Why, we have a relevant post that is posted on the day it is relevant to! This may be a first! Or though maybe I did post something on Hallowe'en last year...Anyway! Today is Pancake Day (or Shrove Tuesday if we are being accurate) and I have a post about pancakes!
Now when I say 'pancakes' I mean 'crepe pancakes' because that is what pancakes meant in my house growing up and all round about where I lived. If it was Pancake Day, you made crepe pancakes. The slightly thicker pancakes I got introduced to later were called 'Scotch Pancakes'. Everyone up here in Scotland thinks I would call them 'drop scones' because I'm English but I just look at them blankly. They're Scotch Pancakes. And then there are what I dub 'American Pancakes' which might be the same as Scotch Pancakes but I think they are different. American Pancakes is what I can get at the Pancake Place, which is the fiancé and my favourite place to go for a lunch date. The spoon sized pancakes with ice cream and toffee sauce are just the best! Love them!
But back to crepe pancakes. I never attempted to make my own pancakes until university. And even then felt no desire to until my sister had said she had done it. So I went a hunting for a recipe and found what is the basic crepe recipe. And the pancakes were...okay I guess. I really couldn't get the knack for turning them over so they never turned out right and so I just sort of forgot about making them again. Then a few months ago, we were lamenting a lack of energy to venture out to get pancakes at the Pancake Place when I suggested I could make crepe pancakes instead if we wanted. And thus began the occasional lunch treat of crepe pancakes at home! It is only occasional because the fiancé and I both need to be around for lunch which is rare with current university and work schedules.
However, I will admit, somewhere down the line a small thing changed. Although that small thing may be a big thing. It is something that I must confess and that is...I don't cook the pancakes anymore. The fiancé does. I just make the batter (because otherwise something is left out...like the eggs). I still have not got the hang of turning the pancakes. It always goes wrong. And I am impatient. And a perfectionist. And when things go wrong, I get stroppy very quickly. The last time I attempted to cook pancakes myself resulted in a failed pancake being thrown across the kitchen, the stove being switched off and me storming off to the bedroom to curl up in a huff on the bed. Aren't I the picture of maturity? The fiancé came to calm me down and them promptly showed me up by immediately being able to handle the cooking of the pancakes himself without any prior practice. I was most annoyed. So now cooking them is his job. He does it well. He has a much better handle on it than me. If our cooker didn't sit on a slant he would likely make perfectly round, perfectly cooked pancakes every time. Instead we settle for oddly shaped, perfectly cooked pancakes. But that's better than perfectly round, badly burnt pancakes so we're not complaining.
Recipe - serves 2 (about 10 pancakes)
- 200g/7oz plain flour
- Pinch of salt
- 568ml/1 pint milk
- 2 eggs
- Oil for greasing
- Set aside a plate with a tea towel laid over it.
- Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl.
- Add the milk and whisk together until there are no lumps of flour.
- Add the eggs and beat in until fully incorporated.
- Pour some oil into a bowl and fix some kitchen tissue between a pair of tongs. Dip the tongs in the oil and use it to coat the base of a frying pan (this helps reduce the amount of oil being used).
- Place the frying pan over a medium heat and use a ladle to pour batter into the middle of the pan.
- Cook the batter for about 30 seconds. Small bubbles should have formed across the surface and it should no longer look liquid-y.
- Carefully flip the pancake over using a large, flat turner and cook until the underside is just golden.
- Transfer to the tea towel covered plate and fold the tea towel over to keep in the heat.
- Repeat until all the batter is used up. Stack the pancakes on top of each other inside the tea towel.
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