Blueberry Pachade (Rustic Pancake)

Dessert

Two thick, golden pancakes from the heart of the Auvergne, sandwiched together with sweetened blueberries. The edges crisp slightly in the pan, the inside stays soft and yielding, and the blueberries collapse just enough to become jammy without losing their shape. Quick to make, wonderfully simple, and far more delicious than you’d ever expect.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Servings 4

Ingredients 

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For the batter

• 4 eggs
• 200 gr plain flour
• 100 gr caster sugar
• 1 l whole milk
• 1 pinch salt
• unsalted butter

For the blueberry filling

• 250 gr blueberries
• 50 gr icing sugar

To serve

• icing sugar

Equipment

2 mixing bowl

whisk

frying pan

plate for flipping

double spatula

Instructions

1. Make the batter

• In a large mixing bowl, crack in the eggs and add the sugar and salt. Whisk together until slightly foamy. Add the flour and whisk until smooth and completely lump-free, take your time with this step. Gradually whisk in the milk, a little at a time, until you have a smooth, pourable batter that's noticeably thicker than crêpe batter but still flows easily. If time allows, cover and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes, the batter relaxes and the pachades will be more even.

2. Prepare the blueberries

• Tip the blueberries into a small bowl, add the sugar, and stir gently. Leave to macerate while you cook the pachades, the sugar will draw out the juice and soften the fruit slightly without turning it to mush.

3. Cook the first pachade

• Heat a 24–26cm frying pan over medium-high heat. Add a knob of butter and let it get hot. Give the batter a quick stir, then pour in half of it. It should spread to fill the pan in a thick layer. Reduce the heat slightly to medium and cook for 3-4 minutes until the underside is well browned and the edges are set. The surface will still look slightly wet, this is fine. Using a large spatula, or by inverting onto a plate and sliding back into the pan, flip the pachade and cook for a further 2-3 minutes until golden on the second side. Slide onto a warm plate and keep warm.

4. Cook the second pachade

• Add a little more butter to the pan and repeat with the remaining batter. Same process, same timings.

5. Assemble and serve

• Place the first pachade on a serving plate or board. Spoon the sugared blueberries evenly over the surface. Place the second pachade directly on top, pressing very gently. Dust generously with icing sugar and bring straight to the table. Cut into wedges like a tart and serve warm.

Notes

• Whole milk gives the best result here, the fat content matters for the texture and richness of the batter. Semi-skimmed works but the pachades will be slightly less tender.
• The batter rest is optional but worth it if you have time. It makes the batter smoother and gives a more even cook.
• Fresh blueberries are strongly preferable. Frozen can work but release considerably more liquid, which can make the filling watery, if using frozen, don’t defrost first and reduce the sugar slightly.
• The flip is the only technically demanding moment. A large flat spatula works well, or slide the pachade onto a large plate, hold the pan inverted over the plate, then flip the whole thing over in one confident motion. Hesitation is your enemy here.
• Myrtilles are the small, intensely flavoured wild blueberries from the Auvergne mountains and are the authentic choice if you can find them. They’re smaller and more tart than cultivated blueberries, and the flavour is noticeably more complex. Some specialist food shops and French delis stock them seasonally.

About this recipe

When I heard about the pachade dessert from an elder lady at the market, I just had to make it. She came from Auvergne and told me about this special French pancake that sounded so good, yet I had never heard of it before. It comes from where she came from, in the rugged, volcanic region in the heart of France, where it has been eaten since at least the Middle Ages. The name almost certainly derives from the Occitan pachada, meaning something flattened or spread, which describes the cooking method precisely. It is, at its simplest, a very fat pancake, rustic and filling and entirely unpretentious.

Where this dish comes from

Historically this fat pancake was everyday food, made from whatever was in the farmhouse kitchen: eggs, flour, milk, a little salt. It wasn’t much that needed to be bought, as the people in Auvergne harvested most at home. The savoury version is loaded with Cantal cheese and local ham. Back in the days it would have been carried out to the fields wrapped in a cloth and eaten in the shade of a tree. This pancake recipe sweet version follows the same logic, but instead of cheese and ham, they used the fruit from their gardens, sugar if they had it, and the same batter.

This thick french pancake belongs to the same family of rustic batter dishes found across rural France. It is the crêpe’s less elegant but as satisfying cousin. It’s not as refined, nor is it supposed to be, and both ways have their charm. It is food that has survived for centuries not because anyone wrote it down but because it was normal and was passed down by generations.

The Auvergne and its blueberries

The Auvergne is blueberry country, just like Limousin, remember the wild blueberry tart from Limousin? The Massif Central’s mountain slopes, particularly the Forez hills and the Puy-de-Dôme, are covered in wild blueberry plants. The “myrtilles” that are harvested there from July through August are smaller, darker, and considerably more intense in flavour than the cultivated varieties sold in supermarkets. They have been gathered by local families for centuries: eaten fresh, made into jams, stirred into batters, and used to fill this particular pancake dessert.

The combination works because blueberries and a thick, slightly chewy batter are natural partners. The fruit holds its shape under gentle heat but releases its juice into the french pancake when sanswiched. A dusting of icing sugar over the top at the end turns something rustic into something that looks considerably more elegant than it is.

Keeping the traditions alive

Outside the Auvergne, this dish remains almost entirely unknown, I’ve never heard of it before I met this lady at the market. It’s not something that will appear on any Paris restaurant menu and is not mentioned in most French cookery books. It is a recipe that grandmothers in the Cantal know how to make and nobody else does. No restaurant has claimed it as a signature nor did food writer make it fashionable. It survives because the people who grew up eating it are kind. enough to share it with sweet tooth people that are curious and are looking for their next fix.

The french pancake traditions most people know like the crêpe, the galette bretonnes are all thoroughly documented. This fat pancake recipe represents the other side of French cooking: the regional side where the dishes stay alive because they are good rather than fashionable. It’s my kind of recipes. That is worth more to me, and it is exactly why a recipe like this belongs on my French food blog.

Savoury or sweet

Most people outside the region will encounter the sweet version first, filled with blueberries or other seasonal fruit. But the savoury version is equally worth making. Cantal cheese and local ham, folded into the same thick batter and cooked in the same way, produces something closer to a substantial lunch than a dessert. The technique is the same, but the result is obviously completely different. Once you have the batter right, you can take it in either direction depending on what is in the kitchen and what your taste buds fancy at that moment.

The right pan for this pancake recipe sweet

A pachade needs a wide, flat pan that heats evenly and allows a thick batter to cook through without burning the base before the centre has set. The edges need to crisp slightly while the interior stays soft and yielding. It requires steady, consistent heat across the entire base.

I use the Tefal frying pan for this french pancake. I had them for a long time and they are just so easy to work with. The non-stick surface means the thick batter releases cleanly without tearing, which matters for a pancake dessert you are going to flip and serve whole. The even heat distribution gives you a uniformly golden base rather than patches of dark and pale. For a fat pancake this simple, the pan is the most important piece of equipment on the list. Give it a go, you won’t be disappointing.