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Recipes from my Lincolnshire kitchen

valentines pancakes

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…it’s pancake day here tomorrow in the UK and this means the celebration of the little round, flat pancake…. much like the Jewish passover celebration, part of the reason we celebrate Shrove Tuesday is to clean the cupboards of tired old bits of produce such as flour and eggs… it’s a Spring clean for your home if you like, not that anyone needs an excuse to make pancakes.  British pancakes are more like a traditional French crepe than their thicker American cousins and whilst I enjoy both if i’m totally honest, there’s nothing I prefer more than the honeyed hues of maple syrup dripping down the sides of a towering stack of rich, thick buttermilk pancakes…

… and I guess i’m still a little hungover from my Californian trip because i’ve been waiting for an excuse to make these beauties… as we all know, the Americans love their food and if you’ve ever eaten in an American restaurant you can understand why. There’s just so much on offer and so many options to choose from… even something as simple as ordering breakfast can take a full five minutes choosing between how you want your eggs – fried, scrambled, poached, omelette, egg whites only, sunny-side-up – to what type of toast you want to accompany the eggs – white, wheat, sourdough, bagel… and then there are all the other wonderful and seemingly odd breakfast options from granola to breakfast burrito’s and of course the temptingly rich and utterly naughty full cream pancakes… one has options here too from the full stack, which usually compromises of 6 fat, dinner-plate sized pancakes piled high with whipped cream, maple syrup and bacon… to the short stack, which is a slightly less heart-attack inducing 3 pancakes.  I managed a short-stack just once on this recent trip and even that I shared with my whole family… but this and the fact that Americans also love celebrating big occasions such as Christmas, Thanksgiving and Mothers Day, got me thinking that these would make a wonderfully indulgent sweet breakfast treat for the one you love on Valentines Day.



valentines buttermilk pancakes
I am very excited and proud to announce that I have become a food ambassador for Lincolnshire Co-operative.  The Co-op is a chain of convenience stores owed by its members… and many of the counties in the UK have their own co-op businesses.  Every penny of the profits from the stores go back into the community.  They are also committed to ethical principles like Fairtrade and local sourcing which made it very easy for me to say yes when they asked me to share recipes and write for their blog… all their stores have dedicated shelf space for local produce from beer to eggs which makes them feel more like a local deli and I often source my produce from these shelves…

… for these pancakes i’m using a locally sourced Mount Pleasant Flour as well as a Lincolnshire Honey and Lincolnshire Farm Eggs… it’s really worth check out your local store for what’s on offer as often as you can… it’s the only way we’ll change our very odd and distant relationship with what we eat…

makes roughly 10
2 eggs
100ml buttermilk

150ml whole milk

5 tablespoons unsalted butter – melted

190g plain flour
1 tablespoon caster sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder

in a bowl, beat the eggs with the milk, buttermilk and melted butter – put aside

in another bowl sift the flour, baking powder and sugar

pour the egg mixture into the flour mix and stir very lightly until the ingredients are just combined

take a small but heavy pan (I use a one omelette non-stick pan) and heat gently with a small nob of butter in it.  Once this is melted, add 3 tablespoons of the batter – you want them thick but still runny

tilt the pan so the batter covers the base evenly and turn the heat down to medium

cook until a few bubbles become visible on the surface and then gently turn the pancake over and cook for another minute or so.

take the cooked pancake and place it on a baking sheet in a warm oven whilst you prepare the rest of the pancakes

serve with lashings of local honey and some strawberries for a bit of valentines colour.

eat and of course, enjoy!

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Comments

  4. Marmaduke Scarlet says

    Delighted that you are working with The Lincolnshire Co-operative – you will be the perfect passionate ambassador! Love the pancakes – pretty as a picture. Oh Ambassador, you are spoiling us 🙂

  5. Janice Pattie says

    I see Rachel got there before me with the “Ambassador, you spoil us” comment, it had to be done 😉 I like my pancakes nice and thick too, made mine with spelt flour yesterday, but no strawberries, just bacon and maple syrup. Good to see you promoting the co-op they do a good job, sadly we don't have a local one anymore.

  6. Caroline says

    I've done some similar American pancakes which I will post tomorrow – I wasn't sure how they would taste as the recipe uses oil and sugar as well as flour, eggs and milk – but they were lovely! The only downside is you can't use the leftover mixture for Yorkshire puddings which I often do with normal pancakes!

  7. Mark Willis says

    I always find when cooking pancakes that the first one you do has to be discarded, because it is never good enough – often a bit “claggy”. Maybe because the pan is not hot enough or something.

  8. Choclette says

    Oh Dom, what a wicked stack of pancakes, they really look the business. Now I wish we'd had some for supper tonight as it's a fast day for us tomorrow so NO PANCAKES 🙁

    I'm so impressed you only indulged in pancakes once, although come to think of it I don't think I tried them at all. What I loved about San Francisco was going out for brunch – such a civilised meal and as you say, plenty of choice and hearty portions. Just as well we didn't stay too long.

  9. Susie @ Fold in the Flour says

    These look like a wickedly special treat. I remember the most amazing American style pancakes from a roadside diner in Vermont, they were thick, but the size of a dinner plate. I'd ordered a short stack but could only manage one of them! I'm sure I could polish a few of these off though. 🙂

  11. debby emadian says

    OOh these look scrumptious.

    I made up two big batches for tonight this morning one with ordinary white flour the other with spelt. I tried them out for breakfast with Maple syrup… deliciou. I don't know why I don't make them more often.

    I'll try out your buttermilk ones next time. I don't mean next Shrove Tuesday either. I may start having Pancake day at least once a month….

    Congratulations about the Lincolnshire Co-op thing. My dad designed the co-op logo back in the day. Must have been 60's or 70's.

    Hope you have an awesome Valentines day…
    Debx

  13. Magnolia Verandah says

    A lovely stack! Here we call those pikelets or pancakes, the thinner variety referred to more often than not as crepes. Both delicious in my mind and looking forward to anything like this for brekky on Valentines Day. Might need to drop some hints now!

  14. Jenn says

    I forget how many decadent choices face us when we go to a restaurant for breakfast here in the states…. we are a bit glutenous from time to time… but with all those yummy choices, can you blame us? 🙂 Loving this pancakes.. I think I'll be making them this weekend!

  18. Shu Han says

    HAPPY PANACKE DAY DOM! I've always been partial towards the american fluffy pancakes:) they look amazing I'm tempted to make them too even though I've already had my pancakes for brunch.

  19. Gerry @Foodness Gracious says

    You can take the guy out of Scotland but not Scotland out of the guy! When we go out for breakfast here in Cali, I stick to my bacon and eggs while everyone else gets the pancakes and french toast lol! I'm used to eating my pancakes for lunch or in the afternoon..

  20. Anneli (Delicieux_fr) says

    Hi Dom, just to let you know the pancakes were fantastic. First one was a little pale but pretty good anyway! Ate far too many. My two year old ate 3 in quick succession – I thought he was going to pop! Thanks for the recipe!

  22. DEZMOND says

    those sound and look lovely, Dominic. Here in Europe we usually make crepes, but I've always wanted to try making American pancakes too!

  23. Karen S Booth says

    WELL DONE on becoming a local ambassador for the Co-OP Dom! I do prefer crepes normally, but, as you have made these look so delightful, I may ask you make me a batch up please! Karen