French Style Pancakes with Egg

I don’t know any people that don’t like pancakes. Depending on the filling, you can serve them for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  You can have them with a sweet or savoury filing. You can have them extra thin or thick. The possibilities are probably endless.

I also prepare them in many different ways and I am sure that slowly I will share all of them with you on my blog. But for today – pancake recipe in a French bistro style. We had them for the first time a few years ago when we went to Paris. It was late lunch time and we had already been walking for hours so we needed a few moments to rest and – something small to eat. We found a nice looking bistro that was packed with customers (good sign) but luckily there was still a table for us. Some of us ordered a pancake with an egg but we all tried it and liked it so much that every now and then I make it myself at home.

They are pretty straightforward to make and even easier, if you have the pancakes prepared earlier. Since this is a savoury dish, it works really well (and it is healthier) if pancakes are prepared with whole meal flour but a combination or just plain flour is fine, too. The only tricky part in this recipe is making sure the egg stays in the centre and the edges of the pancake don’t unfold but I am sure that with the below hints it will not be a problem. And there is another great advantage of making the dish this way: putting the pancakes under the hot grill allows serving them to everybody at the same time.

INGREDIENTS (for 4 pancakes with eggs and more to have with other filling):

Pancakes:

250g plain flour (or whole meal flour, or combination of plain and whole meal),

250 ml milk,

250 ml water,

2 eggs,

pinch of salt,

sunflower oil for frying.

Filling:

80g grated cheese (e.g. Cheddar),

100g cooked ham (slices),

4 eggs,

Salt and pepper.

METHOD:

1. Put all the pancakes’ ingredients to a food processor and process till combined. Alternatively – use a hand mixer or a whisker.
2. Smear a big pancake frying pan with oil (you can do it by putting a drop of oil on the pan and smearing it with a folded kitchen paper) and heat it; fry pancakes. From the above proportions you will end up with more than 4 pancake so you can have the rest with any other filling.
3. Heat a grill to hot and prepare a baking tray by greasing it with a bit of oil.
4. In the middle of each of 4 pancakes put a quarter of the cheese, slices of ham and fold each pancake like an envelope leaving an uncovered area in the centre.
5. Heat up a drop of oil on a frying pan and put one pancake in, gently pour an egg to the uncovered part of the pancake (you may lift one edge before you pour the egg); season and fry for a minute pressing the edges of the pancake to make sure they don’t unfold; transfer into a prepared baking tray; repeat with the remaining 3 pancakes.
6. Put the baking tray with the 4 pancakes under the hot grill for 2-3 minutes till the eggs are set but the yolks are still runny. (Grilling time may vary depending on the type of grill so it is safer – at least if you are making them for the first time - to keep an eye on the eggs).
7. Serve with a salad made of different types of lettuce, tomatoes and vinaigrette.