British Pancakes

The title of this post may be a little misleading, I'm not making Union Jack pancakes or anything of the red, blue and white theme. Instead I am making what most of us class as pancakes, unlike the American Pancakes our are unleavened and look more like a crepe.

What's pretty clever about this recipe is that it can make either pancakes or Yorkshire puddings, all that matter is the method of cooking! I've been using the same recipe by the legendary Delia Smith for years and it comes out perfect every time so have no need to change it.

Ingredients:

• 110g plain flour
• Pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 200ml milk + 75ml water
• 2 tablespoons of melted butter

Method:

1. Sift the flour and salt together into a bowl.
2. Crack the eggs into the bowl and using a fork slowly mix into the flour.
   
3. Slowly add the milk and use an electric mixer to beat the lumps out.
4. Scrape down the bowl and add the melted butter and mix. Pour into a measuring jug to make it easier to pour into the pancake pan.
   
5. Heat your pancake pan up on a high heat before reducing to a medium heat. Pour the mixture into the pan, make sure you don't do it too thick, and tilt the pan around to cover the whole area - you'll need to work quick!
   
6. After about 30-45 seconds it'll be ready to flip. You can use a spatula or if you're feeling brave toss it up in the air and catch it again. Give it another 30 seconds before sliding onto a plate and serving!
   

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One Giant Crumpet

Whilst flicking through Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course book, given to us for Christmas, this recipe immediately caught my eye. Surely the only thing better than crumpets is a giant crumpet!

Reading through the recipe I was pleased that they seemed to simple to make - had we known this months ago we would have made them from scratch from the start as they taste a million times better.

Ingredients:
175g strong white flour
.25 teaspoon of salt
Small pinch of caster sugar
.5 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon dried yeast
125ml warm milk (not too hot)
150ml warm water (not too hot
Butter

Method:

1. Sift the flour, salt, sugar and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Make a small well in the centre and add the yeast. Gently pour in the warm milk and water, ensure it is not too hot or you'll kill the yeast.
2. Bring the flour from the outside of the bowl into the liquid and mix until you have a batter. It is quite thick  but if too thick you can add upto another 100ml of warm water. Cover and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour - it will have almost doubled in size.
   
   

   

   The batter

3. Heat a non-stick frying pan (I use a pancake pan) over a medium heat and add a little butter. Stir the batter and then pour into the pan. Turn down the heat and cook for 10-15 minutes. 

   

   After 10 minutes - almost dry

4. Once the batter is dry on top place a little butter around the edges of the crumpet and then flip over and cook for another 1-2 minutes.

   

   Cooking the other side

5. Finally serve up with your favourite topping. Ours has to be butter and jam.

   

   The giant crumpet in all its glory!

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The best American Pancakes

Despite being British through and through there is something irresistible about a stack of thick, fluffy American pancakes. Although we still love the thinner, crepe-like, British pancakes they don't quite cut the mustard for a lazy Saturday morning.

Over the last year or so we've become almost experts in American Pancakes and have tried numerous recipes from Nigella Lawson to community recipes in forums. This recipe, hands down, is the best we've come across yet.

As we've done all this experimenting we treated ourselves to a special pancake pan which really has been an awesome investment - no more greasing scratched frying pans for us!

Ingredients:
2 cups of plain flour
3 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1.5  cups of milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup of melted butter

1. Put all of the dry ingredients into a bowl and combine

2. In a separate small bowl whisk together the milk, eggs and melted butter

3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just combined. The batter will be lumpy - leave it like this! Wait 10 minutes before proceeding any further. Trust me, this step is important - it lets the flour fully hydrate and is key to the lovely texture.

4. Finally it's time to get cooking! Heat up your pan over a medium heat, it sometimes take a couple of pancakes to find the right heat. Pour about 1/3 cup of mixture into the pan and wait until little bubbles start to form.

5. Flip the pancake over and cook it for about a further minute on the other side.

6. Continue this until you're all out of batter! They taste best fresh out of the pan so we often just gobble them up as soon as they're ready. In terms of toppings the world is your oyster - from maple syrup to chocolate spread it all tastes great.

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