
One of the things I like most about Christmastime is observing our favorite holiday traditions! I cherish the time we spend together as a family during the holidays, whether we’re laughing, talking, relaxing, playing, or (maybe most especially) eating! ;-)
We’ve instituted quite a few traditions over the years when it comes to our holiday meals. Ever since I married my Norwegian husband, we have had Norwegian Meatballs for dinner on Christmas Eve. But it wasn’t until about 10 years ago that we added Norwegian Pancakes (or Pannekaker) to our traditional Christmas morning breakfast!

These thin pancakes are so easy to make, and are endlessly customizable. You can make them really thin and crepe-like, which is the traditional Norwegian way, or you can make them a little thicker in the Swedish tradition. (Mine are never quite crepe-thin, mostly due to the fact that the thicker ones are easier to flip!)
Another option for customizing these Norwegian pancakes is that you can use a GF baking mix instead of regular flour to make them gluten-free. This is one of those recipes that tastes just as good when made gluten-free as it does normally! Here’s how to make them.

How To Make Norwegian Pancakes (Pannekaker)
Add the eggs, water, and vanilla to a blender or stand mixer. Blend or mix to combine. Then add the remaining ingredients one at a time, blending after each addition until smooth.

Add a bit of butter to your pan or griddle, and preheat it over medium heat. Once the pan is warm and the butter has melted, pour about 1/4 cup of the pancake batter onto the cooking surface.

Cook the pancake for about one minute, then flip it over and cook for one more minute. Stack the finished pancakes on a covered plate to keep them warm until serving.

And then comes the best part… eating them! You can top them with whatever you typically like on pancakes or crepes. If you want to go the traditional route, you can’t go wrong with a simple combination of butter and sugar, or a heaping scoop of lingonberry jam. :-)

For a less traditional approach, the sky is the limit! We’ve tried a lot of different types of toppings, like maple syrup, whipped cream, brown sugar, powdered sugar, sliced strawberries, sliced bananas, Nutella, and more. These pancakes taste great topped with just about anything!
Does your family have a traditional Christmas morning breakfast?

Norwegian Pancakes Recipe
Equipment
- Griddle
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- 1 1/4 cup flour
- 1 cup milk
Instructions
- Add eggs, water, and vanilla to blender. Blend. Add remaining ingredients, blending after each addition until smooth.
- Butter a saute pan or griddle with some butter. Heat pan to medium; then pour about 1/4 cup batter onto griddle. Cook for about a minute, then flip it and cook about another minute.
- Stack the pancakes and keep warm until serving.
Video

I like to serve these with lingonberry butter I make the night before. The berries are a tiny bit tart so they perfectly offset the sweetness of the batter.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.im gluten free, you mentioned that you can sub gluten free baking mix in this recipe. Just want to clarify, did you mean gluten free flour blend? Otherwise I’m unsure of a particular baking mix? These look delicious and I would love to try them
Please log in or create a free account to comment.As Jenni says this recipe is very similar to the British recipe which is supposed to use up left overs on Shrove Tuesday before Lent. Adding caster sugar and lemon juice before rolling them up is the basic way to eat them but they have morphed into all sorts of delicious savoury and sweet yummy concoctions!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I read your recipe for Norwegian pancakes in great anticipation hoping to find the Norwegian recipe made with potatoes. My son lives in Oslo (Norway) and we had a snack of sausages rolled in potato pancakes at an ice skating party. He’d bought the pancakes and we heated things up on the near by BBQ. I was wondering if you’d come across this recipe. They were unusual but very delicious!
They look delicious and similar to English pancakes, except that we don’t use vanilla. We make pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, and I’ve used them as a savoury and a sweet for the same meal, bolognese sauce for the savoury and whipped cream and mashed bananas for sweet, they were delicious, even if I do say so myself!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Yum!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I need to change my email address so I am able to receive your valuable tips.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Hi Margaret :-) Simply email me at jill@byjillee.com – tell me which email address you would like the tips sent to, and I’ll get your information changed right away!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Our Christmas morning tradition, for at least 44 years is Houligan pancakes. Goes by other names, German, Dutch, but its big claim to fame is that it puffs up while baking. My dear mom just loved the dramatic presentation. She served them with powdered sugar or syrup but over the years our family began adding apple pie filling. Decadent but oh so yummy.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Yum!!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.These sound really good. Live in Minot, ND and it was originally Norweigans that lived here. Going to fairs, is really diet killing idea. Will need to try and cut back the recipe for one person. May try freezing them with parchment or wax paper between each pancake.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Let me know how freezing them turns out! :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I just found (and made) a recipe for delicious, nearly foolproof lemon curd.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.https://youtu.be/bPj5WNZfV94
Paired with these simple to prepare Norwegian pancakes, it would make the perfect Christmas breakfast!
Sounds delicious! I love lemon curd :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.You may call these Norwegian pancakes but to us in the U.K, they are British pancakes. My favourite filling is with lemon and sugar.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Sounds delicious!
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I’ve always known them as English pancakes, but I’ve never known them be made with vanilla.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Why do they appear to have vegetables (something that is green in them) that is not listed in the ingredients?
Please log in or create a free account to comment.It’s the lingonberry jam showing through.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I was wondering this also. Lingonberries are red, not green. And I see the red jam “showing through”, but these are cooked with something green in the batter. Hoping Jillee will jump in here and solve this mystery!
yellow pancake + red jam= greenish color
Sorry, but yellow and red combined would be orange, not green.
Red berries plus yellow batter equals orange; test it. Red + yellow anything makes orange.
It’s just the effect of the red jam poking through the thinner parts of the pancake :-)
That’s just how the photo turned out – a little funny looking, but no mystery ingredients :-)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.