Peanut Pancakes (Min Chiang Kueh) 面煎粿

A breakfast or tea break item that’s very commonly found in our local hawker scenes !! Interestingly such a simple pancake actually involves quite a fair bit of knowledge (at least to me !). I noticed there are several recipes online where it involves the use of yeast for the peanut pancakes and exactly because of this as well, some even recommended the use of alkaline water to reduce that sourish-ness from it.

Maybe to me only, I will probably use yeast for bread dough only and any other kinds of food using such would seem pretty weird. Furthermore, I am more in favour of the kind of peanut pancakes whereby the crust is thinner and very crispy instead of thick chewy texture. So naturally, whenever I buy peanut pancakes, I will request those that falls around the corners from the huge pancake that the pancake uncle will be cutting from. 

And we all know that corn flour and rice flour are two kinds of flour that works its good wonders in deep frying. Dipping them in these two kinds of flour will yield extra crunchy and crispy texture. Applying the same theory, I used them on these peanut pancakes ! And indeed, they yield a very crispy texture all round the crust. You can literally hear the cracking sound when you break through them. 

Be prepared to eat these local breakfast favourite as soon as they are made if you love crispy peanut pancakes like I do !! And with some experiments, I am going to share some tips in the extra notes from the recipe below !! They are handful in creating a peanut pancake that yields a smooth and golden brown texture !

Enjoy !!

Peanut Pancakes (Min Chiang Kueh) 面煎粿

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

25 mins

 

Recipe type: Breakfast

Cuisine: Chinese

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 80g plain flour, sifted
• 65g rice flour, sifted
• 1 tbsp corn flour, sifted
• 90ml water
• 60ml fresh coconut milk
• 70g sugar
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 
  

For the Filling:

• I used store bought ground peanuts that comes ready mixed with sugar. Alternatively, you can pan fried some crushed peanuts with sugar added accordingly to your preference. Other options include red bean, cream corn, grated coconut that's steamed before use.

Instructions

1. Combine all the ingredients together and mix well till the batter is smooth. Set aside in the fridge overnight.
2. Heat up a non-stick pan and add a thin layer of batter to it. Swirl the pan around to allow the batter to move up the sides of the pan.
3. Cover the pan with a transparent lid, but leaving a gap so that it is not entirely covered and allow it to be cooked till the sides start to brown.
4. Remove the lid quickly and add in whatever fillings desired. Remove the pan from heat immediately.
5. Using a thin spatula or small knife, move it around the crust of the pancake to loosen it from the pan. Fold into half.
6. Cut the pancake into halves and serve immediately.

Notes

1) Oiling the pan will allow the pancake to be removed easily BUT will also result in an uneven colour tone on the surface of the pancake when it is cooked. Hence, please try to avoid this and use a non-stick pan as much as possible.
2) Try to use a transparent lid and leaving a gap instead of covering the pan entirely will allow the steam to escape so that the vapour droplets does not fall back onto the pancake and spoiling the texture.
3) Try to be quick in adding the fillings and removing the pan from heat immediately thereafter as it takes only a matter of seconds before the pancake turn from golden brown to charred at this stage.
4) I used approximately 1.5 small soup ladle of batter for these pancakes that are cooked in a 18cm frying pan. If you prefer it to be thicker, you can add in more and also allow for a longer cooking time.

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