Pancakes

These pancakes can be made easily in Kyrgyzstan. Instead of baking powder (which I haven't found here), they use kefir and ayran to leaven baking soda (all of which is easy to find). This means the mixture goes flat a little more quickly, so frying right away is necessary. This recipe is adapted from JoyOfBaking.com's buttermilk pancake recipe.

Yields about 16 small-medium pancakes. To double (etc) recipe, start over a second time—the baking soda and kefir mix quickly and by the end of frying the batter are already starting to go flat. If you have a large frying pan or skillet and can make a lot of pancakes at once, doubling the recipe might be okay.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (140g) flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 tbsp (28g) sugar
• 1 large egg lightly beaten
• 1½ cup (240ml) kefir or ayran
• 3tbsp (40g) butter or margarine

Directions

1. Melt butter carefully.
2. Mix kefir and egg into melted butter
3. Mix into a bowl flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar
4. Pour liquid mixture into dry mixture bowl
5. Mix until some small lumps remain—don't overmix!
6. Put a frying pan on medium heat, add butter
7. Pour a spoonful or two of batter onto pan, fry for a couple minutes until bottom brown and bubbles appear on top; flip and cook about half that time until bottom light brown.