Weekends in our house tend to revolve around food. Whereas the meals I prepare from Monday to Friday are all about speed and ease of preparation, weekends give me the time to linger over recipes, shop carefully for ingredients and really savour my time in the kitchen. I adore eating together as a family and it’s at the weekends that we do it properly, without rushing, and allow ourselves to thoroughly enjoy the food and each others company.

It all begins with breakfast. My brood have become very accustomed to ‘special’ weekend breakfasts, in fact I’d venture that Izzy would most likely snort indignantly and turn her nose up if I even tried to pour her a bowl of Cheerios on a Saturday morning.

These pancakes always draw appreciative ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaahhs’ at the breakfast table, especially when drizzled with plenty of maple syrup and served with a few rashers of salty bacon. The recipe came to me from a friend a long time ago but I have a vague recollection of her telling me they were Nigella’s. Wherever they hail from, they’re very good. Mmmmm… just look at the pancakey goodness… These are the pancakes of our imaginary American childhoods, the thick, spongy kind that you saw in the movies when you were little. They’re delicious, incredibly easy to prepare (as you will see) and just looking at a magnificent stack of them on the table leaves you with a deep sense of domestic satisfaction.

You will need:
225g Plain Flour
1 tbsp baking powder (It’s worth noting that I have managed to make these with self-raising flour and no baking powder too. I couldn’t tell the difference personally)
pinch of salt
1 tsp sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
30g butter, melted and cooled
300ml milk
butter for frying.

You’ll have to excuse the lack of step-by-step photographs. I make these by simply putting all the ingredients into my dinky Magimix and blitzing into oblivion. Of course, you can mix it by hand in a bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients and beat in the eggs, melted butter and milk. Transfer the batter to a jug as it’s much easier to pour it into the pan than to spoon it. It’s best to leave the batter to stand for at least 20 mins before using it (in fact, in fits of efficiency and organisation I’ve been known to make this up the night before).

When you come to cook the pancakes, all you need to remember is that once the upper side begins to blister and bubble it’s time to turn it over and cook the other side, and it will need only about 1 minute, if that. Make sure your pan is really hot before you begin too. Please excuse the battered old frying pan. It’s well loved and well used, even if the non-stick has become almost non-existent. 

Whenever I make these, the first few tend to come out looking a little anaemic. They taste fine, they just don’t look quite as authentic as the ones that follow.

Sprinkling the uncooked side of the pancake, just after you’ve poured the batter into the pan, with blueberries, mini-smarties or M&Ms also makes for a delicious treat. That said, this morning we did nothing more than drown them in maple syrup. Such a good start to the day, don’t you think?
Loveaudrey xxx