Daffodil Soup London

Lazy Sunday mornings were made for these heavenly light American-style pancakes, which we used to call Scotch pancakes or flapjacks whenI was growing up. Now I know flapjacks are something very different indeed, made with oats and golden syrup and lots and LOTS of butter (a recipe for another time).  These clouds of joy are so easy – and if you make up a small container (or ziplock bag) of the dry ingred ients and keep it in your dry store cupboard, it's ready when the urge overtakes you.  The wet mix can then be whisked and the two combined while the frying pan is heating up … job done.   Pimping your pancakes is personal choice: classic blueberries and maple syrup, crisp strips of streaky bacon or pork sausages, simple summer fruit, peanut butter or chocolate spread with crunchy toasted hazelnuts; the options are endless.  Most good supermarkets sell buttermilk, but if you can’t find it you can add a teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar to t...

I made these this morning out of dough left over from a catering job, for which I made cinnamon whorl Danish pastries  (sustenance for the adults attending a children's birthday party). Most people, even pastry chefs, will look at you funny when you admit to making your own breakfast pastries. And I don't mean the Pillsbury ones you buy in a cardboard tube, or construct from ready-rolled puff pastry (not the same thing at all).  This is the real deal: sweet yeasted dough, rolled and folded to incorporate the (don't look now) tons of butter, rested, rolled and folded and then left to rest yet again. I won't lie to you, it's not a quick short-order meal ... but if you're in the kitchen anyway (I usually am) doing other things, then you won't notice the workload and the result is definitely worth the effort. It's really not difficult, or labour-intensive. With sweet yeasted pastry dough the options are endless: basic straightforward croissants or the posher...