The best pancake recipe and rainy day pizza

After a Friday evening end-of-the-week meltdown from Sam that set us all on edge, I felt the need to improve the atmosphere and celebrate the opening morning of bank holiday weeeeeeekend with a batch of pancakes for breakfast.

This is one of the boys’ favourite things, so I thought it’d be good to start the day in an indulgent mood. Sets the tone nicely for the whole weekend!

The best pancake recipe comes from Gary Rhodes New British Classics. What makes it so delish? The addition of melted butter to the batter, that’s what!

Sam loves helping to make the batter. Today he chose to have lemon and sugar with his pancakes and did a grand job of squeezing the lemons.

The best pancake recipe

225g plain flour
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
600ml milk
50g unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil, for frying

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Whisk the eggs and milk into the flour. Add the melted butter and whisk into the mix.

Pre-heat the frying pan. Lightly oil the pan and pour in some mixture – making sure the pan only has a thin layer of mix by tilting and rotating the pan to make the batter spread out.

Cook for 30-40 seconds, until golden brown. Turn the pancake over and cook for a further 20-30 seconds.

Keep warm between layers of greaseproof paper while you cook the remainder. (this doesn’t happen in our house – they get eaten as we go along!)

 

So after a trip around the shops in the rain to get Sam his summer crocs and Arlo’s first shoes, we decided pizza was needed.

We’d had a flyer through for Domino’s but Matthew fancied making one instead. I was delighted coz he’s not made one for AGES and my mum got him a pizza stone for Christmas which needed christening.

What a revelation! Matthew’s pizzas have always been tasty, but he’s never managed to get the base really crisp in the centre. Until today! I’d defo recommend pizza stones – restaurant standard stuff!

Matthew used Jamie Oliver’s basic bread recipe for the base. http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/bread-recipes/basic-bread-recipe

For the toppings:

Tomato paste
Capers
Sunblush totatoes
Anchovy stuffed olives
Mushrooms
Mozzarella cheese

For the kids I kept it basic and just split a couple of muffins and spread them with tomato purée and scattered with a little mozzarella. Baked in the oven for 5 mins or so.

A fabulous feast for a rainy day. We now have full bellies and are camped out in front of Caspar The Friendly Ghost on video from the Oxfam shop.

Afternoon naps all round me thinks…