Pancake Day – Citrus Sauce

January has flown by, I feel like my feet haven’t even touched the ground, and I keep forgetting to swap the 5 for a 6 every time I jot down the date. I’ve tried pretty hard with a few of my resolutions, but the one about joining the gym and being healthy seemed to be getting pushed back week on week. But then I made it! My first trip to the gym was on Monday – it was hard work to say the least. I still ache and feel like I’m bruised all over, but at least I’ve started!Lent starts on Wednesday, and I think I’m going to commit to the challenge of giving something up. For a while now my conscience has been calling out to me every time I tuck into a bacon sandwich; a few of my friends have gone veggie (some even vegan) and when I talk to them about it or think about the meat/dairy industry in general I feel a bit weird. I’m yet to watch Cowspiracy, which seems to have turned many of my friends to the ‘green-side’  but it seems common knowledge that cows from the meat and dairy industry are the largest contributing factor to global warming. I’ve herd all sorts of crazy comparisons, like 2 weeks worth of showers causing the same carbon footprint of 1 burger! Don’t get me wrong I love eating meat, and at the moment I don’t see myself ever going completely veggie, but I just thought I would try it out for lent, see how I go and whether or not it changes my opinion on things.

Enough about saving the world with my diet – the eve of Lent is Shrove Tuesday, pancake day, one of the best days in the British calendar. Not only does it signify a second attempt at my new years resolutions, but it also means I get to gorge myself on pancakes. I usually just play it safe and go for sugar and a squirt of lemon as my topping of choice but this year I thought I would branch out a bit, go for something citrusy and sweet without being too sickly.

I improvised with this sauce, it’s an orangey amalgamation of lemon drizzle and sticky toffee sauce, but I promise it tastes incredible! You can either serve this straight up or prep the whole thing and then bake it in the oven for 10 minutes, this makes the pancakes a little more crispy.

Pancakes:

130g plain flour

2 eggs

300ml milk

1 pinch of salt

I just used a standard recipe for this, basically chuck everything in to a bowl and beat it until it’s an even consistency. If you have the patience leave it to stand for 30 minutes, if not just cook straight away in a non-stick pan. I’d always recommend melting a bit of butter in the pan first, rather than using oil – it just tastes better.

Citrus Sauce:

Juice of 1 lemon

Juice of 1 large orange

175g caster sugar

50g salted butter

200ml double cream

Juice your orange and lemon and strain to remove any pips. Then add the sugar, juice and butter to a milk-pan and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Now add the double cream, heat for another couple of minutes until the whole mixture has combined without letting it boil. Once it’s ready you can serve it warm or leave it tool cool for a while – the longer you leave it the thicker it will become – enjoy!