The recovery - pancakes

After almost a week of not eating, I was happy to hear the request for pancakes this morning. It means that the children must be getting better. Is it goodbye snuffles and sneezes? I hope so.

We eat pancakes for breakfast almost every Sunday morning. If I make a change to something different (eggs - perhaps) for variety, there is much protest. Here is the basic pancake recipe that I use.

I have been making this recipe for years, but I think you will find that it very close to the one written on the side of the buttermilk container!

Pancakes

serves 4-6

• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
• 2 tablespoons castor sugar
• 375 ml buttermilk (or soured milk - see below)
• 1 egg (lightly beaten)
• 1 tablespoon butter (melted)

Preheat oven to 100 degrees. Whisk together all of ingredients in a bowl until the batter is smooth. Heat a non-stick fry pan to medium heat. To make each pancake, spoon a couple of tablespoons into the center of the fry pan and leave to cook until bubbles start to form on the surface of the pancake. When they start to burst, flip the pancake, cook for 1-2 minutes or until golden brown. Continue this process until all of the pancakes are cooked. Keep the cooked pancakes warm on a plate in the oven.

We often add choc chips and either berries or diced banana to our pancake batter. Our standard Sunday morning pancake toppings are maple syrup, berry jam and thick cream.

• Soured milk - if you don't have buttermilk at hand, and we often don't. Squeeze 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice into a measuring jug and then fill it with milk to reach 375ml. Leave to sit for 5 minutes before adding to the rest of the ingredients

• Blueberry Pancakes - measure out 1 cup of blueberries but don't add them to the pancake batter or else it will discolour. Drop the blueberries into the pancake batter once it has been spooned into the fry pan, then proceed as normal, flipping when the pancakes bubble and cooking until brown.