pancake flipper

The last day of semester one concluded with an oral exam. It was nice being able to catch up with my friends and a few classmates whom I didn't have a chance to talk to during the semester. Somehow, the awkwardness just disappears on the last day. A fair few of us are in our final year and topics included things we wanted to do after graduation and if we were ready for exams. Of course, the "omg, you don't have a facebook?!" debacle was brought up once again. Unlike previous years, I have a few friends graduating in the coming months and it'll be a little bit sad knowing I won't see them in class next semester. Nevertheless, all the best! 

I still have three, two thousand word essays to write and an exam to study for, but the end of semester one calls for a little celebration with a tower of pancakes! I usually use my recipe for pancakes, but I wanted to give Rose Carrarini's ricotta pancakes in Breakfast Lunch Tea, another go. I made it a couple? of years ago and it didn't really work out. I must have done something wrong then because they were excellent this time round! 

The only adjustments I made was using packaged ricotta cheese as opposed to using the ones from the deli and adding 50g more ricotta since I didn't want to leave a bit rotting away in the fridge. Both recipes yield almost the same results, so maybe I'll just leave these for special occasions.

There's another version of these pancakes in Rose Carrarini's new cookbook How to Boil an Egg and you can find them over here. 

Happy flipping!

quiet mornings

I've made a fair amount of pancakes and I don't follow a particular recipe anymore.

My rule of thumb, if the batter's too thick, add more milk.
Too thin? Some more flour.

Here's what I do nowadays - eyeballing measurements.

Whisk one egg, a spoon of castor sugar, a splash of oil/butter and more than half a cup of milk until well combined. Sift in half a teaspoon of baking powder and enough self-raising flour to form a batter that is neither too thick of thin. Cook on medium-low.

old soul

A seemingly cold morning. Frying a batch of lemon and poppy seed pancakes* whilst running to the record player to press the play button only to dash back to the stove to flip the pancakes.   

Much to my sister's dismay, Michael Bolton's "The Hunger" (both sides), was on constant repeat for half the day. And what I thought was a record from Laura Branigan, turned out to be 60s mix of American love songs which I thought sounded strangely familiar. Judging by the ripped plastic sleeve, I most likely man-handled the record in my childhood.

Seeded out the box of full of records ranging from the 60s to the 80s. Putting several back into their sleeves before dusting some off to listen to. It's amazing how small and how many songs a CD can fit compared to a record. But I think it's pretty neat how records are flipped for a different set of songs. 

*Use your regular pancake recipe. Mix in rind of and juice (top up with milk and stir) of one small lemon and 1 tsp of poppy seeds. For syrup, simmer 1 Tb of honey and caster sugar with juice of one small lemon until sugar melts and is thickened.

today's breakfast

It is already the end of the month. It's been a fairly busy, but I have got to say I have been enjoying it. Unlike last year, there are no days off, however this has made me become more productive. I look forward to what has become a pancake weekend. Each batch makes around nine pancakes and it is enough for a party of three. A sliced banana and some syrup too. Today was a combination of golden syrup and a knob of butter.

pancakes for the weekend

Aside from scones, I like pancakes too! Not only are they easy to whip up, but they are also my all time favourite food to photograph. They are very photogenic, no?

mini strawberry pancakes

A table for two, but no one to share with :( I'll invite someone over next time :)
Since I have already established I LOVE breakfasts in a previous post, I shall refrain from repeating myself.

Two weeks ago, the food tech students in my school have just started production in regards to the design folio. As I had time to spare, I was being a busy body looking at what kind of foods other people were making. They were busy making a variety of foods; exotic mango and coconut prawns, sweet and sour pork, turkish delight, honeycomb cake, cupcakes just to name a few. The girl who uses the stove top next to mine was making pancakes!

Seeing her make pancakes reminded me of ラブソーライフ, a manga chapter featured in the April 2009 花とゆめ; a birthday gift from my friends at Chinese school last year.
Anyway the chapter was about Shiharu, a 16 year old babysitter trying to make pancakes with the two two-year-old rascals Aoi and Akane. In one scene, Akane decides to make strawberry pancakes by throwing in whole strawberries inside -_-"
Although inspired by the idea of having strawberries inside pancakes, I did not add whole strawberries to the batter :P And I think these pancakes are the best ever!!
***

mini strawberry pancakesadapted from my previous recipe
ingredients:makes 10 ~ 12 mini pancakes

• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 Tb caster sugar
• 75 ml milk
• 1 1/2 Tb unsalted butter / margarine, melted
• dash of vanilla essence
• 75 g self raising flour, sifted
• 3/4 tsp baking powder, sifted
• 4 strawberries, chopped into small pieces
• unsalted butter / oil for frying

method:

1. Using a whisk, beat the egg and sugar until frothy.
   Whisk while adding the milk, melted butter / margarine and vanilla essence.


2. Add the sifted flour, baking powder and strawberry pieces and whisk to make a smooth and runny batter.


3. Heat a non stick frying pan and add a small piece of butter / drizzle of oil.
   Wipe fat off with kitchen paper and reserve. Turn heat to a medium high*.


4. Add 2 Tb of batter and flip with a spatula when many bubbles appear on the surface.
   Cook other side until golden.


5. Wipe the frying pan with the kitchen paper and repeat step 4 until there is no more batter.


6. To serve, drizzle pancakes with honey and top with half a strawberry.

* For the heat use, I generally start of using a medium high heat and lowering it each time as the pan gets hotter.

plain pancakes

Woke up at 6 AM today to make pancakes for breakfast. Just wanted to eat pancakes, that's all.

***

plain pancakes

ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 3 Tb of caster sugar
• 150 mL milk
• 2 1/2 heaped Tb of margarine
• dash of vanilla essence
• 150 grams self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder

method:

1. Beat the egg lightly using a whisk.

2. Add the sugar and whisk until mixture is frothy.

3. Melt the margarine in the microwave in a bowl covered with a lid.

NOTE: Careful when removing from the microwave, as it is very hot!

4. Add in the vanilla essence, milk and melted margarine. Whisk to combine.

5. Sift in the plain flour. Whisk to combine. 

6. Heat a fry pan. Drizzle oil. When oil starts to bubble turn heat to medium - low.

7. Scoop 1/4 cup of the mixture into the frypan.

8. Wait till bubbles surface and flip.

9. Cook the pancake until both sides are browned.