The chef gave tips on making lacy pancakes

The key thing in making any pancakes is choosing high-quality flour, so you should give preference to top-grade wheat flour, Konstantin Pavlov, brand-chef of the Level Kitchen service, told Izvestia's "Food without Borders" gastronomic project.

If you want to get more loose pancakes, supplement the composition with buckwheat flour: replace it with about one-third to one-fourth of wheat flour. If you want to add viscosity to the pancakes, add about a quarter of oat flour. When mixing several varieties, let the dough stand a little longer than usual.

"To get pancakes not thick and not thin at the same time, and at the same time in a small hole, I recommend to take as a basis yeast dough - advised the expert. - Yeast should be fresh, preferably alive. Remember that the final structure of the dough is affected by the degree of moisture in the flour, different yeast, and the temperature in the room".

The optimal cookware for cooking pancakes is a cast iron skillet or a thick-bottomed frying pan, the diameter of which depends only on what size pancakes you want to get. The temperature of the stove is chosen experimentally: when pouring the dough onto the pan, a characteristic hissing sound should be heard. The batter should fry, but not boil in the pan.

To prepare the dough you will need 300-330 grams of flour, 21-30 grams of live yeast (or 7-10 grams of dry yeast), 500 grams of flour, 1 egg, 30-50 grams of melted butter. Sugar, salt, syrup, sugar substitute if necessary are added to taste.

"Sugar (as well as butter) will give the pancakes a beautiful ruddy crust. The amount of butter can always be made minimal, but its complete absence will take away from the pancakes with brioche, so it is better not to exclude this ingredient," explained Pavlov.

Milk should be slightly heated, without bringing to a boil, and mixed with yeast and a pinch of sugar, then cover the mass with a lid and leave to rise until the foam appears (30 - 60 minutes, depending on the yeast). Then add the egg and a little salt and stir with a whisk, beating the mass. Then gradually add the flour, stirring the mass with a whisk to avoid lumps.

"The thickness of the dough can be checked by dipping your finger in it: if a thin, fast and intermittent stream flows from it - the pancakes will be thin, the thicker and more uniform the stream - the thicker they will be," the chef shared his experience. - Leave the finished dough for about 50-60 minutes under the lid: it should rise well, covered with bubbles, increase in volume 2-3 times".

Before heating the skillet, it is better to grease it with a slice of potato or onion, soaked in vegetable oil, so we will get an additional pleasant flavor. Using a small ladle, evenly pour a thin layer of pancake batter: as soon as the top side is no longer wet, the pancake can be flipped and fried until browned. In this way you will have airy pancakes of optimal thickness with holes, and it will only remain to add the filling to them to taste.

You can read more tips from chefs and exclusive recipes in Izvestia's zen channel "Food without Borders".