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Thin or fluffy, rolled or risen, pancakes come in all shapes and sizes and everybody has their way come Shrove Tuesday. For many, it’s hard to look beyond the gentle simplicity of a traditional crepe, a buttery batter stretched to become flat, with frilly edges, a softer centre, every inch doused heavily in lemon and sugar.
That’s not to say it’s not worth experimenting. Pancakes have been around since the Ancient Greeks after all, so who’s to say that retro dish is where the batter starts and ends. Here, for Pancake Day 2026, we’ve asked eight of the country’s best known chefs to tell us how they like theirs. Find eight expert recipes below.
Ci Ci’s low dairy pancakes
Issy Croker
“This recipe had to feature in my debut cookbook for two reasons: firstly because we had to reduce the dairy in our daughter Ci Ci’s diet, so I came up with this variation out of necessity. And secondly: because they’re a staple in our household. I’ve been making these pancakes with Ci Ci most Sundays since she was 3 years old. To remember her standing on a stool, barely being able to see over the kitchen counter, to seeing her now, getting ingredients out of the cupboard and weighing them herself, is just the best thing ever. You can adjust the consistency (thick or thin) by adding more or less milk.”
- 160 g self-raising flour
- 2 eggs
- 210 ml oat milk (or your
- preference of milk)
- Pinch of sea salt
- 25 g crunchy peanut butter
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 15 g honey
- 1 tsp unsalted butter, for frying
- Bananas, sliced
- Raspberries
- Greek yoghurt
- Maple syrup
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Sugar, for sprinkling
- In a large bowl, combine all the pancake ingredients, except the butter, and whisk together.
- Over a high heat, melt the butter in a small frying pan. Once the butter is brown and nutty, add a ladleful of pancake batter and tip the pan to spread the mixture evenly. Leave it to cook for 2 minutes, then flip and cook for a further 2 minutes more; until your pancake is golden brown on each side.
- Remove from the heat and stack your pancakes on a plate to keep them warm while you repeat the process to cook the remaining batter.
- To serve, Ci Ci and I like to fold each pancake into quarters. Eat with sliced bananas, raspberries and a dollop of Greek yoghurt and maple syrup – or keep things classic with lemon and sugar.
Extract from For the Love of Food by Paul Ainsworth (Pavilion Books).
Courtesy of tashas inspired
Many great dishes have been created by accident in the kitchens of absent-minded cooks and hot-headed chefs. One story of the origin of these crêpes tells how a young assistant waiter was finishing off a dessert for the Prince of Wales at the Café de Paris, when it caught fire. What the chef was thinking in entrusting this grand finale to an amateur we can only guess. But we’re grateful he did, because we now have this wonderful, burnt sugar and orange liqueur flambéed classic. Serve the crêpes with vanilla ice cream.
- 120g flour
- ½tsp salt
- 500ml milk
- 1tsp sugar
- 5tbsp soft unsalted butter
- 3 large eggs
- 1 vanilla pod, seeds removed 1 tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra for frying
- 125ml beer, preferably lager
- 100ml Grand Marnier (or equivalent orange liqueur) NB. for serving
For the orange liqueur sauce
- 500ml orange juice
- 60g sugar
- 1 vanilla pod, seeds removed
- 2 oranges, zested and segmented
- 180g butter, softened
- Sift together the flour and salt, then whisk together the milk, sugar, butter, eggs and oil.
- Whisk the milk mixture into the flour mixture. Next, pour the batter through a fine sieve into a large mixing bowl.
- Whisk in the beer, cover, and refrigerate for about 4-5 hours (although it’ll be best if left overnight).
- Remove the batter from the fridge and let it stand to reach room temperature.
- Once it has, heat a flat non-stick crêpe pan (though a frying pan will do) to medium heat, lightly brush with a little bit of oil and pour 125ml of batter into the pan.
- Once the crêpe starts to bubble all over, it is ready to be flipped. This should be about two minutes per side.
- Remove the crêpe from the pan, place on a platter and cover with a lid or dome to prevent the crêpes from drying out. Repeat until the batter is finished.
