Pancakes

Pancakes are one of my absolute favourite things. At uni we have pancake and wine nights where everyone eats their body weight and the wine is always dreadful but they hold some of the funnest memories for me.

Perfect for breakfast or dessert, I've been making them a lot recently whenever we've had people to stay - they have the added bonus of being cheap and appealing to both sweet and savoury tastes by means of fillings...

My favourite recipe is in The River Cottage Family Cookbook but pancakes are one of those things that once you've made them a few times you can just feel when the batter is right and add more or less ingredients as required. This recipe is a great starting point though and will make about 15 pancakes, or in my case much thinner crepes.

Plain flour, 250g

A pinch of salt

Free range eggs, 2

Milk, about 500ml, and then a little more (or 1/2 water, 1/2 milk if you'd prefer)

Sunflower oil for frying

Add the flour and salt to a mixing bowl of jug, crack in the eggs and start to mix, using either a hand whisk or electric mixer. Slowly add in the milk and continue to mix until there are no lumps of flour - ensure the mixture is the right consistency: not quite as thick as single cream is ideal.

Heat a small amount of oil in a non-stick frying pan and use a piece of kitchen roll to wipe the oil round the pan to ensure that it is all covered. Once hot, add some batter, tilt the pan to cover the base and once the pancake can be lifted at the edges using a spatula, (or moves when the pan is shaken) flip to cook on both sides.

Slide the pancake on to a warm plate and experiment with fillings!

I went for Nutella, dark chocolate buttons and dessicated coconut. It was amazing!

A squeeze of lemon and a sprinkling of sugar works really well as does jam and a little clotted cream or honey or maple syrup. Pancakes can of course be savoury but lets be honest, where's the fun in that!