Golden Anniversary Pancakes ready to be filled and enjoyed. 


My Friday food blog was bare. That’s because my gorgeous husband and I celebrated our fifteen year wedding anniversary by heading to dinner at one of my favourite restaurants, Ottimo Italian Kitchen in Hunters Hill. 

Now don’t stutter with surprise at reading that an experienced and keen home cook actually eats out. I am an advocate of home cooking because I relish the aromas, appearance and flavours of a home cooked meal. However I also enjoy eating out, especially when my tastebuds are tingling for a particular dish that is either better left up to the professionals to prepare like wood fired pizza or Italian jam-filled shortbread biscuits, or because I am after a great meal made by someone else such as  individually hand stirred risotto, silky gnocchi or tiny steamed Asian dumplings.

 When eating out, I do expect the food to be deliciously satisfying, the service efficient but friendly and the atmosphere relaxed and welcoming. Inspiration for my home cooked dishes often comes from meals that I have enjoyed in cafes and restaurants, some of them cheap and cheerful, others appealing but still affordable, and a few special fancy ones as well. When an eatery consistently delivers, then I am more than happy to return for a second helping. 

Speaking of second helpings, my children and husband were chuffed with the plate of home cooked crepe-style pancakes that I set down on the outdoor table as part of breakfast this morning. They accompanied the plump barbecued eggs sunny side up and crispy bacon that my husband prepared. I have dubbed them Anniversary Pancakes, in recognition of our marriage milestone and because my husband happens to adore eating them, having spent many mornings as a teenager happily munching his way through a freshly made stack. Now, I have a confession to make; this is the FIRST TIME I have ever whipped up this style of pancake and so I had to flip open Stephanie Alexander’s ultimate cooking compendium, The Cook’s Companion, for the recipe.  

It was a case of trial and error to get the consistency of the batter just right. I added a little more milk (as Stephanie Alexander recommended) to achieve a thin, smooth result similar to pouring cream. As I have a powerful Ilve gas stove, I also found that cooking over a medium flame generated ample heat without burning the batter. 

Whisk until smooth and tiny aeration bubbles form on the batter surface.

Ready to flip.

Roll up, roll up!

I do like variety, so I filled some of the pancakes with raspberry jam; others with pure maple syrup; and the third lot with a home cooked and concocted chocolate spread. This was quickly mixed up by combining cream cheese, vanilla extract and melted dark chocolate. I still have to refine the recipe for this so I’m not going to include it on Cabinet of Cookery until it is absolutely perfect. Just as well I have so many willing taste testers at home!

Anniversary Pancakes makes 10 large lacy pancakes

Ingredients
60 g unsalted butter melted
3 eggs (I used rich yellow organic farm eggs)
pinch of salt
2 cups plain flour
1 and 3/4 cups milk (I used full cream A2 milk)
butter for cooking or light tasting olive oil

Using a hand whisk, beat together the melted butter, eggs and flour until combined. 

Add the flour and milk and whisk until smooth and completely lump-free. The batter should be runny, like thin pouring cream.

Heat up a large, non-stick frypan or even two which is what I did to cook the pancakes up in record time. Quickly run a knob of butter over the base of your frypan/s, to give a very light coating. Alternatively you can dip a pastry brush into light olive oil and brush this over the pan.

Ladle a quantity of batter into the frypan which has been allowed to heat up over the stove top. Quickly swirl the batter around and over the base of the frypan and place back on the heat  The batter will turn opaque and start to slightly crisp up around the edges. This will take about 60 seconds. At this point flip the pancake by lifting the frypan and giving it a quick flick of the wrist. Alternatively you can run a heatproof spatula or egg slice under the pancake and flip it over.

Cook for another 60 seconds then slide onto a plate. Repeat with the remaining batter until it has all been turned into thin, round golden sheets ready to be spread with your favourite filling, rolled up and devoured.