Happy Pancake Day!

For those of you who don't reside in the UK or who have no idea what 'pancake day' is, I shall explain. Pancake Day or 'Shrove Tuesday' is the last day before lent begins. In Christian tradition, during lent you must give up rich/fattening foods, specifically 'eggs, butter, milk'. Therefore, on this most blessed day the best excuse ever arose - use up all your fatty foods (or go buy lots of fatty foods to use up ;) by making pancakes. I am a huge pancake fan and always make a big stack of them. And Im not talking about those piddly American pancakes, oh no, these are plate sized crepe pancakes and you can fill them with a range of deliciousness - bananas & chocolate spread, fruit, ice cream, maple syrup, golden syrup, syrup syrup and of course the classic, lemon & sugar.

Now the 'what' is out of the way, now for the 'how' - this is my go to pancake recipe which I have been using since I was a (slightly) smaller girl. And you can tell I've been using it since I was a short stack *pancake reference* as it's straight out of one of my favourite recipe books from my childhood, 'The Usborne First Cookbook.'

Ingredients

250g Plain Flour
a pinch of salt
570ml milk & water mixed (I usually just use milk)
2 eggs
1 tbsp melted butter

1. Sift the flour and salt into a big mixing bowl.
2. Make a hollow in the flour and break in the eggs. Whisk them, drawing in some flour from the sides.

3. Add the milk & water a bit at a time. Keep whisking until everything is mixed together. Add the melted butter and beat until mixture is smooth.

4. If you have time, leave mixture for an hour or so.

5. Melt a little butter in a frying pan and pour a ladleful of batter into the pan, swirl it around so it covers the pan evenly.

6. Cook the pancake until bubbles appear and the edges turn brown.

7. FLIP!!

8. Cook the otherside then turn onto a warm plate and serve with lemon & sugar, chocolate, bananas, maple syrup, golden syrup, fruit and ice cream. (Ok that last bit is mine...)

Ta - da!

Now THAT is a pancake stack!

Enjoy your pancakes everyone :) I'm off to start on mine.

Lucy xx