My daughter has just texted me asking for my pancake recipe. It took me a while to find it and I got into a panic. My mother is no longer around and if I had lost it, a whole tradition would have likely died. So I thought I’d better commit the recipe to posterity on my blog right now when it’s still in my hand, on a card which is covered with the grease of many times slaving over a hot ring. Slaving is the right word as I used to hate the time it took to cook them. But my mother’s and no doubt her mother’s recipe is well worth the hassle. So here it is for you Colleen and Emilie and perhaps for many of you out there who, like me despise the ready made mixture.

To make about 12 pancakes you’ll need:
300g of plain flour  –  3 eggs  –  1 pint of milk  –  25/30g of butter  –  2 tablespoons of oil and sugar and jam for topping  ( I like mine with Grand Marnier or Bailey’s)

Gently heat up the oil with the butter until melted. Then add the milk to the pan.
Sieve the flour in a large bowl and then make a hole in the middle.
Add the egg yolks in the hole and start mixing bringing the flour gently into it.
Add the mixture of milk and fats a few spoons at a time.
When all the eggs and milk are mixed with the flour, beat the mixture really hard with a hand whisk so there are no lumps.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and then add them gently with a metal spoon. You must kind of envelop the whites by drawing up the mixture carefully from the bottom up. It does not matter if they are lumps of whites left.
Add a knob of butter into your frying pan and heat it well, then using a small ladle pour some mixture in the middle. Now because your mixture is thick, it won’t run into a pancake shape by itself. So use a spatula to spread it.
It should take less than a minute to cook that first side and a little more for the other, et voila! Whether you try and flip it is up to you!

As you progress, the mixture will become more runny, so cook them all here and then. Oh and you should never put the ladle in the mixture or you’ll shorten the time when the egg whites work their magic.

In my youth, the first pancake was never the best one, so it was shared between the cats who waited patiently and the canary who would not shut up until it got a piece. That’s how good they are. Bon appetit !