Classic French

Pancakes with chocolate sauce

Name: Pancakes with chocolate sauce
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 2 tbsp(30ml) Whole milk; 6 tbsp(90ml) Whipping cream; 80g Dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped; 100g Plain flour; 2 Eggs, medium; 1 pinch Sea salt; 1 pinch Freshly ground black pepper; 200ml Whole milk; 50g Unsalted butter; Vegetable oil for cooking the pancakes; 1 tbsp Icing sugar (or caster sugar), for dusting; 1 Lemon, cut into wedges for squeezing over the pancakes

Heavenly light crêpes… but take my advice and don’t use the Pyrex!

Prep 30 minsCook 35 minsServes 4

The mention of pancakes – or crêpes – always reminds me of the first dish I ever cooked, crêpes suzette. Carefully I cooked, folded and arranged the crêpes on a Pyrex dish. Next, I poured over the syrupy, orange sauce. Finally, as I carried the dish to the table where my family waited but … Crash! That Pyrex dish, which I’d overheated, shattered into thousands of pieces. My ego was crushed. As you know, this catastrophe didn’t put me off cooking, or making pancakes, and I urge you to try these crêpes, served with chocolate sauce.

Ingredients

For the chocolate sauce

2 tbsp(30ml)Whole milk
6 tbsp(90ml)Whipping cream
80gDark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped

For the pancakes

100gPlain flour
2Eggs, medium
1 pinchSea salt
1 pinchFreshly ground black pepper
200mlWhole milk
50gUnsalted butter
Vegetable oilfor cooking the pancakes

To finish (optional)

1 tbspIcing sugar (or caster sugar), for dusting
1Lemon, cut into wedges for squeezing over the pancakes

Method

1
For the chocolate sauce In a medium saucepan, bring the milk and cream to the boil, then remove the pan from the heat and stir in the chopped chocolate.
Continue to stir until melted and smooth.
Serve in a jug alongside your pancakes.
(If the sauce begins to solidify before serving, briefly microwave it.
)
2
For the pancakes Place a cloth under a large mixing bowl to make it more stable. Add the flour, make a well and crack in the 2 eggs.
Season with the salt and pepper. Whisk the eggs, gradually incorporating the flour.
Thin down with a little milk. This will ensure a smooth batter.
Pour in the rest of the milk, little by little, whisking continuously. Now heat the butter in a small pan and when it foams pour it into the pancake batter, whisking all the time.
(The butter will give flavour and help prevent the pancakes from sticking. ) Keep the batter to one side.
Have a spatula ready, as well as a tray on which to place the pancakes once cooked.
3
Heat a frying pan (16 – 18cm diameter), or even better a crêpe pan, on a medium heat. Add about a teaspoon of oil to the pan and swirl it around.
Before you begin to cook, please bear in mind that the oil must be hot enough to sear and cook the pancakes – too hot and they will burn; not hot enough and they’ll be beige. True, practise makes perfect … but this is fun to practise and soon you will be the finest crêpier (or crêpiere) in town!
Add just enough pancake batter to the hot pan so that when swirled the batter covers the surface. Cook for 15 – 20 seconds.
Slide the spatula underneath and flip the pancake. Cook for a further 15 – 20 seconds.
Repeat until all the batter is used. Try to make them as thin as possible.
The right thickness will give you 12 – 14 pancakes.
4
To serve Serve still warm with a dusting of icing sugar and my homemade chocolate sauce, or simply with a sprinkling of caster sugar and lemon juice.

Cooking is always an expression of care and generosity. Enjoy this dish.

Bon appétit!