Chef Thomas
A Proper Bacon Sandwich
Back bacon in a hot pan, good white bread, soft salted butter. Ten minutes between waking up and the first bite of something that makes the morning make sense.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Welsh Crempog
Created by Chef Thomas
Thick, soft buttermilk pancakes cooked on a hot bakestone and stacked with salted butter between each one, the kind of thing that turns a cold morning into something worth getting out of bed for.
Breakfast & Brunch
British
Holiday
Special Occasion
10 min
Active Time
25 min cook•35 min total
Yield12-15 pancakes (serves 4)
The kitchen smells of warm butter and the faintly sour tang of buttermilk hitting a hot pan. It's March, the first of the month, and outside the weather is doing that thing it does in early spring where it can't decide between rain and something almost hopeful. The crempog don't care about the weather. They belong to this time of year.
Thicker than an English pancake, softer than a Scotch one, risen with buttermilk and cooked on a bakestone until the underside is an honest gold. You butter them as they come, stacking one on top of another so the warmth from each keeps the stack together, the butter pooling between layers. There's a word for this in Welsh that I won't butcher with my pronunciation, but the meaning is clear enough: small, round, and good.
I first had these in a farmhouse kitchen in Carmarthenshire, standing at a table that had clearly seen decades of flour and butter. The woman who made them didn't measure anything. She poured the batter from a jug and knew by sight when to turn them. I wrote it down that evening: buttermilk, bakestone, salted butter, March. A recipe is a conversation, not a contract. This one barely needs writing down at all.
They're traditional on St David's Day and again on bonfire night, which tells you something about their nature. They're for cold evenings and occasions that call for warmth without spectacle. We're only making pancakes. But sometimes that's everything.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
self-raising flour
Quantity
250g
caster sugar
Quantity
1 tablespoon
fine sea salt
Quantity
pinch
large egg
Quantity
1
buttermilk
Quantity
300ml
unsalted butter
Quantity
50g
melted, plus extra for cooking
salted butter
Quantity
generous amount
softened, for spreading
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| self-raising flour | 250g |
| caster sugar | 1 tablespoon |
| fine sea salt | pinch |
| large egg | 1 |
| buttermilk | 300ml |
| unsalted buttermelted, plus extra for cooking | 50g |
| salted buttersoftened, for spreading | generous amount |
Equipment Needed
- •Cast-iron griddle, bakestone, or heavy flat-bottomed frying pan
- •Large mixing bowl and whisk
- •Tablespoon or small ladle for portioning
Instructions
- 1
Make the batter
Tip the flour, sugar, and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Crack in the egg and pour in about half the buttermilk. Whisk from the centre outward, pulling flour in from the edges as you go, then add the rest of the buttermilk and the melted butter. Whisk until smooth but don't overwork it. The batter should be thick, thicker than English pancake batter, more like a lazy, slow-pouring cream. If it feels stiff, add a splash more buttermilk. Let it rest for five minutes while the pan heats.
Buttermilk is the thing here. Its acidity reacts with the raising agent in the flour and gives the crempog their lift and that faint sourness that good butter loves to meet. Don't substitute with regular milk if you can help it. - 2
Heat the bakestone
Set a flat griddle, bakestone, or heavy frying pan over a medium heat. Give it a proper few minutes to come up to temperature. Rub the surface with a scrap of butter on a piece of kitchen paper. The butter should sizzle gently the moment it touches the pan. If it scorches and smokes, pull the pan off the heat for thirty seconds. You want steady, even warmth, not fierce heat. Crempog need time to rise and set through without burning underneath.
A cast-iron griddle or heavy pan is best. It holds heat evenly and forgives you if your attention drifts for a moment. Thin pans create hot spots and you'll get dark patches where you don't want them. - 3
Cook the crempog
Drop a generous tablespoon of batter onto the pan for each crempog, leaving room between them. They should spread to about eight centimetres across, no wider. Let them cook undisturbed. After a minute or two, small bubbles will appear on the surface and the edges will start to look set and dry. When the underside is a good, even gold, flip them. The first one is always wrong. Accept it, eat it standing at the stove, and adjust the heat if you need to. The second batch will be better. Cook for another minute or so until the other side matches. They should feel light when you lift them, springy if you press the centre gently.
- 4
Stack and butter
As each crempog comes off the pan, spread it generously with softened salted butter and stack it on a warm plate. The butter melts into the surface and the stack stays warm, each pancake keeping the one below it company. Keep going, re-buttering the pan between batches, until the batter is finished. Bring the whole stack to the table and let people pull them off the pile. No fuss. No ceremony. Just warm pancakes and good butter.
Chef Tips
- •The batter should be thick enough that it holds its shape on the pan for a moment before slowly spreading. If it runs thin like a crêpe, you've added too much liquid. A crempog should sit proud on the griddle, not race to the edges.
- •Don't skip the resting. Even five minutes lets the flour hydrate and the bubbles settle. The batter thickens slightly and the first pancake comes out better for it.
- •Salted butter for spreading, unsalted for the batter. The salt in the butter does something particular against the tang of the buttermilk. It sharpens the whole thing and makes you want another one before you've finished the first.
- •Some people serve these with honey or jam, and you can if you like, but try them first with nothing but butter. The flavour of good buttermilk and browned butter on a hot griddle is quiet and complete. It doesn't need company.
Advance Preparation
- •The batter can be made up to two hours ahead and kept covered in the fridge. Give it a gentle stir before cooking, as it may thicken. Add a splash of buttermilk if needed.
- •Cooked crempog keep, stacked and wrapped in foil, in a low oven for twenty minutes or so. They're best straight from the pan, but a warm stack on the table is still a fine thing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 160g)
Calories
445 calories
Total Fat
22 g
Saturated Fat
13 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
8 g
Cholesterol
100 mg
Sodium
500 mg
Total Carbohydrates
52 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
7 g
Protein
10 g
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