Pancake Day

I forgot one very important thing when I posted my menu.. Tuesday being Pancake Day !!. How could I forget one of my favourite culinary connected celebrations?

So we had pancakes tonight. Traditionally you eat pancakes with sugar and lemon juice but we had savoury ones.. Noodles and Treestump had cheese and I had cheese and tomato, actually cheddar, feta and tomato.

I always find it hard to explain how to make pancakes as I make them by eye and never measure anything so I will give you the amounts Delia Smith suggests for standard gluten pancakes. I would expect gluten free flour to use slightly less flour to liquid as it tends to soak up more but of course your specific mix will vary a bit. We normally use Dove Farm's plain white flour though a mix of that and buckwheat works well to, buckwheat being another very traditional type of pancake though more on parts of the continent than here.

So Delia says
110g/4oz plain flour, sifted (replace with GF flour)
pinch of salt
2 eggs
200ml/7fl oz milk mixed with 75ml/3fl oz water

I don't add anything like Xanth gum or other binders it really isn't needed. You are looking for a batter that is like thin cream, still very liquid but with just a bit of body.

Heat your frying pan or griddle and use just a little butter or oil to lubricate it, very little is needed and too much results in a fried pancake not what you are after.. you just want to stop it sticking.

Pour a small amount of batter into the pan and swirl around you are aiming to cover the base of the pan with a thin layer.

This is what it should look like once it's started to set.Wait till the top side is basically dry and shake the pan to loosen the pancake then either flip with a spatula or more traditionally flip it by flicking the pan upwards to make the pancake jump out the pan, flip over and catch it with the pan.. this can get very silly and end with lots of messed up pancakes :)

The cooked side will look something like this.Let the second side cook till it is colouring.

Something like this.Put on a plate add any filling be that sugar and lemon juice or chocolate and cream or indeed anything else then roll up into a tube..

We normally serve them up as they cook so they are nice and hot but if you want to make a plate full put a layer of greaseproof paper between each one as you go or they will all stick together.