Pancakes

I love pancake day! We celebrate it once a year to signify that lent is about to start and I always over indulge! As a child there was always the competition as to who could eat the most pancakes and as an adult I still do pretty well! (I ate 5 if you'd like to know and they weren't all small!) I love visiting the city of Paris and eating chocolate crepes. We went once just before christmas and as we were walking up the Montmarte it started snowing and we sat in a little cafe drinking real hot chocolate and eating nutella crepes that overflowing with warm chocolate sauce! Yum Yum!

So panackes are extremely easy to make, even easier now that I have an electric whisk! All you need is:
125g/4oz plain flour
pinch of salt
1 egg, lighly beaten
300ml (1/2 pint) of milk (I used semi skimmed)
vegetable oil for greasing the pan

Simply put the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and make a hole in the centre. Pour the egg into the hole and a little milk and whisk, slowly adding more milk. Whisk well until you have a smooth mixture and then pour into a jug and leave to stand for 15 minutes if possible!

I used vegetable oil to grease the pan as butter can burn easily, you don't want to use a lot of oil just a few drops. Pour in some mixture and swirl around until you have covered the pan. Wait until the pancake comes away from the pan before flipping over!

This mixture makes about 4 large pancakes or about 8 medium ones. Our friends came round and we went through 4 batches of mixture, eek! They tasted so great though, we had a mixture of toppings. I love the traditional syrup, sugar and lemon juice on pancakes and even better is nutella! Some other great combinations include nutella, banana and chopped nuts or strawberries and vanilla icecream or honey, blueberries and oats!
As it's nearly Valentines day I made some heart shaped ones with a little dab of nutella in the middle!

Pancakes

Pancakes seem to only happen once a year in England but not in my house! Simple recipes are sometimes the best ones and nothing is simpler than pancakes!

All you need is:

125g plain flour
1 egg (lightly beaten)
pinch of salt
300ml of milk or milk mixed with water
butter or oil

Simply mix all the ingrediants together until you have a smooth mixture. Heat a large frying pan with some butter or oil and once hot, pour in a little mixture. Swirl the mixture around until it covers the pan and leave for about a minute. Flip over and cook the other side. Delicious! I had my pancakes with blueberries, vanilla ice-cream and dark chocolate drizzled over the top and then one traditional one with lemon, syrup and sugar. Other great combinations are banana and nutella, strawberries and vanilla ice-cream, honey with banana and nuts, maple syrup....

Here are some 'tips' when making pancakes: Make sure the mixture has no lumps whatsoever, heat the butter and then pour of any extra into a small dish to use again after about 3 pancakes, make sure the mixture covers the whole pan by swirling it around, add more mixture if you need to, practice the art of flipping! This mixture makes about 6 large panckaes!