theFIREstarter

The finished article(s)!

Welcome to the Shrove Tuesday special edition of the Badass Cookery Class*! People love a decent pancake and it does boggle me why most of them (in the UK at least) wait for this special day to make them. They are very cheap and quick to make and are also quite filling. Granted, they are not the healthiest thing to eat but as a treat every so often I personally think they can’t be beaten. In a (vain?) attempt to make them slightly healthier, I’ve added some seeds for a bit of protein, vitamins and minerals, and some porridge oats thicken the mix up a bit compared to the normally rather flaccid cakes that recipes from the UK generally produce.

Oat, Seed and Raisin Pancakes: Ingredients

To make this super quick and easy I just measured out the ingredients in a 1 pint measuring just and mixed it in the same jug. So to make 1 pint of the batter you will need:

150ml (porridge) oats

1-2 tablespoon sunflower seeds

1-2 tablespoon pumpkin seeds

1-2 tablespoon linseed (I think this is called “flax” in the US)

2 teaspoons brown sugar

A pinch of salt

The above ingredients should come up to about the 200ml mark of the jug as in the picture below

100ml Flour

2 eggs

250ml milk (or enough to fill the jug up to a pint)

Handful of raisins per pancake

The dry ingredients up to the 300ml mark

Oat, Seed and Raisin Pancakes: Method

1. Measure all the dry ingredients barring the flour in the jug, transfer it all into a food processor and whizz it up a bit. I use a hand blender and attachment which cost about £15 and it seemed to do the business pretty well! You don’t have to do this stage if you don’t have one but please note the pancakes may come out a little stodgy and the seeds will give it a nice crunchy texture, which personally I don’t mind, but slightly prefer it whizzed up

Whizzing up the seeds and oats

2. Pour the mixture back into the jug, measure out the flour on top, then mix it all in with a fork. Crack the eggs on top and pour on the milk so it makes up a full pint.

Keep the wet and dry ingredients separate at this stage

3. Gently mix the milk and eggs together on top without mixing the dry ingredients in at the same time (if possible). It is much easier to get a smooth batter if you do this first! Then slowly mix in the dry ingredients. Once more solid batter starts forming you can give it a good beating with the fork… the fun bit! Extra points if you don’t spill any!

The final batter should look like this…

4. Put the batter in the fridge for at least 20 minutes to settle

5. Heat the pan with some oil. Once hot then ladle out the mix into the pan, you should be able to cook two at a time in a regular sized frying pan. I added the raisins at the very last minute but you can probably just mix it into the batter to be honest!

Cooking side one of my perfectly spherical cakes 🙂

6. Cook the pancakes for about 1-2 minutes on the first side and about 1 minute on the second side (or until they look brown enough for your tastes!)

Ooooh yea looking good baby!!!

7. Transfer to plate (or keep warm in the oven if you need to cook a big platter!).

8. Add your favourite pancake toppings. The classic is obviously lemon and sugar and I can testify that this topping works perfectly with this type of ‘cake! I also tried honey and banana which was also sublime.

Happy pancake day / Shrove Tuesday all!

If you have a favourite and unique pancake topping then let me know in the comments below! Also if anyone has any pictures of their pancakes send them in and I’ll publish the best ones on here!

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*I realise it’s not Shrove Tueday at the time of posting, I just thought I would put the recipe up so people could buy some of the ingredients in time for Tuesday if they needed to. How thoughtful of me! 🙂