saffron pancake — Sweden

Saffron pancake, or saffranspannkaka, is closer to a baked rice pudding cake than to a fried pancake despite its name. Rice is cooked slowly in milk into a thick pudding, then bound with egg, cream and sugar, coloured a deep yellow and scented with saffron, and baked in a dish until set. The dish is reported from the island of Gotland, off Sweden's east coast, where it is counted among the island's provincial specialities. It sits alongside a handful of other rice- and milk-based bakes found across the Baltic islands, sharing their reliance on dairy and grain rather than on fruit or spice cake bases. To prepare it, rice is simmered gently in milk, stirring often, until it thickens into a soft pudding; saffron threads are stirred in while it is still warm so their colour and aroma spread through the base as it cools. Beaten eggs and sugar, cream, and chopped almonds are then folded in, and the mixture is poured into a buttered dish and baked until it sets into a firm, custard-like cake rather than a flat cooked round. What distinguishes this version from a pancake in the usual sense is exactly that departure from the frying pan: it is baked in a dish, cut into squares once cooled a little, and served warm or cold with dewberry jam and a spoonful of whipped cream, rather than rolled or stacked as thin fried pancakes are elsewhere in the country.