For the shorter, practical version click
here. If you continue reading, be warned, this is a scholarly work approximately 10 times longer than the actual recipe. A story if you like, a story of hope, and justice, of beauty and wonder, of true love and the triumph of evil over good.
I've always had a rather impromptu approach to cooking, one that I rather like. It generally involves tossing things together in a haphazard manner (rather than using accurate measurements), and, if necessary, making minor adjustments. It's rather unscientific, but so far has generally had acceptable results (I remember once cooking a lentil soup and having the top of the ground pepper container falling into the soup, together with a sizeable amount of the contents - this was, however, more an issue with someone not screwing the lid on properly than with my food preparation methodology). But in the interest of public knowledge, reproducibility and improvement potential, I have decided to, in some few cases, go for an approach whereby ingredients quantities are determined in standardised measurements (rather than add a lump of this, a handful of that). As such I'm going to share a sweet pancake recipe I've been working on for a while now.
Sweet Pancake Recipe with Ground Almonds (makes ~6)
Equipment:
Mixing bowl - needs to hold at least a litre (4 Cups), preferably double that to prevent splashes when mixing
Measuring equipment (Teaspoon, 1/2 Cup and either 3/4 Cup or 1/4 Cup)
Whisk - or something equivalent for mixing the batter, a fork will do in a pinch
Frying pan (skillet) - non-stick is best
Spatula (a.k.a. fishslice or turner) - don't use metal with a non-stick pan!
Ladle (optional) - allows more control over pouring batter
Serving plate - dinner plates work fine
Ingredients:
3/4 Cup white flour (not self-raising)
1/2 Cup ground almonds
2 Teaspoons white sugar (1A)
3/4 Cup Milk
2 Eggs
Oil for cooking
Comments:
Flour - staple ingredient. I use High Grade, but standard will do just as well. Wholemeal flour will give the pancakes a thicker texture, although if you use this approach I'd recommend mixing with white flour.
Almonds - provide some excellent nutritional benefits as well as improving the texture of the pancakes and giving them a distinctive taste (nutty, unsurprisingly enough). Could possibly replace with flour if ground almonds are hard to come by (potentially wholemeal flour, see above).
Sugar - I find 2 teaspoons is about right for my preference, adjust for your own taste. Could omit this to make savoury pancakes with a nut touch.
Milk - I use blue top, which is around 3% fat. Unless you use full cream I doubt that it will make much difference.
Eggs - Roughly size 6 or 7. You may need to slightly adjust milk or flour if the eggs you use are significantly different.
Oil - The type is really up to preference. Butter has a low burning point and can start to burn after a while. All vegetable oils should be fine as you won't be cooking at a high temperature.
Method:
Mix everything in a mixing bowl. I like to whisk the ingredients until I get plentiful bubbles, as this produces a lighter pancake. The batter should be fairly fluid and pour easily, milk can be used to make it thinner and flour to make it thicker.
Everyone has their own prefered method of making pancakes, but I'll add my own method for reference.
- Heat about a Tablespoon of oil in a frying pan, this obviously varies with the size and style of the pan - use more if you're not using a non-stick (teflon) frying pan. You do not need to cover the entire cooking surface, instead just tilt the pan to make the oil flow over the majority of the pan (I find that shaking the pan from side-to-side can also have good results), if it pools in a spot when you put the pan on the stove, it doesn't matter.
- Give the pancake batter a quick whisk to mix it (it will settle and separate over time) and get some new air bubbles into it. Then take a ladle (my preference, otherwise you can just pour straight from the mixing bowl) and gently pour the batter into the pan, spiraling outwards from the centre.
- Tilt the pan and/or use a spatula to spread the batter evenly. Lift the pan off the stove while you do this to ensure even cooking.
- Replace pan on stove, turn the heat down and wait for a while (15-30 seconds, but varies with the heat of your stove). Start sliding the spatula under the edges of your pancake, once you notice it stops sticking lift the pancake up from all sides.
- Flip the pancake. This requires a degree of practice. I use a spatula to flip, being unable to master the freestyle method; on occasion I have been known to use two spatulas (although this was more for filled omelets and quesadillas/sincronizadas).
- Hopefully the pancake will be well-cooked underneath (but not burnt) and have a nice light-brown colour, if it's not completely cooked then just keep on flippin' until cooked on both sides. If the pancake is fairly thick it may need to be cooked for longer than just for the surfaces to brown, make sure you do this on low heat.
- Once your pancake is cooked, flip it onto a plate. Either eat it (in which case turn the stove off) or resume cooking more using the steps above (you probably don't need to add as much oil for subsequent pancakes, since there may still be some left in the pan and it should be fairly greasy. Try to work out improvements if something didn't work quite right on previous attempts.
- I use a 20cm diameter frying pan, and this recipe makes around six full-sized pancakes which fit nicely onto a dinner plate.
In terms of serving the pancakes, I recommend using maple syrup, cinnamon sugar, lemon sugar or even fresh fruit and cream. Other sweet condiments are of course fine as well. Pancakes are great either eaten piece-wise with knife and fork, or rolled up and devoured whole while dripping maple syrup everywhere.
Also, when preparing pancakes for multiple people, I think it's best to pile them up on a plate as you make them, and then taking the plate to a table for everyone to eat at once (rather than people grabbing them out of the pan with greedy little fingers as you make them). This, apart from being more sociable and fair to the cook, lets the pancakes cool down a bit which makes things like syrup and cream less runny (and drippy/messy).
While certainly being more time-intensive than toast or cereal, pancakes are a great food for when you can afford the time and make a great Sunday morning breakfast (or brunch/lunch).
