Flannel Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, and salt.
Add yeast and enough tepid water to make a batter thick like buckwheat cake batter.
Let the batter rise until doubled in size.
Cook
Preheat a griddle and pour batter onto it to cook until golden brown on both sides.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Cornmeal
- Provides the coarse, hearty body and corn flavor that defines the cake.
- All-purpose flour
- Adds gluten-forming structure so the cakes hold together when flipped.
- Yeast
- Ferments the batter so it rises and becomes light and airy.
- Tepid water
- Hydrates the flours and activates the yeast, setting the batter's thickness.
The step that matters
Letting the batter rise until doubled. Yeast needs time to produce gas and build flavor; under-rising leaves dense cakes, while the batter must be given room to expand before cooking.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
You might also like
Rice Gruel28 recipes
Peptoned Milk Gruel9 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.