- Heat the orange juice, then add the sugar, vanilla seeds and orange zest and bring to a boil.
- Once the sugar has dissolved, whisk the butter in, bit by bit. When the sauce is smooth and thickened, add the orange segments and bring back to a boil.
- Place the crêpes one at a time into the boiling sauce. Make sure they are completely covered. Fold them in half and in half again to make triangles, making sure you have a few orange segments inside each crêpe.
- Once they are folded in the pan, covered in sauce and very hot, add the Grand Marnier. Carefully set the sauce alight, and allow it to flame briefly.
- Serve with ice cream and the remaining sauce on the side.
Printed with permission from tashas inspired, available to purchase at tashas Battersea
‘Silver Dollar’ pancakes
Marcus Cobden
On a typical Shrove Tuesday, I make American-style “silver dollar” pancakes for my kids in the morning. They’re named after their small size and are really fun to stack up. We normally serve them with maple syrup and have them for breakfast that day. Then, in the evening, my husband James (Knappett, co-founder of Kitchen Table) will make us traditional English pancakes for dessert after dinner. He serves them classic, with sugar and lemon juice.
- 225g all-purpose flour
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 350ml milk
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 eggs, separated
- Add the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to a large bowl. Whisk to combine.
- In another bowl, combine the milk and vegetable oil. Add the egg yolks to the milk and whisk to break up the yolks.
- Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Don’t worry, there will still be small lumps.
- Place the egg whites in another bowl and beat until they have stiff peaks.
- Add about 1/3 of the stiff egg whites to the pancake batter and stir it in to combine and lighten the batter.
- Add the remaining egg whites and gently fold until no white streaks appear.
- Heat a griddle or skillet over medium-high heat. Grease with butter or with nonstick cooking spray.
- Pour about the size of a “silver dollar” of batter (about 4cm diameter) onto the hot griddle. Let the pancakes cook until bubbles form, then flip and continue to cook until browned and cooked through.
- Continue with the remaining batter until all of the pancakes are cooked
Pancakes with berry compote, fresh berries and clotted cream
Press handout
“My secret to light and fluffy pancakes is to add the egg yolks first to your mixture and allow it to rest for three minutes. Then in a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and combine all ingredients together. If you want thin, crispy crepes, always make sure your pan is not too hot as the batter goes in; you should be able to tilt the pan, so the batter forms a thin (!) layer over the base. Then gradually turn up the heat and cook for two to three minutes on each side. Keep checking so it doesn’t burn.”
- 1.7kg malted flour
- 250g unsalted butter
- 8 eggs
- 1l whole milk
- 200g caster sugar
- 500ml water
- 1kg frozen blueberries
- 400g caster sugar
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, melt the butter and separate the egg yolk from the whites.
- Make a well with the flour in the bowl and in the centre add the yolks, sugar, butter and milk. Mix and adjust the texture with water and allow to rest for three minutes.
- In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites into a foam and then combine with the rest of the mixture. Have your non-stick pan and some butter ready to cook.
- Put a ladle full of batter into the pan and cook the pancakes for two minutes on each side, then finish in the oven for five to six minutes at 190°C.
- For the compote, combine all the ingredients together in a pot, and cook them over on a low heat till it’s all reduced by half, then take it off the heat.
- When everything is ready, assemble your pancakes. Top with clotted cream and garnish with a mixture of fresh blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. Add some good quality maple syrup and icing sugar, et voilà.
Sweet Goan pancakes filled with jaggery and coconut
Press handout
“There are hundreds of different pancakes across India, from sweet malpua to savoury dosa. I am constantly discovering new ones. This year I am making Alle Belle, which is a sweet pancake recipe from Goa and makes for the perfect afternoon treat. If you fancy going the extra-mile, then garnish the pancakes with a dusting of icing sugar and some chopped pistachios.”
