than others because it will have extra butter from that early butter melting. We stack these on top of one another for people to take as they wander into the kitchen.
Put a pancake onto a large plate and sprinkle it generously with sugar (some relatives like to spread butter onto the pancake before this step). Roll it up like a yoga mat and enjoy. Swedes eat their pancakes for meals other than breakfast, alongside a bowl of lentil soup, for example. Or for dessert. They often eat them spread with lingonberry jam.
