Two recipes for Pancake Day: fat and thin pancakes

An original fast food, pancakes take centre stage in February. How do you like yours?

Words: LAURA ROWE Illustrations: VICKI TURNER

Associated with many religious festivals including Shrove Tuesday (celebrated on 28 February this year) and Hanukkah, pancakes’ few ingredients symbolise big things: eggs for creation, flour the staff of life, salt wholesomeness and milk purity. It was also a celebratory way to use up the foods forbidden during Lent fasting.

Over time they’ve become more everyday. In the US they like them in the morning, fat, stacked high and covered in maple syrup. Maybe you prefer a mini version; bitesize buckwheat blinis from Eastern Europe, topped with sour cream, smoked salmon or caviar? Or perhaps you’re a fan of the thin pancake, rolled and stuffed with shredded roast duck, hoisin sauce, cucumber and spring onions for dinner in a bao bing like the Chinese. There’s a pancake for everyone and any time. But whichever way you like to eat them, the question remains: do you flip high or slide low?

FAT PANCAKES

Mix 135g plain flour with 1 egg, 130ml milk, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 tbsp caster sugar and 2 tbsp melted butter and whisk for a thicker batter. You want the consistency of double cream. 

Drop 1 heaped tbsp into a hot, buttered frying pan and fry for 1 min until you begin to see bubbles on the surface. Flip or turn over and fry until golden brown and risen

THIN PANCAKES

Mix 100g plain flour with 2 eggs, 300ml milk and 1 tbsp melted butter. Whisk thoroughly and rest for 30 mins. You want the consistency of pouring single cream. 

When ready to cook, add a knob of unsalted butter to a non-stick frying pan. As it starts to melt, add a ladle of the rested batter and swirl the mix around the pan until it covers the entire base. 

Cook for 1-2 mins before flipping, or gently turning over and repeat on the other side. Then bin it: the first pancake is always the worst. Repeat and you’ll have perfect pancakes for the rest of the batch. Serve with lemon juice and sugar or whatever takes your fancy.

Extract from Taste: The Infographic Book of Food by Laura Rowe, illustrations by Vicki Turner by Aurum Press, £20. Buy your copy here.

This blog was first published with issue 44 of The Simple Things.

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Recipe: Rhubarb and custard crepes

We're never ones to approach Pancake Day in a halfhearted manner., particularly not this year of all years. Why settle for lemon and sugar when you can dress up your crepe with this continental take on a classic English treat? Shrove Tuesday never tasted quite this good before.

Rhubarb and Custard Crepes

Ingredients
800g pink rhubarb
120g caster sugar
120ml water
140g plain flour
1 egg and 5 egg yolks
2tbsp melted butter, cooled
Pinch of salt
550ml milk
2 level tbsp cornflour
1 vanilla pod
300ml double cream

1. Preheat oven to 170C (150 fan), 325F, gas 3. Trim rhubarb, place in an ovenproof bowl and cover with 25g sugar then water.
2. Bake for 30-40 mins.
3. For the crepes, sift the flour into a mixing bowl. Add the egg, 1 egg yolk, melted butter, 15g sugar and salt, whisking all the time and then add 300ml gradually milk gradually at the end. Leave to rest for 30 mins.
4. Make custard by whisking together the other egg yolks, 80g sugar and cornflour until pale and creamy. Halve vanilla pod and remove seeds. Place pod and seeds in a pan with the cream and 250ml milk. Bring to boil while whisking, then add to egg mixture. Return to pan. Stir over gentle heat until it thickens. Remove pod and let cool.
5. Grease a frying pan, pour in a ladleful of batter and spread thinly. Cook until top of crepe is set, then turn carefully and cook on reverse. Keep warm as you make the rest. Serve filled with custard and rhubarb - and a side of custard.

Recipe from Pancakes, Crepes, Waffles and French Toast by Hannah Miles (Ryland, Peters & Small), first published in issue 20 of The Simple Things.

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From our February issue…

Know more about | Pancakes

A few pancake facts to impress your fellow Shrove Tuesday diners

• The most expensive pancake ever sold was created by a Manchester hotel in 2014 and included lobster, champagne and caviar and was yours for just £800.

• The world’s largest pancake also originated from Manchester. Made in 1994 it weighed a whopping three tonnes and had to be flipped and edible to qualify. At 15 metres in diameter there was definitely enough to go around.

• The French have some unique traditions when it comes to crepes. Some families throw the first crepe of the year at a wardrobe and if it sticks you have to leave it there for 12 months. A quicker update than a lick of paint, we suppose.

• The first pancake race happened in Olney, Buckinghamshire in 1445 and was for ladies only. The annual race is still going strong and will take place on 25 February this year.

• When it comes to pancake records Dominic ‘Mike’ Cuzzacrea holds two separate crowns. In 1999 he completed a marathon at Niagara Falls in 3 hours, 2 minutes, and 27 seconds while battling winds and flipping the pancake once every 1.8 seconds for the duration of the entire race. He also holds the record for highest pancake toss of 9.47 metres in 2010, beating previous record holder, celebrity chef Aldo Zilli.

• And finally, if you want to know how to flip a pancake without getting it stuck to the ceiling, the good people of Newcastle University’s STEM blog have worked it out for you: To flip a pancake a metre in the air we need a launch velocity of 4.4 metres per second. If our launch velocity is over 6 metres per second however, our pancake will get stuck to the ceiling! We also have to be fast to catch the pancake as it falls back down or we could be left with pancake on the floor! For a flip of a metre we only have 0.9 of a second to catch our pancake. We can calculate the air time (t) of our pancake using the following equation: t = 2v/g

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Recipe | Fluffy Banana Sultana Pancakes

The best thing about February? Pancakes, of course. Bananas and sultanas are meant for each other, especially when snuggled up together in a tender pancake like this.

Makes 8
100g self-raising flour
1⁄2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 large ripe banana, mashed, plus sliced banana to serve
100ml whole milk
1 large egg
1 tbsp melted butter
40g sultanas
Melted butter or vegetable oil, for frying
Runny honey or maple syrup, to serve

1 In a mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder, a pinch of salt, the cinnamon, the mashed banana, milk, egg, and melted butter and gently whisk the wet ingredients into the dry until well combined. Be careful not to overbeat the mixture or the pancakes will be tough; some small lumps are fine. Stir in the sultanas.

2 Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and brush with butter or oil. Drop 60ml batter into the pan and cook for about 1 min, or until golden underneath. Adjust the heat as needed to ensure the pancakes don’t burn before they’re cooked through. Flip and cook for a further 30 seconds to 1 min. Repeat with rest of the batter.

3 Serve straight from the pan or keep warm in an oven preheated to 150C/Fan 130F/ 300F while you cook the remaining batter.

4 Serve the pancakes with slices of banana and a drizzle of honey or maple syrup.

Recipe from Posh Pancakes by Sue Quinn (Quadrille)
 

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Event: Puddle jumping and pancake racing this half term

This month release your inner child and get your wellies on and frying pan out

In half term the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust hosts National Puddle Jumping Competitions at its nine centres. Marks are awarded for enthusiasm, style and size of splash. This one’s for kids only, but you could always host your own.

We all love Shrove Tuesday (9 February) so why not join your local race? The original pancake race was said to be in Olney, Bucks, where they’ve been racing since 1445. Now, the town holds many races, flipping competitions and prizes for best fillings.

Visit wwt.org.uk/bigsplash or olneypancakerace.org

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