MM's Cheap Eats: Perfect Pancakes

PANCAKE DAY: What's your filling?

By Mel Hughes

These are going to be British style pancakes as opposed to the thick American breakfast ones, it’s the only way to go really.

They’re really simple to do and mega cheap so there’s no excuse not to be making pancakes this evening. The best way to do these is to make the mix a few hours in advance and let it sit in the fridge for a while beforehand but this isn’t essential.

Ingredients

200g plain flour, sifted

2 eggs

200ml milk mixed with 75ml water

50g butter

1 tbsp caster sugar

Pinch of salt

Just crack the eggs into a bowl with the flour, sugar and salt. Give it a mix around for a minute then just add the milk/water mixture in bit by bit, stirring/whisking as you go. Don’t worry too much about any lumps, try not to have loads but a few small ones is nothing to stress over.

If you think it might be too thick then just add a little water until the consistency seems right.

Start heating a pan and melt the butter when the butter is melted add it to the mixture and stir, the pan should also be greased perfectly now. If you don’t want to melt and add butter to the mix you can just add a little bit of vegetable oil.

Now just spoon some of the mixture into the pan – doing this with a ladle works best – and then quickly swirl the pan around and coat the bottom of the pan with the mixture. You might need to add a bit more or put in a bit less for next time to get it right but you’ll soon work out exactly how much to need.

When it firms up on top just flip it over and let it cook for a minute or two on the other side then just remove from the pan and store someplace warm if you want to eat them straight away.

The just repeat this as many times as you like, always greasing the pan with a small knob of butter first before each new pancake.

Crepe Suzette Sauce

150ml orange juice

Zest of 1 medium orange and segments

Zest from one small lemon

50g caster sugar

3 tbsp Grand Marnier, Cointreau or brandy

50g/2oz butter

My favourite pancake sauce is the classic Suzette sauce hailing from a Paris café in the late 1800s and named after Princess Suzanne who the dish was prepared for. It’s a sweet and citrusy sauce with a boozy kick.

It’s simple to make but it really helps if you have a heavy bottomed pan to make it in as with using a normal pan the risk of burning the sugar is much higher.

For the sauce, simply mix all the ingredients - with the exception of the butter and orange segments - in a bowl. Melt the butter in the frying pan, pour in the sauce and allow it to heat very gently, add the segments halfway through and it’s ready just when it begins to bubble.

Now you can either place the pancakes into the mixture and cook them through in the sauce or simply pour the sauce mixture over the pancakes and serve.

The last time I cooked the pancakes in the mix, we used some kind of blue liquor which resulted it pancakes with a hint of blue around the edges; they tasted great but definitely looked slightly suspect. I wouldn’t recommend that.

Some people prefer to flambé the sauce to cook off the alcohol instantly but I value my eyebrows too much for that, if you do give it a go though, let us know how you get on.

Other classic pancake topping combos – Lemon and sugar, Nutella spread, and, of course, Maple syrup. What are your favourites?