When I was
growing up it was quite common for my mother or the lady of the house to
"whip up" (as they said) a batch of fresh scones or pikelets for
morning or afternoon tea or for unexpected visitors. They were quick,
filling, very cheap to make and when they're fresh and just cooled - delicious
- especially with lashings of butter and homemade jam. Of course if you
were especially impatient or starving as
us kids would cry, you could even butter them hot and have butter and jam
dripping all over you!
My sister and I loved convincing our mother to let us use the last of the pikelet mixture to make our own "gingerbread man" - or perhaps she would do it for us. Either way the "gingerbread man" could range from a reasonably elegant and well defined chap to Mr Blobby! I also used to enjoy watching the bubbles form in the pikelet mixture as they cooked - you're very easily entertained when you're ten years old!
If we wanted to get really fancy we would whip fresh cream and have jam and whipped cream on the pikelets or scones, at which point - if served with tea - the scones would be designated a Devonshire tea.
My recipe has changed a bit from my mothers over the years but I still think it's good fun to make fresh pikelets - and I notice they still vanish just as fast as they did forty or so years ago!
To Make Pikelets
Beat 2 fresh eggs, ½ cup of sugar and 1 tbsp of melted butter in a large glass bowl until thick.
Add 2 cups of sifted flour, 2 tbsp of custard powder (or more flour if you have no custard powder), 2 good teaspoons of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of salt. Mix till combined (don’t overstir).
Add ¼ of a cup of sofa-type dry ginger ale (or other soda type drink), 1 and a ¼ cups of milk and 1 tsp of vanilla essence. Mix till combined (again, try not to overstir).
Set a large frying pan on a low to medium heat - a stainless steel or non-stick pan seems to work better than cast iron - and lightly grease it with butter. Drop about 1 tablespoon of mixture into the pan for each pikelet and cook a few minutes on each side until brown. I use my old electric frying pan and usually do 4 at a time.
Eat them as soon as they are cooled, the fresher the better - with butter and honey or golden syrup or raspberry, strawberry or some other kind of jam.
If you want to fancy them up for visitors or just for more of a treat let them cool right down and then spread them with some jam and freshly whipped cream on top, or you could do what I did above - spread them with strawberry jam, add some whipped cream, some sliced strawberries and a sprinkling of icing sugar.
Below : Pikelets in the pan and then cooling off.
My sister and I loved convincing our mother to let us use the last of the pikelet mixture to make our own "gingerbread man" - or perhaps she would do it for us. Either way the "gingerbread man" could range from a reasonably elegant and well defined chap to Mr Blobby! I also used to enjoy watching the bubbles form in the pikelet mixture as they cooked - you're very easily entertained when you're ten years old!
If we wanted to get really fancy we would whip fresh cream and have jam and whipped cream on the pikelets or scones, at which point - if served with tea - the scones would be designated a Devonshire tea.
My recipe has changed a bit from my mothers over the years but I still think it's good fun to make fresh pikelets - and I notice they still vanish just as fast as they did forty or so years ago!
To Make Pikelets
Beat 2 fresh eggs, ½ cup of sugar and 1 tbsp of melted butter in a large glass bowl until thick.
Add 2 cups of sifted flour, 2 tbsp of custard powder (or more flour if you have no custard powder), 2 good teaspoons of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of salt. Mix till combined (don’t overstir).
Add ¼ of a cup of sofa-type dry ginger ale (or other soda type drink), 1 and a ¼ cups of milk and 1 tsp of vanilla essence. Mix till combined (again, try not to overstir).
Set a large frying pan on a low to medium heat - a stainless steel or non-stick pan seems to work better than cast iron - and lightly grease it with butter. Drop about 1 tablespoon of mixture into the pan for each pikelet and cook a few minutes on each side until brown. I use my old electric frying pan and usually do 4 at a time.
Eat them as soon as they are cooled, the fresher the better - with butter and honey or golden syrup or raspberry, strawberry or some other kind of jam.
If you want to fancy them up for visitors or just for more of a treat let them cool right down and then spread them with some jam and freshly whipped cream on top, or you could do what I did above - spread them with strawberry jam, add some whipped cream, some sliced strawberries and a sprinkling of icing sugar.
Below : Pikelets in the pan and then cooling off.
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