February 16th, 2012
Shrove Tuesday is just around the corner (Tuesday 21st February) and this week we had a visit from The Journal to speak with our pastry chef, Helen Doyle about how to make the perfect pancake. You can see the full feature in The Journal next week but here is our recipe and a few top tips for the perfect pancake. This recipe will make approx. 12 pancakes.
Ingredients:
100 grams Plain Flour
Pinch Salt
1 Egg
250ml Milk
1 ½ table spoons Melted Butter
Method:
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl from a height to aerate the flour. Break the egg into a well in the centre of the flour and whisk until all the flour is incorporated. Slowly add the milk while whisking all the time and keep whisking until any lumps disappear. Melt the butter in a separate pan then add 1 table spoon to the batter and whisk it in. Use kitchen paper to smear butter onto the pancake pan to cover the base.
Get the pan really hot then reduce to a medium heat, add 2-3 tablespoons of the batter to the pan and immediately tip the pan to coat the base evenly. After around 30 seconds lift the edge with a palette knife and flip over, cook for a further 10 seconds.
Top tips:
Get some air into the flour by sifting from a height.
Keep whisking until any lumps disappear.
Use kitchen paper rather than greaseproof or foil to smear the pan with butter.
Don’t use excess oil or butter in the pancake pan – a thin coating is fine.
The first pancake often doesn’t work – don’t panic if this happens.
Get the pan really hot but turn down to a medium heat before cooking.