Cracking Krumkake and Perfect Pancakes

Next week is Shrove Tuesday and in Class 6 we will be making pancakes to celebrate. Demand for the portable oven is always at a premium among the classes on such days, so we are planning to cook our pancakes over the open fire.

Today's Forest School session was the perfect opportunity to have a dry run. This also seemed a good time to try out our new Forest School gadget. Our lovely krumkake iron. I had seen photos on Lily Horseman's site of the waffles she had made with her krumkake iron and could not resist trying them out myself.


Krumkake are a Norwegian sweet waffle usually prepared for celebrations such as Christmas. They are traditionally rolled into a cone shape and filled with cream and fruit. We prepared our batter in the morning following the recipe at the bottom of this post.

After lunch we headed outside and were thankfully greeted by a spell of dry weather. Our fire circle is still very boggy, so the boys set up a temporary fire circle on the playground. A steady heat is required to cook over, so whilst we waited for the fire die down a little, the boys decided to  play cloud spotting and bulldogs charge.
The first waffle was slightly overdone, but we were soon turning out waffles cooked to perfection. After we had enjoyed a few waffles ourselves, we made some more for some very appreciative teaching staff.

Next we used a cast iron frying pan to cook some traditional pancakes. We voted on whether the waffles or pancakes tasted the best. The result was more or less even (though I have to say that the crispiness and touch of cardamom made the waffles the winners for me).

We just have to hope that we have some decent weather next week  so that whole class can enjoy making pancakes and waffles with us.







Krumkake Recipe
Ingredients:
• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
• 6 Tbsp. water


Preparation:
Cream together the butter and sugar. 
Mix in the eggs, one at a time. 
Add vanilla and ground cardamom. 
Stir in flour, mixing well. 
Add water until batter is the consistency of double cream.
Lightly oil the two sides of a krumkake iron with groundnut oil or similar. 
Heat iron over burning embers just until a drop of water sizzles on the surface 
Spoon a heaped tablespoon of batter onto the centre of the iron. 
Close iron, squeezing handles together lightly to spread the batter.
Cook for approximately one minute, flip iron over and cook for a further minute. 
Remove iron from fire and take out the waffle. Serve flat or roll round a pin to whilst cooling to create a cone.