Pancake Recipe

We have been busy getting our last room,'Coniston' ready to open and we are very pleased with how its turned out. The colour scheme is chocolate brown, gold and cream, the room has a sumptuous feel to it with silk curtains, big gold tie backs and our usual high quality fixtures and fittings. Photographs will soon be posted on our web site for you to see. We are delighted that we now have all our rooms available to book.

So here is the recipe after a bit of a delay. I'm sure it will be worth waiting for as all our guests have enjoyed their pancakes whilst staying with us. The recipe is compliments of Nigella Lawson 'Express' cookery book with our own twist and our thanks go to her for the original pancake recipe.

The recipe is a home-made instant pancake mix made and stored as a dry mix until you need it.

For the pancake mix

• 600g flour
• 3 x 15ml tablespoons baking powder
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 40g caster sugar

1. mix all the ingredients together and store in an airtight container.
2. when you are ready to make pancakes, proceed as follows

To make the batter and the pancakes
weigh out 150g of dry mix and whisk together with

• 1 egg
• 1 x 15ml tablespoon of melted butter
• milk to make a thick batter, roughly 100ml/quarter pint, you may need more or less depending on the flour you use.

1. Heat a large frying pan or griddle.
2. Butter pan lightly. You don't need to but I think it gives a better finish to pancakes.
3. Spoon rounded desert spoons of batter well spaced onto the hot pan. We fit 4 pancakes at a time into our pan as this is the portion we use for each serving for breakfast. This makes pancakes of roughly 3-4 inches in diameter. If your batter is too thin they will run together and you will get one big pancake. Not the end of the world as you can cook it and then cut it if needs be.
4. Watch the heat setting for your pan, if its too hot the pancakes with brown but not be cooked in the middle.
   
5. When bubbles appear on the surface, flip them over so they are golden brown on both sides.
6. We get 10 pancakes from each 150g dry mix and we serve 4 stacked with bananas, blueberries, strawberries and then maple syrup poured over and around the stack. Please see our breakfast menu on the website for a photograph.

These are very versatile, you can add flavourings to the pancakes, such as cinnamon, or grated apple. We are looking for ways of serving them in the winter months when soft fruits such as strawberries are out of season and imports aren't at their best. I have thought of compotes, but stacked with fruit does look so much better. If you have any suggestions please let me know as all are gratefully received.