by Marcus Bentley Wise

Created on: December 23, 2009   Last Updated: December 24, 2009

A good pancake is a very easy and not so easy thing to do. First you have to have a good pan to cook them in. Then you need to get your basic batter mix right. And second you have to understand what is meant by a pancake and what you are expecting to see.

Here in the UK we except when some one says the word pancake to see, what all over the rest of Europe would call, a crepe. And what in America what you would call a pancake we would call a drop scone, griddle cake or any other number of names from region to region. So with this in mind I am going to start with the pan.

For what ever version you are going to be making you want a heavy cast iron pan. Cast iron is the best as it conducts the heat very evenly across the pan. You have two types of frying pan that you are supposed to use. One is called a Blini and the other is a Crepe pan. The difference being that a Crepe pan is about 22cm or 9 inches wide and the Blini about 12cm or 5 inches wide . Now the important thing to do with what ever pan you use for you pancake is that you first season it and then never wash it. If you do wash it then you will have to season it all over again. To season a pan is simply to cover the pan with salt on the inside of the cooking area. Then you seat this up for a little and then with a cloth rub all the salt away and then clean it with some oil. And that is it you are ready to go.

Now all you need is to make the batter. Now if you are going to make a very thin crepe then you will need.

125g/4½oz plain flour

2 eggs

300ml/½pt of milk

Pinch of salt or sugar all depending on what you want you use them for.

Sift your flour in to a bowl. Then crack you eggs in to a well in the flour. Start to work the flour and eggs together. Once that you can see every thing starting to clump together add your milk a little at a time. Keep whisking till it comes together as a smooth batter.

To make your griddle cakes or American pancakes you will need.

225g / 9oz of plain flour

300ml/ ½pt of milk

1 or 2 tbsp melted butter

1 or 2 tsp baking powder

Once more sift your flour in to a bowl. Add the baking powder and then add the melted butter and then the milk till you have a smooth batter.

Now if you have problems with either of the two mixes then you can do one of two things. First you could just pour it all threw a fine messed sieve. And the second is blitz it all together with a electric hand blender for a while till the lumps go.

Now to cook either of the two mixes all you do is get your pan hot. Then add a little butter. Make sure that all the surface of the pan ahs had a little of the butter cover it and then pore on your mixture. If you are making a crepe then you will want it very thin and covering the whole of the bottom of the pan. If you are making griddle scones or America pan cakes then you want a thicker smaller blob about 7cm or 2½ or 3 inches wide. Then cook till it goes golden brown. To tell if it is cooked you can see bubbles appearing in the uncooked surface facing up in the pan. And that is about it.

Now all depending on what you want to do you can put any kind of filling on the pan cake or in the pancake. I would experiment. But for me what ever the type of pancake, I like to add raspberries fresh and in season .

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