Pancake Day!

As I haven’t been sewing lately I thought I’d better switch to the Baked element of my blog title to keep things ticking over until the sewing machine starts whirring again.

A lasting memory of Pancake Day in my childhood is of my mum’s frustration as the first pancake always ended up as a splodgy mess in the frying pan!  Once that was out of the way all was usually well but it does seem to be the case that you need to get that initial attempt out of the way before things start to come together.

I rarely make pancakes on Pancake Day or at any other time but I had a hankering for something sweet on Tuesday night.  I was surprised when W didn’t seem too bothered (he is normally very quick off the mark when it comes to consumables) and he was adamant that we should only have them if it didn’t mean shopping for ingredients.

Not to be defeated I decided to use up the remains of some spelt flour I’d bought to make soda bread last year and found this recipe online.  As I assembled the ingredients it dawned on me that as we don’t drink milk I was going to be stuck for one of the main components!  The only potentially suitable liquid I had was coconut milk so I gave that a go.  My slightly amended list of ingredients was as follows :

• 2 cups spelt flour (I had to top it up slightly with some ordinary plain flour as I didn’t have quite enough)
• 2 tablespoons golden granulated sugar (if you have a very sweet tooth you might want to increase this)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder (I thought this seemed quite a lot but decided to go with it!)
• a pinch of salt (as opposed to ¾ of a teaspoon)
• 1¾ cups of coconut milk (this is just under a can full and I used the remainder up in my breakfast smoothie)
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (instead of 2 – I like vanilla but only a subtle hint)

I followed the method in the original recipe and they came out really well,  although the first one was slightly anaemic as the pan wasn’t hot enough.  They were very easy to turn over as they are fairly substantial.  I’m not very proficient at flipping crepe-type pancakes!

We topped them with creme fraiche, blueberries and honey and ate the lot!

These would be perfect for breakfast/brunch too, especially if you made the batter the night before to save time in the morning.