A gluten-free Shrove Tuesday

Once Christmas has passed by I look forward to Shrove Tuesday, I just love pancakes and if I am really honest, I don’t believe pancakes are just for Shrove Tuesday and enjoy them throughout the year. I am also a Christian and and Shrove Tuesday is very symbolic for me. The day before Ash Wednesday which is the start of Lent.

The period of Lent is traditionally a period of fasting or in more modern times, a period to give up food products. On Shrove Tuesday, Christians would be summoned to Church by the ringing of a bell, a bell that is called the ‘Pancake Bell’. Here, during a service Christians would be absolved of their sins through confession.

Pancakes came about as they were a great way to use up food products such as eggs, flour that would not last the 40 day fasting period. They feature in recipe books as far back as the 14th centaury. For centuries, pancake racing has been popular with the tradition believed to of started when a woman from ‘Olney, Buckinghamshire’, ran to church with her frying pan can pancake after hearing the bell.

Dates for Shrove Tuesday can fall anytime between 3rd February and the 9th March. Below are the next 10 year dates:

16/02/21
01/03/22
21/02/23
13/02/24
04/03/25
17/02/26
09/02/27
29/02/28
13/02/29
05/03/30

Thankfully it is very easy to adapt normal pancake recipes to gluten-free and below are some recipes I have come up with: