Pancakes!

Today is an awesome day, because it is pancake day! Pancakes are the one time where I am comfortable using American cup measurements, but even then I just use any old mug...

And value flour? But of course!

My Dad is the person who first showed me how to make pancakes when I was very young, and I have known the recipe since then. This is mostly because of its simplicity, but when you eat them for breakfast every Sunday (as we did for quite a while back then) you sort of get the hang of it! I've never been able to flip a pancake by tossing it into the air, mind; I'm far too afraid of losing valuable pancakes to try that! Plus, in our kitchen, I'm quite sure the pancake would hit the extractor fan and rather unimpressively flop into the awaiting flame on the hob. A sure recipe for disaster, even if that is a worst case scenario.

This is a rare occasion, but today I am going to present you with three recipes: basic recipes for English and American pancakes, and my own creation: Banana Marsala Pancakes. These were the perfect breakfast treat, and I got a heavenly banana aroma when I flipped them over. Personally, I'm a fan of the English pancake, not because of patriotism but because they're thinner and more like crepes, so you can fill them with sweet or savoury goodness. Unfortunately I can't make crepes because I don't have one of those fancy flat, round, very hot things that you can just spread batter over in order to produce a wafer thin crepe.

I think if I could spend every day in a restaurant it would either be a pancake house like the one in Center Parcs (my only reference point) or it would be in Cuisine Spontanee in Plymouth. Or Big Mussel. Can't live without Mussels. I have diverged, so clearly I am hungry. Better go and make some pancakes...

Each Recipe Serves 8:
English Pancake Ingredients

• 1 Cup Plain Flour
• 1 Cup Milk
• 1 Egg

American Pancake Ingredients

• 1 Cup Plain Flour
• 1 Cup Milk
• 1 Egg
• 1tsp Bicarbonate Of Soda

Banana Marsala Pancake Ingredients

• 1 Cup Plain Flour
• 3/4 Cup Milk
• 1 Egg
• 2 Ripe Bananas, Finely Chopped
• 1/4 Cup Marsala

Recipe

• Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and whisk to mix thoroughly.
• Put some butter or oil on a piece of kitchen roll and wipe the butter around the inside of a large frying pan.
• Heat the pan over a medium heat, then use a ladle to take about half a ladleful of the pancake mixture and drop it onto the pan. Immediately pick up the pan and move it around so that the batter spreads out evenly into a disc shape.
• Return the pan to the heat and use a spatula to edge around the pancake as it cooks. When you can shake the pan around without the pancake sticking to it, flip the pancake over (either by dramatic toss in the air or painful struggle with spatula.)
• Return the pan to the heat until the pancake no-longer sticks to the pan, then transfer to a heated plate or warm oven to keep it warm while you repeat the process with the rest of the batter.
• Serve the pancakes with whatever your heart (or stomach) desires!

There - it's not that hard after all, is it? A couple of friends said that their pancakes ended up too thick when they made them in the past, and if this has happened to you it means you put too much batter in the pan. The good thing about making pancakes is that there's plenty of pancake mixture so if you do make a mistake you can just eat the evidence (or if it went really badly, throw it away) and your awaiting fans will be none the wiser.

I'm having a thing for bananas at the moment, so I'm thinking banoffee cheesecake for Saturday. Will I change my mind?? Stay tuned to find out...