The best vegan pancake recipe for Candlemas.

Guilty! At least of the sin of gluttony. We must admit it since on the occasion of Epiphany, we already shared with you our recipe for vegan frangipane king cake.

We promise, we have no intention of abandoning the manufacture of our vegan shoes, nor to leave our plant-based sneakers in the cupboard to start selling vegan pastries; but today, we're putting it back on the table for Candlemas with our recipe for homemade vegan pancakes.

Yes, pancakes without eggs are possible, my good sir!

Before revealing the ultimate vegan pancake recipe, let’s take a chance on a little quiz.

Do you know why every year, on February 2nd, on the occasion of the traditional Candlemas, we eat pancakes?

Answer A: To ward off bad luck and reduce the chances of having a disastrous wheat harvest.

Answer B: To honor the character of Chandler from the series Friends, who celebrates his birthday every year by gorging on pancakes with Joey.

Answer C: To remember the famous Breton “song of the hour”, chanted by the warriors when they left for the front after having filled their bellies with a mountain of pancakes.

Drum roll, the suspense is at its peak.

Although we love Chandler's jokes and are not a little proud of our fake Breton legend, the correct answer here is A!

Come on, we'll tell you.

Before being an occasion to gather gourmands around a festive table, Candlemas was a Roman festival in honor of the god Pan, then taken up by the church which established processions, during which people paraded holding small candles, from which the festival takes its name.

But then what does this have to do with pancakes, you ask?

Over time, the tradition evolved, and the popular belief arose that pancakes had to be made on Candlemas Day, otherwise the year's wheat harvest would be poor. “If you don’t want coal-filled wheat, eat pancakes on Candlemas.” as the saying goes.

A pancake was then tossed with the right hand while holding a gold coin in the left hand, then the gold coin was placed in the pancake, and carried in procession to a room in the house where it was then kept for a year.

The following year, the coin remaining in the hardened pancake was collected and offered to a poor person, with the hope that the offering would protect the donating family from poverty throughout the coming year.

Although today we only remember the story of these past rites, we still have the generous culinary tradition of pancakes.

Enough of history, let's put on our aprons, our COG pair of favorite cuisine, and to our salad bowls!

Recipe for 20 vegan pancakes:

• 500 g of T45 flour
• 160 g cornstarch
• 500 ml cold water
• 1 liter of soy or vegetable milk of your choice
• 4 tablespoons of neutral vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons of sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ⅓ teaspoon cinnamon (to taste)

Trick :

To flavor and lighten the texture of your pancakes, you can replace 25 cl of vegetable milk with a 25 cl white beer (according to individual tastes, of course)

1. Start by diluting the cornstarch in the water, then mix well.

2. Add flour, oil, salt, sugar, and also cinnamon to the preparation for dessert pancakes.

3. Gradually pour in the vegetable milk, whisking generously.

4. Once the preparation is smooth, it can be filtered using a tea strainer to avoid any lumps.

5. Leave the pancake batter to rest under a tea towel for 1 hour 20 minutes before cooking.

6. Once your pan or crepe maker is hot, oil it generously using a damp cloth, then pour and spread a layer of batter evenly over the cooking surface.

7. Let cook for about 1 minute 30 over medium heat.

8. Flip the pancake by tossing it to test your dexterity, or flip it using a wooden spatula as a test of wisdom.

9. Let cook for 20 to 30 seconds to finish cooking.

10. Repeat this action until all the dough is used up.