“Muuuum… will you make pancakes for breakfast in the morning??”
There was so much hope in their little twinkly eyes, that I wavered for a moment, and then I crushed it.
“Nope.”
On a school morning I get four kids up, cleaned, dressed, fed, packed and to school by 8:45. On many weekend mornings I get any number of children up and ready and to whatever crazy event we have on that day. But on weekends when we have nothing on… I lay around in bed, I cuddle my kids, I read, I chat, I peruse pinterest, but I do not make anyone breakfast. I do not.
So the answer was a crushing no to pancakes for breakfast, but before I was crowned ‘unfair’ and ‘the worse mum ever’ I added…
“I will not make pancakes for breakfast but you can make pancakes for lunch.”
“Awesome!”
Pancakes are a nice. easy, pretty much foolproof recipe that always turns out edible, a perfect kid-made recipe. The recipe lends itself to a little experimenting with flavours and added extras and they are also a great way for older kids to learn how to manage a hot stove safely. With some instructions and a little supervision the first few times, my 7 and 10 year olds can now manage pancakes without any help.
On this particular weekend we had some left over stewed apple and berries and the big kids decided they would experiment with making pancake pockets!
With some trial error the kids discovered that you need a quite runny pancake mix to make a pocket, otherwise the mixture in the middle doesn’t cook and they tend to break when you try to fold them. I also suggested we add an extra egg to the mixture to give it a little more flexibility.
Here’s the recipe we used to make pancake pockets:
- 1 cup self raising flour
- 1 cup plain flour
- 2-4 tbsp sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups of milk (plus extra)
- Fruit and fillings - cooked apples, berries, banana slices, choc chips, pineapple, coconut etc
- In a large bowl combine the plain flour and self raising flour and the sugar. (use more or less sugar depending on how sweet you like your pancakes)
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the eggs and a splash of milk. Beat the eggs and milk gently with a whisk, slowly combining with the dry ingredients, adding more milk as you go until you have a smooth mixture.
- You want your mixture quite runny, so feel free to add a little more milk if needed.
- Heat a fry pan over a medium heat and brush generously with butter.
- Pour around about ¼ of a cup of mixture into the centre of the pan, allowing it to spread out into a large circle.
- When the surface is covered in lots of bubbles and the carefully spoon a little of your filling onto one half of the pancake.
- Carefully flip half the pancake over to trap the filling in a pocket.
- Continue to cook for a little while then carefully flip your pocket over to cook on the other side until both sides are golden brown.
We filled ours with apple and berries, and when they were all gone we tried sliced banana and chocolate chips, and pineapple chunks with a little coconut. All delicious!
It takes a little bit of skill to successfully fold over the pancake and flip it, but even the disasters taste great!
These pancake pockets make a quick and easy lunch, or dessert… or breakfast! And they are fancy enough to serve on any occasion.
What will you put in your pancake pocket?
Cathy @ NurtureStore says
Pancakes are my girls’ favourite ever! We have them every Monday for breakfast now that we homeschool. They’ll love your pocket idea, and I love the idea of handing the cooking over to them.
Anne@gritandgiggles says
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing.