Saffranspannkaka

Saffranspannkaka is a yellow baked sweet made with rice porridge, popular on the Swedish island of Gotland. It is characterized by the aroma and color of saffron, and is served with jam made from salmbär, a local island berry, and whipped cream.

Baking Rice Porridge to a Golden Yellow

In one example of the method, rice is simmered in milk until soft to make a porridge, then cooled slightly. Eggs, cream, sugar, chopped almonds and ground saffron are mixed in, and the mixture is poured into a buttered dish and baked. Some recipes also add raisins.

With the rice grains still intact, the batter is thicker than a thin pancake, and even a single cut piece retains the texture of the rice grains. Saffron colors the whole thing yellow, and the almonds add bite here and there. Once baked, it can be eaten chilled or still slightly warm.

Salmbär, also called blåhallon in Swedish, is a relative of the blackberry. When the bluish-purple berries that grow along the island’s roadsides and coasts are made into jam, they add tartness to the sweet batter made with milk and rice. When they cannot be found, blackberry or raspberry jam is sometimes used instead.

From the Festive Table to the Café

Saffron, almonds and raisins were once rare and expensive ingredients. Swedish food culture sources explain that these ingredients came to the island through Gotland’s trade and its connections with other regions. Records by Ingeborg Ringegård, introduced in food culture sources, describe memories of eating it on the morning after the early Christmas service, on festive days, and at christenings and funerals.

It is also described as a dish that used up leftover rice porridge. On the other hand, records introduced by the Swedish National Archives include an account that wealthy people served it to guests to show their prosperity. It was both a dish that made use of leftover porridge and a festive dish that displayed prosperity through the use of saffron.

Today it is also popular in the island’s cafés. At the garden café of Norrbys, a farm preserved by the Gotland Museum, it is served with salmbär jam. Finland’s ålandspannkaka is also a dish of baked grain porridge, but in the Gotland version, saffron, almonds and the island’s berries stand out.

Glossary