Hello my friends! I’m back!
It was quite the busy October, with three reenacting events and preparations for my upcoming talk in a few weeks. But I wanted to get some new recipes in before the abundant harvest of fall was gone, so here we go!
Fall and apples go hand in hand. And me being a New Englander, it would not be fall without the plethora of cooked/pressed/baked apple delicacies available. Apple cider donuts are a particular favorite of mine.
So, with plenty of apple options to choose from, I decided to try a receipt I’ve been interested to make for some time, “Apple Frazes”. I found this delightful receipt in a small cookbook I own called “Primative Cookery”. Published in 1767 it was a short compilation of small receipts that were meant for people who were on a budget (aka the majority of people). I have to say that I didn’t notice this one at first, having my eye drawn to the “Bacon Frazes” receipt below it. But, once I realized a fraze was another term for a pancake, I was certain there could be nothing wrong with this combination!
To make Apple Frazes
“Cut your apples in thick slices, and fry them of a fine light brown, take them up, and lay them to drain, keep them as whole as you can, and either pare them or let it alone, then make a batter as follows; take five eggs, leaving out two whites, and beat them up with cream and flour, and a little sack, make it the thickness of pancake batter, pour in a little melted butter, nutmeg, and a little sugar. Let your batter be hot, and drop in your fritters, and everyone lay a slice of apple, and then more batter on them. Fry them of a fine light brown, take them up, and strew some double refined sugar all over them.”
Primative Cookery, (London) 1767
So I started with three honey crisp apples (which I had a great store of) and decided it would be best to peel and core the apples. I know there is the option of keeping them whole, but I really don’t like the idea of eating apple seeds in my pancake.
There! That’s better!
Once they were peeled and cored I did about 1 inch slices across the apple, giving me about 3 to 4 slices per apple, about 12 in total. I figured this would be enough to experiment with, at least I hoped so.
My instinct at this point would be to sprinkle some lemon juice on the apples to keep them from turning, but the receipt doesn’t mention it so I didn’t do it. Though it did bother me a little bit.
Now to assemble the batter ingredients!
In the receipt itself there is no measurements given, except for the eggs. Everything else was probably left to individual taste and consistency preference. But, what I decided to do, was do a set amount for the cream, butter, sugar and nutmeg, and then add the flour in 1/2 cup increments till the batter was the consistency of pancake batter.
These are the measurements I came up with.
- 1 cup AP Flour, sifted
- 1/2 cup of Cream
- 1/8 cup of Sugar
- 2 Tbl of Butter, melted
- 5 eggs (2 whole, 3 yolks)
- 1/4 tsp of Nutmeg (more of less to taste)
First I separated the egg yolks and put them with the two whole eggs…
… to which I added the cream and stirred together.
Then I added the flour, 1/2 a cup at a time.
You can add more or less depending on how thick you’d like your pancakes. But remember these are not like the fluffy pancakes you have with maple syrup. The batter has no leavening so they are a bit heavier than a normal pancake.
Then you beat it till smooth. I had some help with that part!
Then I added the melted butter, mixing it in thoroughly.
And finally, a good grating of fresh nutmeg. I actually probably put more than a 1/4 of a tsp. But I REALLY like the flavor of it, so this is really up to your own taste.
And, if you want to deviate a bit from historical accuracy, this probably would be a good time to add a splash of vanilla. YUM!
Once the batter was mixed, I set it aside and started to fry up apples in a little bit of butter. And I’ll admit it here that I cheated a bit and added some cinnamon. It seemed like sacrilege to NOT have cinnamon in an apple pancake. I figure it was a slight over site on the author’s part.
Doesn’t that look so good?!?
Honestly, those warm from the pan with a scoop of vanilla ice cream… Heaven!
But no deviating here, onto the making of the frazes!
So where the receipt lacked details on ingredient amounts, it was pretty blunt about the process of making these frazes. So once the butter in the pan was melted and sizzling (because butter is the ONLY way to fry pancakes, in my humble opinion) I put a ladle of batter into the pan and added the apple slice in the center.
Then I put about half a ladle’s worth of batter over the top of the apple, making sure it was covered. Then I waited for the batter to show the telltale sign of small bubbles which would signify that it was time to flip.
So a little more brown than I anticipated. At this point I had the heat on about a medium high. I promptly turned it down to about a medium low. I was able to cook it through, but it was a much darker brown than desired.
After several more pancakes, each with varying degrees of success, I figured out a few things. Mainly that low and slow is the way to go. The batter in the center needs time to cook through, yet the sugar in the batter and apples burn very easily. So it is necessary to take your time with it, unless you like a very dark pancake (fraze).
Another thing was that the ladle was making the pancakes too large. So I found pouring the batter from a liquid measuring cup was better. It allowed for more control of the amount of batter used and made it easier for me to do more than one at a time.
Much better! And once each fraze was done cooking I put a good sprinkling of sugar on top.
When they were all done I had just enough batter for 10 silver dollar sized apple frazes! I probably could have gotten 12 if I hadn’t had made the first ones so big. But I was able to use the leftover apples for decoration!
But how did they taste?
I could tell these would be great just by the look of them. And how smoothly the fork went through it. Honestly it didn’t even need a knife. The apple was so tender, with just a little bite to it.
And the taste… wonderful! But really, how could you go wrong with apple cooked in a pancake. The cinnamon and nutmeg were certainly necessary, adding a wonderful spice to the dish. It really reminded me of apple pie, flavor wise.
The only thing that could make it better?
A good dollop of whip cream!