by Janet Sandford

Created on: June 24, 2009

It has taken me years to perfect the cooking of pancakes so I want to give you some tips and then my favourite pancake recipe which is suitable either for breakfast , brunch, lunch or even supper.

Pancakes although cooked flat they can be rolled or made into a kind of envelope which you can place any filling of your choice and depending on the stuffing they can be sweet or savoury. They can be served as an everyday meal (breakfast, dinner or supper) or served at parties.

Traditionally they were cooked on 2 February for Candle mass and on Mardi Gras. For some reason Poles seem to think that British people like our pancakes filled with ham and leeks but I would say we usually like them as a dessert with a sweet filling or just sprinkled with sugar or honey. Hungarians love pancakes and they take a pride in their palascinta filled with almond paste and covered with chocolate and cognac; the French love their crepes Suzette with mandarin oranges and curacao; the best American pancakes are filled with bananas and covered with rum.

In Poland traditionally pancakes were filled with cottage cheese mixed with orange peel or currants but nowadays all kinds of pancakes are popular in Polish cuisine, both sweet and savoury.

Sweet pancakes are generally sprinkled with alcohol just before serving and then ignited and served flambe.

Although pancakes are a very simple dish to prepare there is a certain skill to making the perfect pancake batter and once made they can be fried and then kept covered in the fridge for several days.

Pancake batter should have the consistency of thick cream; if it is too thick, the pancakes will be thick and hard; if it is too thin, the pancakes will break and it will be impossible to turn them over in the pan. It is difficult to give the proportions of the ingredients because everything depends on the size of the eggs and the dryness of the flour. So experience is very important in making pancakes.

After making the batter as a test you should fry one pancake: if it is too hard, add more water, and if it is too thin, add more flour.

The classic proportions for pancake batter are 3/4 glass of sifted flour, two eggs, 1.5 to 2 cups of liquid, a pinch of salt and a pinch of nutmeg (can be omitted).

For savoury pancakes, you can use beer mixed with water; for sweet pancakes you can mix the water with cream or cream cheese (except that pancakes of this type should not really be rolled up, but only folded into flour).

For really thin pancakes (sometimes

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