Pancakery

I tried a new recipe involving flour, that precious resource (though the shortages are abating, I still remember, much as I felt strangely empowered by buying a 4-pack of loo roll a few weeks ago, from a fully-stocked supermarket shelf). I also had breakfast-pudding for dinner. All the rules are overturned.

The recipe is a ricotta "breakfast pancake", from recipe book Taverna. Maybe in Greece you can face separating eggs and a 30 minute wait for breakfast, on a hot morning overlooking the sea somewhere. Not so much with me, where it's strictly bread fumbled in the general direction of the toaster, and all the Yorkshire Gold you can inhale.

Anyway, this is a cheerful summer dinner if you want fruit and sweet and easy baking. It also kept fine for the next day, which was by no means a given. Joyful rule-breaking, because why not.

Separate 2 large eggs (or 3 medium in my case, due to fridge overstuffing), add yolks to 125g ricotta (half a tub), 100ml milk, 60g flour, 60g caster sugar*, 1/2 tsp baking powder, some salt. Whip the whites up fluffy to stiff peaks.

Cannot contemplate this level of work before noon

When you're ready to combine, preheat oven to 180deg/Gas 5. Fold the egg whites into the wet mix. Take a frying pan that will go in the oven (yeah, I don't have one of those, hence the casserole) and melt 30g butter in it till bubbling. Then tip the batter into the bubbling pan, and put that straight into a warm oven. Leave it 20-25mins. I checked it at 18 mins and it was well under, but it also didn't collapse like a souffle, so no worries.

Meanwhile, get your toppings together. Mint leaves, runny honey, and some stone fruit, griddled (I don't have one of those either, unsatisfactory frying pan solution for apricots instead). and I used up the rest of the ricotta as well. It's not breakfast, so why not bulk it up?

Oven pancake is done when it's brown and bubbly at the edges. I recommend drizzling the honey while it's warm, which worked well for the next day leftovers too.

It's dense, of course, but there's a decent cakey rise on it, as you can see from the half left. It does shrink and get more dense over time, but not in a bad way.

I had the leftovers for breakfast today, I must admit, before heading out for An Actual Picnic with Friends for the afternoon. The weather was awful, lack of loos a problem, and they cycled across London to see me, the idiots. I brought wine and forgot disposable cups, the idiot. But it was *fantastic* to see them in real life. And they'd brought gin inna tin, so all was not lost. One is furloughed. The other is trying to work out what their company can offer in a completely new economy. It's in no way normality, but it's still a joy.

*I think you could cut this a bit, if you're also drizzling honey. It wasn't wildly sweet, but I'd have liked it a fraction less. And you definitely want the honey after baking.