- 80g plain flour
- A pinch of salt
- 1 egg
- 150ml whole milk
- A pinch of baking powder
- A little ghee or clarified butter
- 6 pitted dates, finely chopped
- 50g fresh grated coconut, desiccated coconut is a fine alternative, toasted to a light golden brown in a dry pan
- 50g Jaggery or dark muscovado sugar
- 1 cardamon pod, grounded to a powder
- A small pinch of Maldon salt
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, the egg and baking powder. Slowly incorporate the milk until you have a thin batter consistency. Leave this to one side whilst you make the filling.
- Combine all the ingredients for the filling in a pan. Add a little splash of water to prevent the mixture from sticking.
- Cook over a low heat until all the ingredients have come together, and you have a nice thick sweet paste with no liquid — this should take about 10 minutes. Allow to cool and set aside.
- To make the pancakes, heat up a little ghee or clarified butter in a non-stick frying pan over a low to medium heat.
- Pour a ladle of the batter into the pan, and swirl around to allow the batter to spread into a thin pancake. You don’t particularly want any colour on the pancake itself, so keep the heat relatively low and flip the pancake after a couple of minutes or so.
- Once flipped, add some of the stuffing into the middle of each pancake and remove from the pan onto a serving plate. Roll up the pancakes, and repeat until you have used up all the batter and filling!
TWELVE TRIANGLES
“For crêpes, I would always say add an extra egg yolk, make sure the batter is thin enough and give it a good rest before cooking”.
Makes: nine large or 14 small
- 220g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 40g caster sugar
- A pinch of salt
- 3 eggs
- 150g buttermilk (the thick stuff from the supermarket)
- 30g butter
- Weigh the dry ingredients into a bowl
- Melt the butter in the frying pan you will use to cook the pancakes, then wipe off the excess with kitchen roll
- Whisk the eggs and buttermilk with the melted butter. Add this into the dry ingredients and whisk to mix, it will be quite thick and start to bubble as the bicarb starts to react with the acid from the butter milk.
- On a medium heat, drop spoonfuls of the batter into the frying pan and cook for a few minutes on each side, you will see bubbles start to come through the batter and you are looking for them to be a nice deep golden colour on each side.
- Serve with yoghurt, roasted rhubarb and sweet dukkah for some crunch. These are also great with butter and jam if you have leftovers.
Grantley Hall
- 2 eggs
- 170g of caster sugar
- 140g of unsalted butter, melted
- 340g of plain flour, sifted
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 450ml of skimmed milk
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 120ml of maple syrup
- 150g pecan nuts, chopped
- Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the butter, flour, baking powder, milk and vanilla essence. Mix all ingredients together to make sure there are no lumps.
- Place a dry crêpe pan over a medium heat. Once hot, pour in half a ladle of batter, immediately tilting the pan with your other hand to spread the batter evenly.
- Cook until the edges begin to colour and you notice small bubbles appear all over the surface, and then flip the pancake.
- Cook for a few moments on the other side and then slide onto a plate.
- If you would like to serve straight away, keep warm until all the pancakes are cooked.
- To serve the pancakes, top with chopped pecan nuts and drizzle with maple syrup.
Thai-inspired banana and cardamom pancakes
Farang
- 200g plain flour
- 2 large eggs
- 300ml whole milk
- 25g melted butter
- 1 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 1 ripe banana, mashed
- 1 tsp Thai cinnamon
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2 bananas, sliced
- 200ml sweetened condensed milk
- 2 tbsp butter
- ½ tsp Thai cinnamon
- Optional: crushed peanuts
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, melted butter, mashed banana, Thai cinnamon and vanilla extract until well combined.
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and gradually whisk in the wet mixture until you have a smooth batter. Let rest for 15 minutes.
- Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add a small knob of butter and let it melt.
- Pour about 60ml of batter into the pan, tilting to spread evenly. Cook for 2-3 minutes until bubbles appear on the surface.
- Flip and cook for another 1-2 minutes until golden brown. Keep warm while you cook the remaining pancakes.
- For the topping, in a small pan, melt the butter and add the sliced bananas and Thai cinnamon. Cook gently for 2-3 minutes until the bananas are slightly caramelised.
- To serve, stack the pancakes, top with the caramelised bananas, drizzle generously with condensed milk, and sprinkle with extra Thai cinnamon. Add crushed peanuts if desired.
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