So tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday or, as it is better known, pancake day. We thought we'd get in early with our tips for the perfect pancake. Our recipe is pretty flexible - it can withstand extra milk and/or flour to stretch for just one or maybe two more pancakes! We use soya milk as this recipe pre-dates our discovery of the Lactofree products, but usually use a 50/50 mix of soya milk and water to replace regular milk. We usually get 6 or 7 pancakes from one egg, just to give an idea of the quantities.
There are several schools of thought when it comes to making pancakes, we follow the throw-it-all-in-and-blend-til-smooth approach. Put 150g plain flour in a bowl with 2 eggs and 250ml soya milk/water. Blend until smooth. That was pretty straightforward, wasn't it? We've experimented with stick blenders and electric hand whisks. Both give good results but the electric hand whisk is better for large batches (we've lost a few stick blenders over the years to very large batches of pancake batter...)
Anyway, on to the cooking. Heat your chosen frying pan and add a small amount of vegetable oil (under 1 teaspoon, but it will depend on your size of chosen frying pan). Heat the pan until very hot then add in a ladle-full of batter. The trick is not to put too much batter in, you want a thin coating over the pan. As you are pouring in the batter, start tipping the pan from side to side in order to fully coat the pan in batter. Once you have an even coating, leave the pancake alone! Seriously, don't be tempted to poke it. It should take about 30 seconds to cook the first side - you should see the edges will be start to curl up. Then, and only then, can you flip it. Either show-stopper style or with a palette knife or fish-slice. Another 30 seconds on the other side and you are good to go.
We like a variety of toppings, you can't go wrong with lemon and sugar or maybe some chocolate and/or jam. We're aiming to be a little more adventurous tomorrow and so will be trying out a banana and maple cream but we haven't fully worked out the recipe yet... we'll report back!