Ponco - Bacon-fried Batter #BreadBakers

Ponco is a traditional Welsh breakfast recipe of batter fried in flavorful bacon fat. Made with flour, milk and eggs (or sometimes just flour and milk) ponco is cheap and filling but, oh so delicious!

A few months ago, I visited Wales for the first time to stay with a dear friend who had recently moved there. Despite still learning her way around, she was an excellent tour guide, enlisting her mother and father in a couple of our expeditions since they have lived in Wales for many, many years.

But one day we struck out on our own to climb the town and castle walls around Conwy which date back to medieval times. High up above the town, we had lovely views of houses and shops and even the sea. We enjoyed a delicious pub lunch in town and headed home by way of the beach road, popping into a few shops on the way.

In one tiny book store, I came across a small book of recipes called Croeso Cymreig - A Welsh Welcome. Recipes for Some Traditional Welsh Dishes. Published in 1957 by the Wales Gas Board, it was full of old-fashioned and traditional recipes, many with vague instructions and random units of measure, when they were included at all. Of course, I had to buy it.

This month for Bread Bakers, our host Felice from All That’s Left Are The Crumbs chose breakfast bread as our theme. I like to try different breads from different cultures so I googled British breakfast breads, among other things.

A Welsh recipe call ponco popped up a number of times. It sounded like a cross between an American pancake and a French crepe but fried in bacon fat, an idea I was totally for. The recipes I found didn’t have very accurate measures but the idea was to make a batter with eggs, milk and flour or sometimes, I guess when times were tough, just flour and milk. Or even, God forbid, water.

It suddenly occurred to check A Welsh Welcome. Sure enough, ponco was there! Its measurements were just as sketchy though. And this was the first time I saw the suggestion to eat it with meat and vegetables. Everywhere else it was a breakfast dish.

Sure two teacups of flour, but how much milk? And no eggs in this case.

Ponco - Bacon-fried Batter 

Without a definitive recipe to go on, I winged it.  This makes one large ponco about 9-10 inches or 23-25cm across. If you have a cast iron pan, use that for the frying. Cast iron won't cool as fast when you pour the batter in, which means the bacon grease stays hotter too and that means a more even color and slightly crunchy ponco. Which is what we want.

Ingredients
1 cup or 125g flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 – 2/3 cup or 120-156ml milk
1/4 cup or 60ml bacon grease

Method
Whisk the flour together with the baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Add in the egg and 1/2 cup or 120ml of the milk. Whisk briskly.

Add more milk as necessary to get a medium thick batter – not a thick as for American pancakes, not as thin as for French crepes.

Warm your bacon grease in a large pan over a medium high heat, until it starts to shimmer. (Ideally, you will have cooked your bacon in this same pan and removed all but about 1/4 cup or 60ml of the grease, so that there are little sticky bits from bacon still in there.)

All at once, pour in the batter and turn the heat down to medium.

Cook the ponco until the bottom is golden and little bubbles form and pop all over it, with just the very center still liquid. This takes just a few minutes. I let it cook just a minute or so longer than this.

Turn it over very careful so you don’t splash hot bacon grease on yourself and cook the other side till golden. You can see here how some of the sticky bacon bits have become one with the ponco. So good!

I placed the ponco on a couple of paper towels briefly to absorb excess grease when I took it out of the pan, but honestly, it was surprisingly not very greasy. Some of the Welsh ponco recipes I found said to serve it with butter and bacon. I’d also suggest some golden syrup or honey to join the butter in filling those wonderful holes.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to Felice from All That’s Left Are The Crumbs for hosting this month. Check out all the great breakfast bread recipes!

• Blueberry Buttermilk Scones by Mayuri’s Jikoni
• Blueberry Scone Bread by The Wimpy Vegetarian
• Breakfast Monkey Bread by Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Butter Enriched Milk Bread by Ambrosia
• Carrot Paneer Parathas by Sneha's Recipe
• Easy Sourdough Popovers by Cook's Hideout
• Jalapeño and Cheddar Bagels by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Low Carb Cinnamon Raisin Biscuits by Palatable Pastime
• Multigrain Aloo Methi Paratha by Sizzling Tastebuds
• Paczki with Lemon Cream Filling by All That’s Left Are The Crumbs
• Ponco - Bacon-fried Batter by Food Lust People Love
• Spice Island Breakfast Muffins by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Vegetable and Tofu Steamed Bao by Herbivore Cucina
• Yogurt Honey Wholemeal Loaf by Cook with Renu

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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