Crêpes de YumYum

So tonight my brother and I are hosting a home group meeting at our quaint little garden flat which means I'll be cooking. Now I know what you're thinking: "Cue Jaws themesong! Duuuuh-dum, duuuuh-dum" - now whoa, whoa, hold your stallions for a second. I might not be able to follow a recipe, but I've got tonight covered, beasties. Trust me.What's on the menu, you ask?

PANCAKES!

Red, upper case, bold, italics and underlined.

See, what I love about pancakes is:

1) They're warm and wonderful, perfect winter belly-warmers
2) They might not seem like much, but they pack quite a punch and you can seriously feed an army with a batch! Seeing as our home group mostly consists of monster-appepited (that's a word) dudes, I need to be prepared.
3) They're pretty hard to mess up, whether you read the recipe or not.
4) You can put ANYTHING in, on and around them! So even though Jack, Joe and Jonty might not eat tomato or Steve, Stan and Stewart sneeze like freight trains when they eat pasta, with pancakes no one will go hungry.

Observe:

Leek, mushroom and cheese

Mexican jalapeno and cream cheese

French mushroom, ham and goat's cheese

Bacon, brie and chives

Chicken, leek and wild mustard

Creamy salmon

And EVEN FOR DESSERT! Banoffee

Strawberries, white chocolate, almonds and caramel

Chocolate and raspberry cream cheese

And my personal favourite... Surprise!

So, pancakes it is! If your taste buds are perspiring ever so slightly, I sincerely apologise. To make up for it, here's a recipe for pannekoek that's so simple your goldfish can make it with one eye shut and both fins tied behind it's tail. Oh no darling, don't mention it - you're too welcome!

Ingredients

3 cups of all purpose flour
3 eggs
oil for frying
3 ml salt
15 ml baking powder
4 cups of milk or water

Directions

Sift dry ingredients together. Add milk or water and beat well. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. At this point the consistency of the batter should be runny, but not watery. If you're starving, get cooking! However if your taste buds aren't near the point of exploding just yet, let the batter stand for about an hour. Trust me, it's way more scrummy that way!

When you start baking, heat the pan 'til it reaches quite a high temperature (later when they start burning slightly, you'll know to turn it down a notch Trust me). Add a little oil, and by a little I really-eally mean a little. Like a drop. Once the pan is hot, start baking, one ladle of batter at a time. Once the side begins to lift slightly and the centre is cooked, flip it! If you're a beginner, I suggest sticking to spatula flipping for now. One step at a time, little grasshopper. Once the other side is all golden and perfect, slide it out the pan and fill it with any of the above mentioned goodies... or good ol' cinnamon sugar and lemon juice. Sigh.

All pictures via Good to Know