As the sweet smell of batter stretched through the house, and the soft crackling of the dessert came to a perfect consistency in the pan, you knew today you were lucky. You and your brother run downstairs eagerly, and sit at the table. Mama brings over the big white plate that she keeps in a special cupboard for occasions just like this, and finally sets the palacsintas in front of you. You both immediately dig in, like you’ve been waiting for this very moment your entire life. The soft taste of the dough seemed to melt against your tongue, along with the sweet filing rolled up inside it.
As you're eating, you notice Mama just sitting there, watching the two of you, and you think of how this feeling would have been for her when she was your age. You can picture her, sitting at a big table at her nagymama’s (grandmother) house, surrounded by all her cousins she didn't see nearly as much as she would have wanted to, since they lived in Toronto and she lived in Ottawa. The smiles you can imagine on their facesnow mirror yours and your brother’s. You remember all the stories she had told you about her nagymama, how she loved her grandchildren so dearly, and loved to cook for her family. 
She would tell you about how much of a hero Nagymama was to them. How the family had escaped the second world war and came to Canada, where she built a safe community for her children and grandchildren. She was surrounded by warmth, music, happiness, and all the amazing food she had grown up with in Hungary. 
As you take the first few bites, you remember the story Mama would tell you. That Nagymama would just watch her grandchildren eating the palacsintas she made, and wouldn’t eat any herself, as just watching the pure joy on their faces was enough, and you realized that she was doing the same thing. The tradition of making the dessert for the people she loved and seeing how happy it made them was the whole point.
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Ingredients (to make a batch of 4 palacsintas) 
1 egg
½ cup of milk
½ cup of soda water
5 heaped tablespoons of flour
A pinch of salt
Cooking oil (for frying)
*to make a batch of 12, use three times the amount of listed ingredients Your choice of filing (jam or hazelnut spread used traditionally)
Your choice of fruit can be added as well 

Additional Materials: 
A large bowl
A small bowl
A large frying pan
A whisk 
A ladle 
A large spatula
A pastry brush
​A plate (to put the palacsintas on after cooking)

Instructions: 
1.  Put 5 tablespoons of flour into a large bowl
2. Add the egg, milk, and salt to the flour and stir
3. Once all mixed, add in the soda water and mix until the batter is smooth and a liquidy consistency (if there are still chunks of batter, add more soda water) 
4. Leave the batter to sit for 10-15 minutes, uncovered 
5. Put your large frying pan on the stove and make sure the heat is turned up to high 
6. While waiting for the pan the heat up, put a small amount of cooking oil in a small bowl
7. Once heated up, get a small amount of the oil on the pastry brush and brush it evenly around the pan (you will know that the pan is hot enough if the oil starts to crackle while doing this step)
8. After the pan is oiled, get one scoop up the batter using the ladle and put it on the frying pan
9. As soon as the batter is on the pan, pick the pan up off the burner and rotate it until the batter is covering the entire pan (it should look like a large pancake) 
10. Put the pan back down on the burner and leave the batter to cook for around 90 seconds then flip it onto the other side, using the spatula and wait the same amount of time for that side to cook 
11.  After both sides a cooked, use the spatula to lift it out of the pan and put it on a plate
12. Repeat this process two more times, making sure to oil the pan before making another palascinta, then turn the heat on the stove down to medium high
13. Continue to repeat these steps until all batter is used
​14. Once all palascintas are cooked, add your choice of filling to them, roll them up, and enjoy!