Recipe: Putting pancakes in the spotlight
Apple Pancakes with Bramley Apple Puree & Caramel Sauce by Mercy Fenton.
"Pancake Tuesday is on the way on March 1, but really pancakes should hit the spotlight more than once a year as they are so versatile."
So writes Mercy Fenton in her weekly column.
"These yeasty little pancakes are slightly thicker than French Crepes, and delicious with the addition of apple and cinnamon. It may seem like a lot of eggs, but the batter is very light and needs them. It’s worth making the caramel sauce if you have time, otherwise golden syrup or lemon juice would also be good."
500ml full fat milk
10gr fast acting dried yeast
90gr wholemeal flour
120gr plain flour
4 large free range eggs
40gr melted butter – extra for cooking
10ml sunflower oil
10ml rum
2 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of grated nutmeg
2 crisp eating apples, peeled and grated
- Warm 200ml milk in a pan until lukewarm.
- Pour into a bowl and add the yeast, stirring until dissolved.
- Stir in the caster sugar and 2 tbsp. wholemeal flour, allow to sit for 10 to 15 minutes.
- In a separate bowl, mix the remaining wholemeal flour with the plain flour and a pinch of salt.
- Whisk the remaining milk, and then yeasty milk into the flours.
- Add the egg and whisk well until smooth.
- Add the butter to the batter mixture with the oil, rum and apples. Rest the batter in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
125gr sugar
70gr butter
180gr cream
½ tsp. maldon sea salt
- Cooking the sugar to caramel: Be very careful, as caramel burns are very serious.
- Put the sugar in a heavy-bottomed pan (choose a pan slightly larger than you think you need and ideally with high sides) and cook over a gentle heat until the sugar is dissolved.
- Continue to cook, shaking the pan, so the mixture doesn’t catch or form lumps.
- Once the sugar has turned a golden colour all over, remove from the heat.
- When the sugar begins to caramelize, swirl the pan gently to disperse the heat.
- When you tilt the pan, the liquid should be a rich caramel colour, be brave enough to cook it to quite a deep colour (you will smell the cooked caramel aroma, if you smell burn you need to start again), once your caramel is cooked remove from the heat.
- Carefully add in the butter and cream, heat gently and stir until mixture is homogenous, then add the salt.
- Strain into a clean bowl and allow to cool fully
1kg roughly of bramley apples (to yield 750gr of prepped apple)
3 tbsp water
Sugar to taste
- Place the apple and water in a wide heavy based pot, cover with a lid and put on low heat.
- Stir often until the apple starts to break down.
- Keep stirring until smooth and then remove the lid, if a bit wet cook over medium heat, stirring all the time to drive off excess water, add a tiny bit of sugar if you want, but I like this quite tart.
- Heat a lightly greased 8 inch non-stick shallow pan over medium heat; pour 2 tablespoons of batter into the centre of the skillet.
- Lift and tilt pan to coat bottom evenly.
- Cook until top appears dry; turn and cook 15-20 seconds longer.
- Remove to a warm plate in a very low oven.
- Repeat with remaining batter, greasing the pan as needed.
- Serve the pancakes with apple puree and a drizzle of salted caramel sauce.
App?
