Lazy weekend recipes
Fluffy yogurt pancakes, crêpes and homemade crumpets
Happy Friday!
After a busy week of hosting, eating out and spending two days at Groundswell festival I decided to keep this week’s newsletter short (and sweet). Instead of the usual list of recipes, I’m sharing three of my all-time favourite weekend breakfast ideas. I promise they are all good and guaranteed to make friends with children/friends/family or whoever may be sitting at your table.
Fluffy yogurt pancakes
These super fluffy pancakes use a lot of yogurt in the mixture and I advise doubling the recipe for a family of four, but boy are they worth it. The food editor at Waitrose Food developed this recipe when I worked there and I have been cooking them ever since. I don’t include sugar in the mixture; they don’t need it. I also use spelt flour and so add an extra 2 tsps baking powder per 175g flour. My other key tip would be not to cook them over the medium heat, as the method suggests, but to keep it lower and really watch them so they don’t catch.
Serve with: more yogurt and fresh fruit such as segmented orange or berries or else lightly poached cherries (de-stoned), rhubarb (in season) or apricots. Plus maple syrup.
Crêpes
I’m sure I’m not the only person to have grown up with Delia’s pancakes in their household, although my mum kind of adapted her pancake recipe (we used to eat pancakes A LOT). She didn’t add melted butter to the mixture and she certainly didn’t cook them thin. My method is to follow Delia to the letter. I probably cook them slightly thicker than she suggests though (thanks for that tip mum). Sometimes I serve as I go or I’ll pop a plate over a pan of gently simmering water on the hob and lay the pancakes on it under a layer of foil, then I can sit down with the boys who devour them. B has decided they are his favourite because the pancake to topping ratio is better than the yogurt ones apparently!
Serve with: Classic lemon and sugar or slices of banana with Islands cocoa and hazelnut spread. Oh my goodness this is SO good. A real treat at £10 per pot, but if it’s a special occasion I would highly recommend. You can buy jars online or at Gail’s cafes. (I’ve bought it online with bags of buttons as gifts then you don’t pay postage. The chocolate is fab.)
Crumpets
If you try homemade crumpets I think you will probably agree they taste much better than the shop bought kind, plus they come without any kind of hidden extras such as strange raising agents, preservatives or E numbers. I promise they are quick, but you’ll need to buy some crumpet rings like these non-stick kind. Again, I make mine with spelt flour and I just watch carefully that they don’t burn on the bottom.
Serve with: Butter and preserves or honey. Or else butter, a thin layer of Marmite or chutney then melt cheese on top.
Please do share your favourite morning recipes below. And I wish you many happy lazy summer weekends ahead…