A classic American recipe with a Persian twist, these rosewater cardamom pancakes with saffron syrup are the love between east and west. The fluffy pancakes with rose and cardamom aroma kissed by saffron syrup, a dream come true!
It's been quite some time since I've posted anything Persian here. Here is why.
I've told you before that I'm writing a Persian cookbook. It's been a roller coaster and, let me tell you, even if you've grown up with the cuisine, have talked about it for the last 20-something years and cooked it for just as long, it's still a challenge to put it down on paper. All the amazing Persian dishes are in my cookbook, so stay tuned!
As for today, I have a Persian twist on the classic American breakfast: Rosewater cardamom pancakes with saffron syrup! Let me tell you a story about pancakes.
When I was a kid, some of my favorite books to read were the Ramona Quimby series by Beverly Cleary. Most of you probably know Ramona, the funny girl who had a big sister called Beatrice, and the stories happened around their lives from starting a new school year to weddings to the death of their beloved dog. I still love the series so much; it brings so many good memories.
One of the stories that I like a lot was about that night when they came home and figured out that they had forgotten to turn the slow cooker on. They didn't have dinner, so they ended up making pancakes. (I really hope I'm remembering correctly.) Anyway, the word "pancakes" - "cakes that are cooked in pan" as it translated to Farsi - was just so attractive to me and I couldn't stop thinking about it until my maman and I actually made it ourselves and loved it! I don't know what things are like today, but in those days we couldn't find maple syrup in Tehran. So, we had it with jam or honey, which was still really good.
And since then my love for pancakes stayed with me and is going strong. Just as with my love for Persian food, it has been a lifelong obsession. So, I decided to combine my two loves and make magic. These rosewater cardamom pancakes are magic, especially with the delicious sweet saffron syrup that makes these pancakes so moist and tasty!
The combination of rosewater and cardamom is such a divine combination. This combination is one of most used flavors in Persian cooking, especially for sweets and baking. Saffron also adds a lot of flavor and depth to the whole breakfast, which really makes it worth waking up for! I personally like Mehr Saffron the best in the US. The flavor, aroma and color is just on point and how I like saffron to be.
I always like to write a lot when I post a Persian recipe because there is so much of me in these recipes that I want to share them with you. I'm very happy that I'll soon be able to share even more of them through my cookbook!
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Make sure you try these rosewater cardamom pancakes, you'll love them!
Rosewater Cardamom Pancakes + Saffron Syrup
Ingredients
Rosewater Cardamom Pancakes:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup rose water
- ½ teaspoon cardamom
Saffron Syrup:
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoon rosewater
- 2 tablespoon bloomed saffron
Instructions
Rosewater Cardamom Pancakes:
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Add all the wet ingredients, mix until just combined. Don't over mix.
- Heat a non-stick pan on medium heat, pour ¼ cup of the batter and cook for 45 second on each side until fully cooked. Repeat with the remaining batter.
- Serve with Saffron Syrup.
Saffron Syrup:
- Heat water and sugar over medium heat until starts boiling. Simmer for 5 minutes. Turn the heat off, add bloomed saffron and rosewater. Cool and serve.
Nutrition
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Alicen Grey
Outstanding! I love rose-flavored food, but have a hard time finding recipes that actually put the rose flavor front-and-center. Usually, recipes will pair rose with other flavors, like orange or hibiscus, and I just don't want those distractions. THANK GOODNESS I found this recipe! The rose flavor was perfect. Just perfect. So was the texture and ease of cooking. I'll be making these pancakes regularly from now on!
Patricia
These are the perfect duplicate of rosewater pancakes at Lapis in DC. Delicious!
Shadi HasanzadeNemati
Happy to know you enjoyed them!
Firefly
I can’t try the recipe at the moment as I believe we’re out of buttermilk, but wanted to ask a couple of things. Rosewater having already been addressed 😉 what is ‘bloomed’ saffron? Does one bloom it with hot water before use, by some other method, or is it a specific type of saffron that comes that way? Also, I ADORE the blue teapot in your pictures; where might. I find one like it? Thank you!
Shadi HasanzadeNemati
Hi! Thank you for stopping by, Here is a tutorial on how to bloom saffron: https://www.unicornsinthekitchen.com/how-to-bloom-saffron/ and here is an affiliate link to the teapot I have https://amzn.to/2wxPc5O Hope you enjoy it! <3
Cindy
I'm excited to try these. It seems like quite a bit of rosewater though, will the end result be very strong or subtle flavor?
unicornsinthekitchen@gmail.com
Hi Cindy! I would say start with half of the amount and then add more if the batter doesn't smell like rosewater at all. For me, it's subtle but that might be because I grew up having rosewater and saffron everyday, if you don't use rosewater often, I suggest start with half of the amount mentioned in the recipe 🙂