Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Old fashioned favourites


I love pikelets and have fond memories of my Nana making them when I was small. Pikelets are like mini pancakes, but are lighter and so much nicer than pancakes! It is really easy to whip up a batch of pikelets and they are perfect with whipped cream and jam (of course, I don’t like jam, but they are good with just cream too!).

My favourite way to eat pikelets is hot, straight from the pan, with butter on them. I also quite like them cold with peanut butter on them! I made the pictured pikelets from a recipe in my favourite baking book, Ladies, A Plate. The piklets were just perfect (as is everything that I have made from that book!).



Another recipe I have recently tried from Ladies, A Plate is Josette’s shortbread. There are three variations of shortbread in the book, one using icing sugar, one using castor sugar and rice flour and one using custard powder. Josette’s shortbread is the custard powder version. The custard powder made a really nice change. The shortbread was lovely and crisp. Shortbread is always easy to make, but this was particularly easy, as you rolled the dough into logs, chilled and then sliced and baked. You could even keep cookie dough logs in the freezer and slice and bake as requested to make sure you have freshly baked cookies always. I love shortbread and this is a recipe I will try again.

Pikelets (from Ladies, A Plate)

1 egg
30g sugar
170ml milk
125g flour
1 tsp baking powder
15g butter melted with 25g golden syrup

· Whisk egg and sugar together, then whisk in milk, dry ingredients and lastly the butter and golden syrup
· Heat a pan and use a little butter on a paper towel to grease
· Drop spoonfuls of mixture into the pan. When the tops start to bubble, flip over and cook for a few minutes on the other side.
Keep warm under a tea towel.

8 comments:

Snooky doodle said...

I ve never heard of picklets but surely they re a must try. I love pancakes and these look better :)

Elyse said...

I've never had picklets either, but I love pancakes. Plus, my biggest problem with pancakes is that they sometimes turn out too dense, so your description of these little treats as "light and fluffy" has me totally sold! I can't wait to try them--especially with peanut butter!

Anonymous said...

Hey Tam!

Huge favour to ask, only if you have time. Could you please send me your basic shortbread recipe. I will be attempting on making bunny cookies for easter and need a recipe that is easy to cover with icing!
Youve definately inspired me, im not much of a baker but every week i look at your site and get great ideas! You are so clever!

Thanks,
Ashlee (ashlee_nz@hotmail.com)

Tammy said...

thanks for your lovley comments Ashlee. i have e-mailed you, but the quantities for my basic shortbread to decorate are 250g butter, 1 c icing sugar, 1 c cornflour and 2 c flour

Jennynz said...

LOL thats "pikelets" although "picklets" sounds pretty cool! I think the main difference between pikelets and pancakes (in NZ anyway) is pikelet batter has sugar in it. And I suspect that NZ pancakes are bigger than US ones? I've always read about "stacks" of pancakes in US books, but we make them so big here you are more likely to see them rolled up like a crepe. I love honey on pikelets, ooh or lemon curd, or jam...

I'm intrigued about the custard powder shortbread - does it taste a bit like yoyos?

Anonymous said...

Piklets are so yummy.. Love them with cream and jam and I too hate jam too. Ut I was wondering Tammy, could you please post the recipe for the custard shortbread please.

tamz said...

we used to call these crumpets in south africa, and i would make them with my grandma. they are such a sentimental treat to me but i haven't made them in ages... must get onto that!! nice to run into your blog!

Cakelaw said...

I'm with you - hot pikelets straight from the pan are best.

I have given you an award here:

http://kitchenlaw.blogspot.com/2009/02/ethiopian-experience-doro-wot-chicken.html