Lily's Cottage Gourmet Pancakes for breakfast?

When I googled the origins of the humble pancake, I learnt that it certainly is a form of food that has been around since ancient times. Pancakes were eaten with honey by the ancient Romans and Greeks, and the Elizabethans spiced them up with spices, rosewater, sherry and apples. The tradition of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday continues today in the Christian communities; a day of feasting before the Lent period.

As per my introductory post,
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@lizelle/hi-steemit-this-is-lizelle-from-laid-back-city-of-durban ....
we love spoiling our guests with crumpet breakfasts here at Lily's Cottage Durban West, www.lilyscottage.co.za.
Our cute little Swedish guest, 6 year old Nils, managed to eat 7 crumpets with syrup one morning, a record for such a little chap! Of course he was teased endlessly about that (they stayed with us for 2 months)!

Better still, should it be a cold winter morning, we serve pancakes; some of you may know it as crepes. We supply the pancakes and various fillings and the guests have fun making up their own combinations. Lovely comfort food on a cold winter’s morning or evening 😊

Traditionally in South Africa pancakes are sprinkled with a sugar & cinnamon mixture, and drizzled with syrup before rolling up. Various savoury fillings can be made, and sweet fruity fillings as well.

Pancakes are a great fund raiser as well; something I did for years at fetes for various service organisations. I recently ran a workshop for an under-privileged community, where the ladies were taught how to make pancakes from scratch and took some home to their families. They were quite excited as they said this would be great as an emergency staple in the future. I also encouraged them to consider setting up a little pancake making business as the start-up costs are very low, and ingredients cost very little. The saying ‘it sells like hotcakes’, which is believed to have been derived from pancakes, certainly applies!

My recipe for pancakes does not use milk, you have not read wrong, milk makes the pancakes rubbery, hence water is used which produces featherlight pancakes.

PANCAKES RECIPE:
2 EGGS
650ml WATER (2 ½ cups)
5ml (1 teaspoon) LEMON JUICE
Couple of drops VANILLA ESSENCE (optional)
500ml CAKE WHEAT FLOUR
12ml (2 ½ teaspoons) BAKING POWDER
2ml SALT (1/2 teaspoon)
Using an electric food mixer (I use my hand mixer), beat eggs with water & essence till frothy.
Sift dry ingredients together, and slowly add to egg mixture whilst beating continually until mixture is smooth.
Place just enough oil (about a teaspoonful) to cover base of crepe / pancake pan, heat on stove top.
Using a soup ladle, spoon enough mixture to cover base of pan, turning pan so that mixture runs to fill pan.
Turn once it is light brown underneath and cook the other side.
Pile onto a plate and serve with fillings of choice. Let your imagination run wild in the kitchen.
Savoury fillings: Curried beef mince (ground beef), Creamed mushrooms, Make up a thick cheese sauce & add smoked chicken or turkey & mushrooms, or ham & mushrooms or Asparagus & Leeks or Smoked fish & Spring Onions; the list is endless.
Sweet fillings: Sprinkle pancake with a sugar & cinnamon mixture, serve as is or spoon any of the following on: Spicy stewed apples, Sliced banana & cream, Strawberries & cream, all real yummy, served with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, thick double cream Greek yogurt or a healthier low-fat yogurt.

Hope you are inspired to try out this simple recipe, plus share ideas for fillings. One thing is for sure though, Lily's Cottage pancakes are the best!

History of pancakes: http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2014/05/21/hot-off-the-griddle-heres-the-history-of-pancakes/