South African pancakes

Back home in South Africa you would find everyone eating pancakes when it was raining. I love pancakes so much it doesn't even have to be raining for me to whip up a batch.

I am a pancake snob though, you either have the right recipe or you don’t. Back home when you went to church markets you would find these old ladies making these lovely pancakes. They were always the BEST, I was convinced that when you get old that you miraculously wake up one morning and instantly know the secret recipe..... lol well I believed that until now that is. I came across this recipe on http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=934533 and decided to give it a try. The recipe calls for vinegar but I substituted it for lemon juice.

When I started mixing all the ingredients together I though this was bound to be a disaster, but I kept the faith and proceeded with following the recipe step by step. I was tempted to add more flour but decided that if this is the way its suppose to be I should at least try it.

Success!!!! I found the recipe I have been looking for!! I made a few pancakes, sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar and run to my husband in the other room, I think my face said it all I had this massive cheesy grin on my face, he tried it and was ecstatic. Not only have I found the recipe ive been searching for but I have a taste of home right here with me.

So here we go enjoy:

Ingredients:

3 cups of all purpose flour
3 eggs
half a cup of oil (any oil should work)
25mL vinegar (regular white vinegar or 35ml fresh squeezed lemon juice)
3mL salt
15mL Baking Powder
4 cups of water

Method:
1.Grab a BIG mixing bowl and beat the eggs and water together until well blended,then add the oil,salt and vinegar/lemon and mix well.
2.Sift in the flour, mix well. Make sure that you have a smooth lump free mixture.
3.Now lastly add the baking powder,and stir that in.
4.The consistency will be very runny so dont let that have you worried ,trust me on this and stick to the recipe.
5.The mixture works best if you leave it to stand for a few hours (i leave mine to stand either over night or for 2hours+)
6.Get out a round non stick frying pan,the non stick pans work best. You can add a little bit of oil to the pan if you like but i find its then too oily and cause the batter has oil in it there is no need for it in the pan as well.
7.Heat up your pan on a meduim heat.Take 1 laddle full of batter to the pan. I lift and tilt the pan as i pour in the mixture ,this way spreading the mixture evenly .

8.The pan cake will make bubbles like you see here above. when the sides start lifting a bit then you know it should be ready to flip. Loosen the sides a little with a flexable spatula. The move the pan back and forth (the pancake should be loose and easly moving around the pan now), then lift the pan push forward ,up and pull back catching your pancake............okay okay you dont have to do this, but give it a try its fun. You can also use a big spatula or two to flip the pan cake over quickly.
It will look like this:

9.Now cook it on this side for about a minute (depending on the heat of your pan). Flip the pan cake over again to check, it should look like this below:

10. Slid it off the pan onto a plate. It is now ready to be filled with what every you like. I like mine the traditional way with cinnamon ,sugar and a squeez of lemon juice over it.

Just mix some white sugar and cinnamon together to your taste,sprinkle on the pan cake ,squeez some lemon juice and roll up the pan cake. Now for the best part "tuck in" and enjoy :)

YUMMY!!!!!!