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Extra-Fluffy Pancakes

Story location: Home / food_and_drink /
28/Mar/2014

I occasionally have a go at making fluffy american-style pancakes and while they are usually good, they never come out as thick and fluffy as shop bought ones. I decided to look into how to make them softer and thicker and the secret seems to be egg white.

The recipe starts off similar to our old pancake recipe:

  • 2 1/2 cups of self raising flour
  • 2 tbs sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 cups of milk
  • 2 egg yolks

Mix everything together then take the egg whites and whisk them until they increase in volume and start to become meringue-like. Gently fold the egg white into the batter mix.

Extra-Fluffy Pancakes

The mix made quite a lot of batter so I had enough to try different ways of cooking the pancakes. First I poured some into yorkshire pudding tins and cooked them in the oven at gas mark 4. The pancakes came out a very soft, very fluffy but a bit pale. My next attempt was also in the oven but at a higher temperature. The pancakes had a better colour but they also had a slightly hard crust. Next I tried cooking them in the traditional way, in a frying pan. These came out looking much better, but was slower since I could only cook one at a time.

The next step is to probably try some flavoured pancakes. Chocolate or fruit will probably work well.



Thai Green Curry Pie

Story location: Home / food_and_drink /
25/Mar/2014

Thai Green Curry Pie

This recipe was Emma's idea. She suggested that a chicken Thai green curry might work well in a pie. I made a hot milk pastry, cooked a leek and a red pepper, opened a packet of sauce and chopped up some roast chicken.

It was a very good pie.



Regional Cakeathon F: Felton Spice Loaf

Story location: Home / food_and_drink / a_to_z /
24/Mar/2014

I struggled to find a recipe for the letter F but eventually found the Felton Spice Loaf, which is a quick and easy spiced fruit cake.

Felton is a village in Northumberland, just off the A1 between Morpeth and Alnwick. Many years ago I had a long weekend in Northumberland, which started off with a stay in a hotel in Alnwick. I stopped at a cafe in Morpeth on the way, so while I haven't been to Felton itself and the place has no significance for me, at least I know I have driven past it.

The recipe is another simple 'pound cake', with equal weights of self raising flour, butter, sugar and eggs, with added ground almonds, sultanas and chopped mixed peel. Since I usually find that spiced cake recipes don't have enough spice for my liking, I added the given quantity of mixed spice and then an extra teaspoon of cinnamon.

Felton Spice Loaf

The cake takes about half an hour to cook at gas mark 5 and is delicious when still warm and spread with a bit of butter. The sugar and dried fruit meant that the cake was a bit sweet so if I make it again I will reduce the amount of sugar slightly, probably to 3/4 of the original amount.



Regional Cakeathon E: Ecclefechan Tart

Story location: Home / food_and_drink / a_to_z /
11/Mar/2014

In Victoria Wood's TV series dinnerladies she described Scotland as somewhere where everywhere was spelt Ecclefechan but pronounced Kirkcudbright. I've never been to Ecclefechan but I have been to Kirkcudbright so that's enough of a tenuous link for this recipe

The Ecclefechan tart is a version of the Border Tart, with a filling of dried fruit and chopped nuts. Most of the recipes for the former seem to be walnut based with the latter being almond based although there is some overlap in the recipes.

The version I made was based on this recipe. I made a cross between the two, using chopped mixed nuts and ground almonds. We usually have several bags of dried fruit in the kitchen which we dip into regularly for snacking so I had sultanas, cranberries, apricots and cherries available.

I recently discovered a hot milk pastry, which is similar to the hot water pastry traditionally used in pork pies but with milk instead of water and butter instead of lard. It's easy to mix but needs to cool down slightly before rolling out or pressing into a pie tin.

Ecclefechan Tart

To make the pastry you'll need:

  • 2 cups/450g of flour
  • ½ a cup/120ml of milk
  • 125g of butter

Bake the pastry blind for 10 minutes

For the filling:

  • 125g of butter
  • 200g light brown sugar (or 100g each of white and dark brown)
  • 2 eggs
  • 50g chopped mixed nuts
  • 300g mixed fruit
  • 1tbs wine vinegar

Bake at gas mark 5 for 25-30 minutes. The filling will look cooked on top but still be a bit soft. It will firm up when it cools.