Cafe Lula

I was lying in bed this morning, nice and warm in the snuggly duvet, when a nagging little voice in my head decided it was time for me to get up. “It’s the last day of your holiday”, it said, “you don’t want to waste it in bed”. “But we’ve been everywhere we wanted to go”, I thought, “and the weather is horrible”. “But you’re only here for one more day”, replied the little voice, “won’t you regret wasting the morning in bed?”. Ugh. Fair point. What should I do? I know! Nag my sleeping boyfriend.

“Chris?”

“Muhhh?”

“Shouldn’t we get up?”

“Muhh, uh, maybe”

“It’s the last day of our holiday.”

“Uh… But we’ve been everywhere we wanted to go and the weather is horrible.”

“Well… ok.”

“There”, I thought, smugly, “it’s Chris’s fault now”.

I snuggled deeper into the duvet, feeling pleased with myself.

“Hang on”, piped up the little voice, “weren’t you going to make strawberry pancakes this morning?”.

Well played, little voice. Well played.

I was a bit nervous about making these pancakes, not because the recipe seemed difficult, but because I have only ever made pancakes once before ( my sister is the pancake master so pancake time only happens when she’s about) and that was several years ago. What if they went wrong? What if this one recipe proved that I am actually a terrible cook? And the recipe says to whisk! This cottage has no whisk! Apart from an odd shaped one which I have never wielded before. Can I handwhisk? What if I can’t handwhisk?!

Fortunately, it turns out I am perfectly capable of handwhisking (is handwhisking even a word? Should I be saying “whisking by hand”?). The mixture turned out wonderfully thick and smooth and the pancakes were super easy to cook. The warm strawberries in the pancakes are absolutely delicious.

I had no syrup, so I microwaved a half-full jar of nutella to make some quick and easy chocolate sauce, and served the pancakes with extra strawberries. Yum yum yum. Unfortunately, it was only after all the pancakes were gone that I realised we have Dulce de Leche ice cream in the freezer. Sadface. Still! Good excuse to make them again 😀

American strawberry pancakes

Adapted from the Good Food website

Allegedly makes 10, but I got 20 out of the mixture (which was a pleasant surprise)

Ingredients:

200g (1 2/3 cups) self-raising (cake) flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

300 ml (1 1/3 cups) milk

1 tbsp butter, melted (I used lightly salted but the recipe does not specify)

100g (4 oz) sliced strawberries, plus extra for serving, if you like

Nutella (or syrup, or ice cream, or any other lovely topping you might like to use)

Sunflower oil or butter for cooking

I preheated the bottom oven to max temperature, which made the top oven the perfect temperature for keeping pancakes warm on a plate. Alternatively, you can cover the pancakes with kitchen paper while you cook the others, or preheat the oven to 90C (200F) and have a baking sheet handy to pop in the oven with any cooked pancakes on while you use the rest of the mixture.

In a large bowl (or medium, if you are staying in a cottage which only has one bowl available and this bowl happens to be medium-sized), mix together the flour and baking powder (and maybe a pinch of salt if you’re using unsalted butter). Create a well in the middle of the flour mixture. Beat together the egg and milk, and then pour this into the well. Whisk with a funny shaped whisk (or, you know, a normal one. You can even use an electric whisk if you’re fancy.) until you have a smooth, thick batter. Beat in the butter and then gently stir in the strawberries.

Heat a small amount of oil or butter in a large non-stick frying pan and drop one big tablespoon of the mixture per pancake into the pan to create pancakes which are about 7.5cm across. I thought mine were about this size but maybe they weren’t and that’s why I had 20. Anyway, make three or four pancakes at a time, otherwise they all run together and you end up with a big pancake (is this a bad thing?). Cook for about 3 minutes, until bubbles appear in the surface of the pancake, and then flip over and cook for another 2-3 minutes until golden. Keep these warm while you make more.

Serve with whatever you fancy 😀