Sophie's Best Pancake Day Recipe

Having been brought up by French parents, Shrove Tuesday, otherwise known as Mardi Gras, was always a very important date in our diary and it has remained so ever since.

At a young age, I learned the knack of tossing pancakes, with a few accidents along the way. Every year, I have made pancakes with whichever of my children happen to be around. 

This year, I was hoping to pass on the recipe to Frankie, my two year old granddaughter,  but sadly lockdown is preventing me from cooking with her so my partner Richard and I will be gorging ourselves on pancakes for a few days as I am very bad at adjusting quantities!

So this is the best Pancake Day recipe around and it is good for four people:

• 250 grams flour (I use plain flour, but you could equally use self raising, which would give you fluffier pancakes)
• 4 eggs
• a pinch of salt
• 50 grams unsalted butter, softened
• 500 ml full fat milk
• half a sachet of quick action yeast

1. Put the flour in a mixing bowl and make a hole in the centre.
2. Split the eggs and put the yolks, salt and butter into this.
3. Warm the milk until it’s tepid.
4. Mix the egg yolks, salt and butter in with the flour, adding the warm milk as you stir. Add the yeast.
5. Beat the egg whites until they are just stiff and fold these into the mixture.
   Leave the mixture to rise in a warm place for about an hour.
6. Grease a frying pan and put it on the hob until it’s very hot. Pour a little of the pancake mixture into the pan and spread it thinly across the base. When it bubbles, turn the pancake over with a spatula or if you’re feeling very brave, try tossing it. Cook briefly on this side and slide the pancake onto a plate. Sprinkle with caster sugar and squeeze some lemon juice on it. You can also serve these with any kind of jam or chocolate spread.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I enjoy making (and eating) these crêpes!