Our flippin’ great Shrove Tuesday with a little help from Peanut Hottie

Our family LOVES pancakes. We don’t need much of an excuse. Sometimes we have them Christmas Day for breakfast as a treat. Other times, we can see the pancake episode of Peppa Pig and use that as an excuse to have them for brunch,

Shrove Tuesday is another matter. Everyone is eating them and talking about them. How do you have yours? How do you make your batter? How long do you leave your batter to stand for?

For Peppa Pig pancakes, I don’t usually measure the ingredients. I just put them all in a jug and whisk.

Shrove Tuesday calls for the perfect pancake so I did measure the ingredients out tonight.

I added something a little bit different though. To my flour, I added two heaped tablespoons of Peanut Hottie.

Peanut Hottie is an amazingly delicious and moreish peanut butter flavour instant hot beverage and they only went and sent me a sample to review it.

We did try it as a drink. I was expecting a nutty hot chocolate but tastes nothing like that. It tastes of very nutty peanuts. It also says you can bake with it which I found very exciting. Who doesn’t like a peanut flavouring in baking?

So, our traditional pancakes had a twist this year.

This what we did.

As with normal pancakes, you will need:

220g plain flour,

2 eggs

1 pint of milk

Oil for frying

2 heaped tablespoons of Peanut Hottie

Toppings/fillings of your choice.

Method:

Sieve the flour into a bowl and add the Peanut Hottie.

Make a well in the centre of the flour, break the eggs into it and begin whisking.

Add the milk gradually while continuing to whisk.

Whisk until the mixture is smooth and lump free.

It is recommended to let the batter stand for optimum pancake results but, if you can’t wait or are in a hurry, even ten minutes will do. My mum always let the batter stand over night in the fridge but let’s face it, we’re not all that organised.

When you are ready to cook, make sure the oil and the pan is very hot before you add the batter.

Coat the bottom of the pan and, rather like making an omelette, make sure one side is cooked before you even attempt to turn it over.

When you are sure that the first side is cooked adequately, you can flip it or, if you are a little unsure, it is quite acceptable, in my book, to carefully turn it over and cook the remaining side.

Serve and enjoy.

It is traditional to have sugar and lemon juice with your pancakes which I had (with a bit of banana).

Hubster had golden syrup (check out the big farmer thumbs-up!).

I decided to give Boo a choice-banana, sugar, white chocolate drops and syrup.

She ate most of the banana in the split second it took me to take the pancake to the table.

Then she really enjoyed sprinkling chocolate drops onto her pancake.

Our other family member, Rosie the dog was not left out. She got her own little plain pancake which she really enjoyed.

All in all, we really enjoyed our pancakes with a twist.

Peanut Hottie is now a favourite baking ingredient. Why not try it out for yourself?

Whatever you decide or decided to top your pancake with, remember it is Fairtrade Fortnight, so I really hope you choose Fairtrade products wherever you can-especially if you are having banana in there.

Remember too there is always the savoury option too if you prefer.

Happy Shove Tuesday.