Bright Sunday Brunch

I doubt the world needs another food blog , but then again I used to think that about coffee shops and pubs. Still, if it gets me writing again I'm happy , and if you try these pancakes out on a bright, chilly, Sunday morning, washed down with some fresh coffee, it might just make you happy too!



Ingredients:

3 eggs
600ml buttermilk
1 vanilla pod (or some vanilla essence)
300g spelt flour (ideally wholegrain)
150g plain flour
1 heaped tsp baking soda
1 heaped tsp salt

Blueberries or raspberries.

Butter or sunflower oil for frying

Honey or maple syrup to serve

While spelt flour has lots of flavour, it contains very little gluten and hence you need the additional plain flour for added elasticity and a mixture that will rise. Spelt flour isn't cheap but worth it. While the recipe recommends using wholegrain spelt flour, plain spelt flour works just as well.


Method:

Beat the eggs together then add the buttermilk and beat again.

Split the vanilla pod lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with the tip of your knife. (Remember to keep the pod itself as you can reuse it to make vanilla sugar!).

Mix the vanilla seeds, flours, salt and baking soda together. Now add your eggs and milk mixture , slowly, and continue to beat until you have a smooth mixture. At this point I should say that I've seen recipes which recommend adding the dry mixture to the eggs and milk , rather than adding the wet to the dry. I've tried both and found that it makes no difference to how the pancakes taste, or the level of effort involved. Provided you work slowly, mix with care and beat thoroughly you end up with a lovely smooth mixture.

Leave the mixture to stand for 15-20 minutes.

Heat your pan with some butter or oil until its just beginning to smoke and then turn down the heat a little.

Using a large serving spoon, place three or four separate (depending on the size of your pan) spoonfuls on the pan and cook until nicely browned on both sides. The trick to turning is to watch for bubbles to form in the mix and then , as the upper surface of the pancake looks as if its beginning to thicken and "dry", turn gently.

If you're going to add fruit , I've found that it helps to use frozen berries. You can add the berries to the batter before you start cooking which is the easiest approach if everyone wants the fruit versions. If not, you can add the berries in the pan, in which case you should quickly add a little extra batter to cover the fruit. A little extra coating of batter will seal in the juices and stop , or a least slow, the berries bursting and juices burning in the pan.

Serving:

You can keep the pancakes warm in a covered bowl as you're cooking further batches. Serve as quickly as possible with all of the goodies you like from healthy honey to delicious (ok so I have to take this one on faith) chocolate and hazelnut spread.