Pancake Day

We are going out tonight for dinner and so we won’t be having our normal Shrove Tuesday pancakes, so I thought, well why not have them for breakfast?  Apparently only one in 10 of us know how to make them (which I find very hard to believe!) so in case any of you feel like giving them a try when you get home tonight, I have written out a simple recipe for you.  There is one essential ‘ingredient’ though – you must have the right size frying pan – if it is too big you simply won’t be able to manage the flipping part and they will just shred and you will be all hot and bothered with nothing to show for it!  So, get yourself a good solid little frying pan – the one I use is 19 cm (7and a half inches) and is perfect.  So, here goes

Enough for 4 people

4 oz plain flour

2 Eggs

7 fl oz milk mixed with 3 fl oz cold water

pinch of salt

A couple of tablespoons of melted butter

To serve

Lemons and caster sugar

or

Maple Syrup

Everything you'll need

Sieve the flour and salt into a mixing bowl with a hand whisk (or use a fork if that is all you have) break in the eggs and mix in and then gradually add the liquid – you want to end up with a consistency of thin cream.   Then add a tablespoon of the melted butter.   Make sure it is all nice and smooth before you start cooking.

Perfect batter

Take your pan and put it on the heat and put a little melted butter in the pan.  Swill it around and then tip the residue back into your melted butter bowl.

Now, you must have the pan very hot – normally I throw my first pancake away (I think everyone does) as you need one to start off with and to get used to the quantity of batter that you pour in for each one.  I find half a ladle spoon full is fine for this size of pan, maybe even a little less; it just needs to cover the bottom of the pan without being translucent.   As soon as the batter hits the pan, swirl it around to coat the bottom completely – don’t worry if it is thicker than you would like, practice makes perfect and it will still taste good.

Golden brown

Then with a round ended knife after about a minute or so, just go around the edge of the pancake and loosen it all the way – if it is a little sticky in the middle underneath, just gently prod with the knife and shake the pan – then you can have a go at flipping it over – if you can’t then just carefully lift it over with your knife and cook the underneath for another minute or two.  Slide onto a warmed plate and let everyone squeeze their own lemon wedge and sugar or simply drizzle with maple syrup.  Add a little more butter to the pan and tip out again for each pancake.  You will become more proficient with each one.  Have fun and enjoy!