Pancake Tuesday has always been a huge event in our home.
When we were kids, eight of us living on top of my father’s confectioner’s shop, we had to give up chocolates and sweets for Lent. As we were all pretty much addicted to sugar, it was an almost impossible task.
In the six long weeks leading up to Easter there were two incentives. St Patrick’s Day and St. Joseph’s Day, 17th and 19th march were feast days and as such we were ‘legally’ allowed to break Lent. We used this to our advantage and quickly worked out we could hoard chocolates to binge on. What relief!
To keep our resolve towards the end of the fast, after much discussion and argument, our mother conceded that Lent ended at 12 o’clock on Easter Saturday. This was a huge incentive and another incentive to maintain our resolve. The reward for all this self-control was a better chance to getting into heaven; well worth the sacrifice I’m sure you agree!
The kick off for this marathon was Pancake Tuesday when we all gathered in the kitchen and flipped pancakes tasting them with lemon juice, butter and jam and the ultimate pancake syrup. Needless to say this overdose of sugar made the first days of abstinence the most challenging and many of us failed at the first temptation.
I have to say, every year, at least two or three of us did make it right to the end of the fast. Not bad going.
Who me, you ask?
No, not a chance. Not even once!
BACON AND MAPLE SYRUP PANCAKES
225g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
300ml semi-skimmed milk
2 large free range eggs
A pinch of salt
2 tablespoons caster sugar
30g melted butter and a blob for frying
8 -10 rashers smoked back bacon or streaky bacon
Canadian Maple Syrup
Put the flour, milk, eggs, melted butter and sugar into a blender and whizz until you get a smooth batter.
It’s good to let the batter stand for half an hour but not necessary
Put the bacon under the grill until crispy.
Choose a non-stick frying pan. Add a little butter , just enough to coat the pan.
Put a tablespoon of pancake mix on to the frying pan and let it start to cook. Add another 2 or 3 depending on space.
When the surface of the pancake starts to look dry and small bubbles appear the underneath will be cooked.
Use a spatula to flip each one over and cook on the other side.
Serve piled as high as you like with the crispy rashers of bacon and drizzle with Maple Syrup.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here