Classic crepes get added pizzazz as pancakes with fudge sauce and chopped hazelnuts. This post was originally commissioned by Morrison’s Supermarket as part of a series of pancake recipes.
Serving Pancakes with Fudge Sauce for Mardi Gras
It’s the beginning of Lent and you’ll want to make pancakes. But instead of boring lemon and sugar options, it’s not much more effort to make this fabulous glossy fudge sauce. It will really ramp up your pancake repertoire!
February is here and I am secretly cursing that Valentines is not after Shrove Tuesday this year because we are brimming over with Mardi Gras madness here at Maison Cupcake but have not yet done an iota of preparation towards Valentines.
But why is this so inconvenient you cry? The reason is that supermarket chain Morrisons were hosting a food bloggers seasonal pancake challenge recently asked me if I would dream up some seasonal inspiration for their website readers for a pancake special. It’s the middle of January! I’m on a diet! Of course I’ll do it!
The challenge was to create pancake recipes using the following ingredients:
Clementine
Hazelnuts
Rhubarb
Pink Grapefruit
Today I bring you the first recipe; Pancakes with Fudge Sauce and Chopped Hazelnuts.
I love maple syrup on pancakes and was delighted to discover some Maple Fudge amongst Morrisons’ own brand products. It gave me the idea to make pancakes with fudge sauce.
First a reminder of your basic crepe style pancake recipe….
Basic Crepe Style Pancake Recipe
Equipment
- frying pan non stick
Ingredients
- 100 g plain flour
- salt a pinch
- 1 large egg
- 250 ml semi skimmed milk
- 1 tbsp butter
Instructions
- Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. I sift mine directly onto the bowl on scales to save on washing up.
- Pour the milk into a hand blender beaker. Beat in the egg. Melt the butter in a small saucepan, pour this into the milk and egg mixture and stir quickly to stop butter solidifying in the cold milk. Scrape in your flour and salt and beat in with a fork.
- Make the batter smoother by giving it a quick whisk with the hand blender. Decant the mixture into a plastic jug for ease of pouring onto your frying pan.
- Melt a small knob of butter onto a non-stick frying pan over a moderate to high heat. Use a silicon brush to wipe the butter all over the surface of the pan. When the pan is hot and covered in the melted butter, pour over some batter, around the same amount equivalent to the diameter of a grapefruit. Quickly swirl the batter towards the edge of the pan to make your pancake wider and thinner.
- Allow to cook for 30-45 seconds. Ease a silicon spatula under the edge of the pancake and gradually as the pancake cooks, ease the spatula all the way underneath to check it is loose enough to turn over.
- It should take 60-90 seconds before you can flip the pancake over. Toss if you wish but I find I can flip it easily with the spatula if it isn’t too thin. Allow to cook on the other side for around 60 seconds. You can peep underneath to see how brown it is, aim for a speckled effect akin to leopard’s spots.
- Crepe style pancakes are best served immediately although you can keep them in the fridge for 2-3 days and reheat in the microwave.
Skinning the hazelnuts
To add some crunch to the pancakes with fudge sauce, chopped nuts are just the ticket. Hazelnut skins can taste quite bitter so you will do best to remove them. Skinning your hazelnuts takes around 10-15 minutes but is well worth the effort. Warm them in an oven at 180c for around ten minutes.
If you wrap handfuls (mind! they’re hot!) in kitchen paper, this has a steaming effect that loosens the skins. Roll your wrapped up nut bundle on the countertop for a moment. Unfold the kitchen paper and you’ll see the skins have mostly broken in to fragments that can be shaken off (perhaps using a colander).
You may need to scratch off any big pieces of skin remaining, using a pointy little knife. I promise this stage makes a lot of difference to the taste.
Alternatively you might buy already skinned hazelnuts, but the skin-on ones taste better, even with skins removed. I know that might sound daft but it’s true.
Making Hot Fudge Sauce for Pancakes
Making the Maple Fudge sauce couldn’t be easier. Chop your fudge chunks into smaller pieces. Warm the cream in a small saucepan on a low heat. Pop the fudge chunks into the cream and stir gently for 5-10 minutes and you’ll see they dissolve. You’ll be left with this smooth caramel-ly hot fudge sauce. It will go firm again when it cools but not as hard as the original fudge.
Pancakes topped with Hot Maple Fudge Sauce and Hazelnuts
Equipment
- 1 frying pan
Ingredients
- 50 g hazelnuts skinned
- 120 ml double cream
- 100 g fudge (I used Morrisons “The Best” Maple Fudge)
- 8 pancakes made already or shop bought (if you must)
Instructions
- (Make your pancakes if you haven't already. )
- Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 or 180c. Lay the hazelnuts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. When the oven is up to temperature, toast the nuts in the oven for around 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile heat your double cream on a medium heat in a small saucepan. Chop up your chunks of fudge and tip them into the warm cream. Stirring with a wooden spoon until molten, bring the cream almost to the boil and then reduce to a simmer for around 10 minutes.
- Remove your hazelnuts from the oven. Tip them onto some sheets of kitchen paper and wrap into a little bundle inside which the shells will steam off. Leave for 2-3 minutes and then open up the bundle. Rub the nuts with the kitchen paper to loosen the shells. You may need to scratch the nuts gently to remove some of the shell. When the shells are mostly removed, chop the nuts coarsely. This will take a few minutes but worth the effort.
- Make your pancakes if you haven’t already done so. Fold 2-3 pancakes per person in half on a plate overlapping them slightly. Pour over some hot maple fudge sauce and sprinkle over some chopped hazelnuts. Serve immediately.
Notes
More pancake ideas using seasonal winter ingredients
If you’ve liked the look of these pancakes with fudge sauce, see what I made with my other nominated winter ingredients…
The clementine, pink grapefruit and rhubarb were used to make:
- Chocolate Crepes Suzette – a spectacular French flambé dessert
- Scotch pancake stack with ice cream, pink grapefruit and whisky
- Spicy Pork Pancakes With Rhubarb.
And for further inspiration, also using winter seasonal ingredients, Cooksister’s contribution to the pancake challenge was Swede, chorizo and thyme savoury pancakes.
OMG, no chance of a diet with THAT lying around, is there!! I wish I had been given more sweet ingredients – mine were all savoury, bar the hazelnuts… and I'm afraid I've been rather tardy with posting what with my holiday slap bang in the middle of the week that this al went live. But my first recipe is now UP, as well as a chance for yet more people to win pancake kit suspiciously similar to yours (my kitchen is WAY too full already!!)
Yes, anything pancake like , suits me. These were delicious.