On Sunday morning I was dying for some pancakes. I didn't feel like mixing up a batch and having to flip 12-15 pancakes, I wanted something easy. I suddenly remembered a great pancake recipe which my mother had cut from a newspaper article back in the '80's. It was the David Eyre Pancake. I had recently torn it out of an old cooking scrapbook I had.
I have eaten this pancake by the original recipe and have changed it up a bit whenever seasonal fruit was available. Yesterday, it was apples. (Not in season, but I had some!) The original recipe is in bold print, I added the rest. Try them both ways and tell me which one you prefer. My family loves them with the apples. The sugar on top makes the pancake slightly crunchy. Add a little bit of maple syrup and you are good to go. They melt in your mouth, very delicate, nothing like your normal pancake. If you look at the last picture (at the bottom), you'll notice it disappeared as quickly as I got it out of the oven.
David Eyre’s Pancake
2 eggs
½ cup flour
½ cup milk
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla
Pinch of ground nutmeg
4 tablespoons butter
1 apple, peeled, cored and sliced
1/8 of a cup of brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, mixed together
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
Juice of half a lemon
Fig or blackberry jam, pear butter or any kind of marmalade
Preparation:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In a mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add the flour, milk, vanilla and nutmeg and lightly beat until blended but still slightly lumpy.
2. Melt the butter in a 12-inch skillet with a heatproof handle over medium-high heat. When very hot but not brown, place the apples in the pan, pour in the batter. Sprinkle with the sugar mixture. Bake in the oven until the pancake is billowing on the edges and golden brown, about 15 minutes. If your pan has a rubber handle, make sure you cover it with aluminum foil.
3. Working quickly, remove the pan from the oven and, using a fine-meshed sieve, sprinkle with the sugar. Return to the oven for 1 to 2 minutes more. Sprinkle with lemon juice and serve with jam, pear butter or marmalade. Serves 2 to 4. Note: If you are making it with apples, you don't have to use the lemon juice or jam. Maple syrup is delicious!
