Pancake Recipe 1: Baklava Inspired Pancake Cake (Egg Free!)

Happy Pancake Day Everybody!!!! This is one of our favourite days in the Devnaa kitchen as I don't think we ever otherwise make pancakes and yet today we eat them endlessly!

As ever, we've jazzed up our pancakes by taking inspiration from some of our other favourite sweets and desserts and today is a double blog treat as I post our two best pancake recipes for Shrove Tuesday 2011. As an extra bonus both the recipes are created using an egg free batter (although you can easily substitute this with a regular batter if you prefer). To start with, here's the recipe for our Baklava inspired Pancake Layer Cake:
(FYI we used a small, 15cm frying pan to make the pancakes as the slices can become quite rich and filling - especially if you're making lots of different types! Feel free to double the batter mix to make larger pancakes x)

Baklava Pancake Layer Cake:
For the pancakes:
200g Plain Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
25g Butter (melted)
400ml Milk

For the Honey Syrup:
80ml Water
85g Honey
50g Caster Sugar
1/2 tsp Rose Water
1/4 tsp Ground Cardamom
A few strands of saffron

25g Shelled Pistachio Nuts

• Start by pre heating your oven to gas mark 4 (350F/180C)


• Now place the pistachio nuts in a frying pan and dry roast over a medium heat until aromatic, you will notice that they also become much more vividly green (you can do this in the oven but as it's just a few and you're using the pan anyway it only takes a minute or two this way)


• Transfer the nuts to a plate to cool and rinse out the pan. Dry thoroughly and place ready for action on the cooker!


• Prepare your pancake batter by sifting the flour, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl


• Pour in the butter followed by the (cold) milk and whisk until completely smooth


• Lightly brush your pan with oil and set over a medium high heat


• Once your pan is hot (and not a second before!) pour in some of your batter and swirl to thinly coat the pan - I found that using a 5cm ice cream scoop provided the perfect measure for this but if you don't have one - all in all you should get about 12 pancakes out of this batter (egg free pancakes will generally be slightly thicker than regular ones)


• Once the edges of the pancake start to shrink inwards and the base is lightly golden you can flip the pancake over, yay!!


• Cook until golden (the egg free ones will need to be a little more on the browner side to make sure they are cooked through)


• Transfer to a baking sheet and repeat the entire process (including brushing the pan with a little oil) until you have used up all your batter


• Cover your stack of pancakes with foil to keep them warm while you prepare the syrup


• Place the sugar, water, honey, rose water and saffron strands in a small saucepan over a high heat


• Stir until the sugar has dissolved and then allow to come to the boil


• Once boiling, leave to simmer for about 6-8 minutes, stirring ocassionally, until slightly thickened


• Turn off the heat, stir in the cardamom and allow the syrup to cool a little


• In the meantime grind the pistachio nuts


• When the syrup is cool enough to handle you can start assembling the baklava


• Unwrap your pancakes from the foil and place the stack on a plate


• Line your baking sheet with the foil and place a pancake in the middle


• Drizzle some syrup over and place a second pancake on top


• Generously scatter with ground pistachio nuts and lots more syrup


• Repeat the process - pancake/syrup/pancake/pistachio & syrup until you have used all your pancakes (or until your pancake cake is as tall as you like)


• Leave the top pancake plain without any syrup or pistachios


• Wrap in the foil and bake in your pre heated oven for 25 minutes


• Allow to cool slightly on a rack

Slice using a sharp knife and serve warm alongside a scoop of your favourite ice cream, drizzle with any remaining syrup and scatter on any extra pistachio nuts.

:) xx