Crepes or English Pancakes recipe
Pancakes are traditionally made and eaten on Shrove Tuesday, the day before lent. The concept goes back centuries and it started as a way to use up all the eggs and flour before fasting for lent. As a child pancakes were one of my favorite dinners and I always looked forward to pancake day. Now they are not only made on Shrove Tuesday, but enjoyed any time of the year and you may have seen them French style with Nutella on. Here is the basic pancake or crepe recipe. Good for 2-3 people and makes 10-12 pancakes.
Ingredients
Pancakes
6 Tbsp Plain or all-purpose flour (unbleached if possible)
2 cups 2% milk
2 large eggs
1-2 Tbsp canola oil for the pan.
Topping
I lemon cut in halves and sugar
Or Maple syrup.
Method
You will need mixing bowl, wooden spoon, ½ cup measure and pancake pan or shallow lipped frying pan about 9-10 inches diameter.
Place the flour in the bowl and add 1 cup of the milk. Mix vigorously until it forms a thick paste without lumps. Crack in the two eggs and stir until just mixed. Add another ½ cup of milk, this time beating the mixture. You are aiming for a runny mixture, not like cake batter. Add the final ½ cup of milk and whisk in for 30 seconds. Leave the mixture to sit for 5 -10 minutes. This is now called “batter”.
Put the pan on the stove at medium heat. Place a teaspoon of oil in the pan and let this heat up. Swill the oil round until the pan has a thin layer all over. If there are puddles of oil tip this back into a little dish and re use for the next pancake. Watch the video from here on if you can as a picture is worth a thousand words.
Holding the pan at a slight angle pour half a cup of pancake batter into the pan at the highest part and quickly swirl the batter round until the batter is spread all over the pan evenly. Place the pan down flat over the heat. After about a minute the edges should start to lift slightly and turn brown. The pancake is ready for flipping or tossing. If you are brave you can have a go – lift the pan off the heat and shake it slightly to loosen the pancake. Then flip the pan upwards and hopefully the pancake will lift up, turn over and land back in the pan the other side up. This sometimes requires a few goes to get it right! Alternatively take a spatula and slide it under the pancake and just lift and turn it over. The pancake is quite thin and delicate so on the first few tries it may break.
Cook the pancake for another 30- 60 seconds until it bubbles up a little and turn it out onto a plate.
Top with your choice of sugar and fresh squeezed lemon juice or maple syrup. Roll or fold up and enjoy.
Repeat until all the batter is used up. When you get confident at cooking pancakes you will be able to do 2 at a time.
Nutritional content per Pancake
Calories(Kcal) 57
Fat (g) 2.5
Saturated Fat (g) .5
Cholesterol (mg) 3.9
Protein (g) 2.8
Fibre (g) 0.1
Carbohydrate (g) 6
Sugar (g) 2.5
Sodium(mg) 34
Potassium(mg) 81