Category: France

It’s pancake day, it’s lockdown and it’s half term, so I’ve got the day off work. What better to do than feed the kids pancakes until they burst? At breakfast time, we indulged in what’s normally a weekend treat of banana pancakes (recipe here). These are great because they’re super easy to make with only three ingredients and no refined sugar, just the sweetness from the banana. Of course, the kids’ preferred toppings of lashings of syrup and jam counteracts the lack of sugar in the pancakes, but I top mine with almond butter and berries, so it’s a pretty healthy start to the day.

Onwards to lunch. I prepared some batter to make galettes last night, so all I needed to do today was heat and add toppings. These pancakes are more savoury than our trad. English pancakes, with a nutty flavour, and are great for a light meal. They are made with buckwheat flour, which, although the name suggests otherwise, does not contain actual wheat. It is, however, subject to cross contamination as with oats, so you need to make sure it’s a gluten free brand (two I know of are Doves Farm and Amisa).

I bought a crepe pan in France years ago, which came with a T shaped implement for spreading the batter and a flat spatula for turning. You could probably use a regular frying pan for this and just swirl the mixture around the pan.

Ingredients
250g buckwheat flour
2 eggs
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp salt
500ml water

Method
Firstly, you need to whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl and leave the resulting batter to rest for a couple of hours. I usually just cover it with a tea towel and leave it on the counter.

Secondly get your crepe/frying pan nice and hot and prepare a mixture of melted butter and oil (or just oil is ok), then spread a small amount all over the hot pan – I use a silicone pastry brush for this.

Spread the batter around the pan using the tools or by swirling the pan before it all sets, and then cook until all the liquid has gone.

You can see from the images that the underside has a lovely lattice effect, which you’ll get when the pan is hot enough. It might take a few goes to get this right. As with all pancakes, the first one is often a bit funny.

I cooked all mine in a batch last night and just stacked them and covered in cling film over night, but you can leave the cooked pancake in the pan and put the toppings straight on. We’ve used grated Cheddar cheese and ham. Once the cheese has melted, fold in the sides to make a square shape and slide onto a plate. The kids had theirs with beans, but the grown ups went for a bit of left over salsa and guacamole that was in the fridge.

For tea, we’ll be making some filled crispy pancakes. We’d better go on our daily walk to work up an appetite.

Thanks to Paulette and Ellie at BBC Radio Sheffield for inviting me on this morning to talk about all things pancakes.