It is Sunday morning and another beautiful day here in Malta.  Spring has really set in and it is starting to warm up nicely during the day. The evenings can still be quite chilly though, enough to need a jacket or a sweater to keep the chill out.  It’s been quite windy the last couple of days, but that seems, for now, to have settled too.  It is actually such a nice Sunday morning I think I’ll venture out for a long walk along the Sliema Promenade and a coffee later on.  Too much of a nice day to stay in and watch TV!  So I got up fairly early (it is Sunday after all), and made a good decent breakfast/brunch.  This morning I finally tried something I’ve been meaning to make for a while….  Honestly, I was not exactly sure why I did not try these before?  Why did I hesitate? I don’t think I know anyone who does not like pancakes, I do know someone who doesn’t fancy chocolate that much (strangely enough) but the combination could not work better. And, as quite a number of my recipes, they are fairly easy to make too!

Ingredients (makes 3-4 small crepes)

• 50gr flour
• 15gr cocoa powder
• 1 egg
• 100ml milk
• pinch of salt
• vanilla essence
• butter for baking
• splash of oil

Method:

First we make a simple batter by combining all of our ingredients in a bowl:  sift the flour and cocoa powder, together with the oil, the salt and the egg in a bowl.  Then poor in half of the milk and the vanilla essence, and  then stir carefully with a whisk till you have a thick heavy batter.   Poor in the rest of the milk to dilute the thick batter further and your batter becomes more liquid. I would try not to overwork the mixture, but keep stirring until you have a smooth batter without lumps.  Set aside and let rest for a few minutes.

To cook the crepes, place a  non-stick pan over a medium heat and let the pan heat through properly. Then add a knob of butter and let this melt. Swirl the melted butter into your pan so the full base is coated properly.  Now ladle in a 1/2 to 3/4 ladle of batter into the pan and swirl this around to cover the base of the pan evenly.  Cook for 1.5 to 2 minutes till one side of the crepe is golden brown, and then flip to cook the other side.  Repeat with the remainder of the batter.

In mean time, you can keep your cooked crepe warm between 2 plates, one normal and the other one upside down, keeping the crepes warm.  To serve, I drizzled honey over them, but you can add fresh whipped cream, fresh strawberries or raspberries, chocolate sauce, banana, some nuts or other toppings, as you feel like.   Enjoy!