Friday 20 July 2012

Pancakes for the whole family

Not American pancakes but the more European option.  Great for rolling, filling and of course for pancake day.  Ok.  It's not pancake day but I was wondering what to make for breakfast, really didn't fancy cereal, no bread in the house for toast so what to make?

Well after my post about thrift the other day, I thought of making some pancakes.  Why not?  They are cheap, super quick, they contain no sugar or salt (you can add sweet things to them if you like) and are great finger foods.  The amount below will make about 4 large pancakes which might be enough for 1 adult and a baby or toddler but it depends what fillings you chose and how much you like pancakes!  As a child, my mum used to have two frying pans on the go whenever pancakes were made (but then I did grow up in a family of 5!)




Traditional Pancakes - Makes about 4 (easily doubled or tripled)

Ingredients

2oz, 55g Plain flour
Just over 5 fl oz, 150ml Milk
1 egg
A knob of butter

Fillings
Anything you like, sweet or savoury but I like:
Strawberries and a tsp of honey (over 1 year olds only) or a small dusting of icing sugar (powdered confectioners sugar)
Ripe stewed fruit (stewed without sugar)

Method

The best way I've found is to mix the flour, water and milk using an electric whisk.  This ensures any lumps of flour are fully dispersed.  Ideally stand the batter for an hour or so in the fridge after this but it doesn't matter too much if you use it immediately.  If you have allowed it to stand, you need to have the texture of single cream (pouring cream) so add a bit more milk if it's thickened.



Heat a non stick frying pan and then rub with butter, I wrap the butter in a piece of greaseproof paper to do this (watch your hands and do it quickly so you don't burn yourself).



If you prefer, brush with melted butter using a heatproof pastry brush.

Pour in some batter and swirl around the pan to coat the base of the pan.  You want it as thin as possible so don't add too much batter.  Cook for a couple of minutes until it readily releases.  Either flip the pancake using a spatula / fish slice or be fancy and toss it just using a flick of the wrist while holding the pan handle (I can't do this, I am not a champion tosser.)



Cook on the second side and serve.

Continue rubbing the pan with butter and cooking until all of the mix has been used.

This might sound quite decadent for breakfast but one pancake with strawberries and a teaspoon of honey is not going to do any more harm to a child than many of the cereals marketed at children containing loads of chocolate, sugar and other bumf.  What's even better is it contains one of your five a day!  Yum!



Well it cheered me up this morning to have something so vibrant and tasty.  Another hard week in the Mamacook house but we're keeping our chins up!

I've uploaded this to CrispPhotoWorks linky this week and to life as a lofthouse linky

I've linked this to Totally Tasty Tuesdays!  Also just because every time I see the picture of the strawberries, I want to eat this again, I've linked this up to the Sticky Fingers photo gallery here.

14 comments:

  1. I love crepes!!! I wish my family liked them like they like the American version of pancakes!

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    1. It's funny I tend to make more American style pancakes nowadays but the British ones are so quick to make and versatile! I say tell them to like it or lump it and have some crepes now and again!!!

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  2. I too tend to prefer American pancakes more mainly because it takes less time to make them but my husband prefers European style pancakes so I usually make crepes. Of course, our filling is Nutella most of the time. Thank you so much for sharing your pancakes with us this week too!

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    1. I honestly don't think they take any more time! I came back from a run and whipped these up!

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  3. I adore pancakes but only tend to make them on Pancake Day. I MUST make them more often - you have inspired me! This would make a great entry for the Care to Cook challenge if you were interested in linking up? It's on my Bangers & Mash blog at http://bangermashchat.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/care-to-cook-challenge/ Would be lovely to see you there ;)

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  4. I planned to make some tomorrow!!! Thank you for the recipe because those I used to cook have butter in it and not yours! Thanks

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  5. Hi, I enjoyed the post you linked in to Claire Justine. I have linked in a post about some rhubarb and banana jam I just made. Have a super week.

    Ps As I am commenting on things today I am reminding people that if you turn off your word verification stuff people will find it much easier to comment on your posts. Give it a go!

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  6. Yummy! We love pancakes here. Fast to make and it gets some of the kids 5 a day in too with the fresh fruit fillings x

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    1. Yeah I found I was always making American pancakes and forgetting about the good old British ones!

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  7. I would love to be able to do this for breakfast, but unfortunately I cannot cook pancakes to save my life.

    Herding Cats

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    1. It's all about getting the frying pan temperature right, the first one will always be slightly over or under done. Oh and make sure you've got a good non stick pan. Mine is losing it's non stickness now :-(

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  8. I am going to have some of these tomorrow!

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    Replies
    1. I hope you enjoy! The great things about them is they're done so quickly and also they're so cheap to make.

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