Today is Pancake Tuesday - a day to forget the calories and stuff them in like there's no tomorrow. Here's a selection of recipes from the likes of Raymond Blanc, Jamie Oliver and Hugo Arnold.
Basic Irish-style pancakes:
225g plain flour
2 eggs
1 pt milk
3tbs melted butter
A pinch of salt
Sieve the flour and salt. Make a well in the centre, drop in the eggs and add the milk. Mix to a smooth batter then stir in the melted butter. Try to leave the batter to rest for an hour before you use it, or make it the day before.
American-style pancakes (with baking powder) a la Jamie Oliver:
3 large eggs
115g plain flour
1 heaped tsp baking powder
140ml milk
A pinch of salt
First separate the eggs, putting the whites into one bowl and the yolks into another. Add the flour, baking powder and milk to the yolks and mix to a smooth thick batter. Whisk the whites with the salt until they form stiff peaks. Fold into the batter – it is now ready to use. Heat a good non-stick pan on a medium heat. Pour some of your batter into the pan and fry for a couple of minutes until it starts to look golden and firm. Turn over and continue frying until both sides are golden.
Pancakes with bananas and blackberry butter by Hugo Arnold:
2 eggs
170g plain flour
220ml full fat milk
75g butter
2 tsp blackberry jam
4 bananas
Maple syrup
Whisk the eggs into the flour, along with the milk, to form a thick batter. You are aiming for something thicker than double cream. Melt 25g of the butter and pour it into the batter.
Lightly oil a couple of frying pans and place them over a moderate heat. When they are hot, pour in enough pancake batter to form a thin film over the base of the pan. Cook until the edges of the pancake start to colour, then ease a spatula underneath and flip them over. Cook briefly on the other side and then place the pancakes on a warmed plate in a low oven. Carry on cooking until all the batter is used up.
Soften the remaining butter and whisk in the jam. Split the bananas lengthways and serve with the pancakes and a spoonful of the blackberry butter and a scoop of maple syrup.
Baked pancakes with ham, Gruyère and mustard and Parmesan cream:
This is a hybrid of three different recipes, writes Domini Kemp. The pancake recipe is credited to Raymond Blanc. It's my new favourite pancake batter. Once it's made, all you need is a non-stick 20-22cm frying pan, a paper towel and small amount of sunflower oil. Oh, and a little wrist action for flipping those crêpes.
Pancake batter
50g butter
2 eggs
200ml whole milk
100g plain flour
Few chives, flat leaf parsley, very finely chopped
Sunflower oil
Filling and topping
200g Gruyère or other hard cheese, finely sliced
8-10 slices of decent ham
200ml crème fraiche (approx)
100ml cream
2 tbsps Dijon mustard
100g Parmesan
Melt the butter and heat it until it “browns”. This can be hard to see, especially if the butter is foaming, so stay with it and you’ll notice a nutty smell. Swirl the butter so you can see under the foam and if you notice it’s starting to turn a light caramel colour, it’s ready. If you go too far, throw it out and start again. Let the butter cool down a little while you get the other ingredients ready and measured out. In a food processor or with an electric whisk, mix the eggs, milk and flour together with a little pinch of salt. Add the herbs and your melted butter. It produces a wonderfully elastic batter. Use straight away or else leave it to stand at room temperature and covered with cling film for up to an hour.
You can make the crepes ahead of time or even the night before. Heat up a small amount of sunflower oil in a suitable non-stick frying pan. Use the paper towel to wipe away excess and ensure an even coating of oil. This mixture makes exactly eight pancakes. Spoon a ladle into the pan, swirling it around so that you get one fluid, even layer of batter. Then let it heat gently. After a minute on a gentle to medium heat, when bubbles start to appear, give it a shuffle and if nothing is budging, loosen the rim of the pancake. Once the edges are loosened and the bulk of the pancake is cooked, give it a more vigorous shuffle. If it feels heavy and lazy, cook it out for a bit longer. Once the base is dry, go ahead and “flip” it or else, invert on to a plate and then slide the raw side back in face down to cook.
When both sides are cooked, slide the pancake onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Have a few extra sheets ready to go so you can stack the pancakes. Wipe the frying pan out with some sunflower oil-dampened paper, and resume frying your pancakes until the entire mixture is used up. Top half a pancake with slices of cheese and ham, and then fold into a quarter. Each circle becomes quarter and then gets layered up, slightly overlapping, in a well buttered gratin dish. Mix the crème fraiche, cream, Dijon mustard and Parmesan together and season lightly. Spoon this over the pancakes and then bake for 20 minutes until it’s bubbling and the cheese has melted. Top with snipped chives.