It’s a glorious thing, pancake day. A day dedicated to the world’s simplest, and possibly most gratifying sweet treat? What could be better!
For me, pancake day evokes nostalgia, and brings back memories of childhood. I remember it always seeming to come out of nowhere- my Mum would announce that we were to have pancakes for dinner when I came home from school, and the day would instantly be an exciting one! My Grandma was always in charge of the pancake making, and aside from when she stopped to eat the slightly raggedy first and last pancakes of the batch, would stand at the stove for what felt like hours, turning out a seemingly endless succession of pancakes for my Mum and I. Lemon and sugar were the toppings of choice, of course.
Nowadays, Shrove Tuesday (as we should really call it), is one of the few days of the year you’ll find Jason in the kitchen through choice, and not because I’ve disappeared off to Pilates classes and left him (begrudgingly ;) in charge of dinner! We usually wind up having a competition over who can make the most perfect, thin, and symmetrical pancakes, and because this is my blog and I can say whatever I fancy, I’ll tell you that my pancakes are always the best. Seriously though, they totally are…
Simplest Ever and Totally Failsafe Pancake recipe! {Originally J.O’s, adapted minimally}
Ingredients ::
1 cup {of any size, filled to the top} plain flour
1 cup {filled to the exact same level as with the flour} semi-skimmed milk
1 whole egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 or 3 tbsp melted butter, for greasing the pan
- Measure out the flour, and put into a large bowl. Measure the milk out and whisk it together with the egg and vanilla extract, and then whisk slowly into the flour.
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan, then set aside. Brush a large frying pan with a coating of melted butter, then set over a medium heat.
- When the butter begins to sizzle, spoon in a ladleful of pancake batter into the centre of the pan, tipping and swirling it to get an even coating of batter across the whole of the pan. Cook for a minute or two, then flip and cook for another minute before setting aside and repeating the process to use up the rest of the batter.
- The cooked pancakes can be kept warm in a low oven if needs be, whilst you cook up the batch of pancakes. Bonus points if you manage to flip any successfully- I flipped about a gazillion whilst taking these photos, and learnt (the hard way!) that it’s a thousand times easier to cook a pancake that’s already been cooked on both sides than a partially cooked one! Much easier to rectify, too, if you have a mishap and end up with a folded-in-half pancake!
Finally, let’s talk toppings! Are you Team Lemon and Sugar, or Team Nutella & Berries/Banana? I’ve got a foot in both camps, if I’m honest…meaning that I’ll be eating at least one of both types of pancakes this evening.
Have fun pancake-flipping, friends!
