Pancake Day is one of our favourites here at Craft Gin Club HQ. Largely because it’s the perfect excuse to revel in the simple pleasure of gorging oneself on the world’s most delicious (and hopefully gin filled) delights with your friends and family!

So to help you join us in enjoying this great feast day, we have come up with some fantastic gin-soaked pancake recipes for you to try. With these, everyone will want to be at your house for Pancake Day!

Those heart-warming circles of warm, soft pastry are made to compliment the whole range of your culinary imagination. They are the perfect canvas on which to express yourself! Yet, in conversations around this delicious day the pancake itself often plays second fiddle to its toppings.

While the toppings are arguably the most exciting bit, we cannot neglect the foundation of all that loveliness. So, before we get to the gin imbued accompaniments, let’s take the time to make sure we do right by the humble, yet so vital, pancake.

We have a great recipe for you to try, which is quick and easy and won’t let you down. It provides the quintessential flat and thin pancake, or crêpe, as it’s known in France. We love the fat, fluffy American pancake too, but for us, Pancake Day is all about those skinny, floppy discs of deliciousness that we grew up on! Happy flipping, gin lovers!

The Pancake:
(This recipe makes at least 12 pancakes)

A lovely stack of pancakes

Ingredients:
100g flour
2 large eggs
300ml milk
15g melted unsalted butter
unsalted butter or vegetable oil (for the pan)

Method:
Step 1: Add the flour, eggs and half the milk to a mixing bowl and whisk until smooth. Then whisk in the rest of the milk and the melted butter. You then need to leave the batter to rest for at least 30 minutes.

Step 2: When the batter is well rested, take a medium sized frying pan and place it on a medium heat.

Step 3: Wipe a piece of butter or a small drop of oil across the pan to coat it with the thinnest layer of fat possible.

Step 4: Pour a small ladle-full of pancake batter into the pan. Using the handle of the pan, tip and turn the pan to make sure the batter coats the entirety of the pan’s base. When the pancake slips and slides easily in the pan it is ready to flip. Once on the other side, leave the pancake until it slips and slides easily in the pan again. Your pancake is now cooked and ready to eat!

Repeat steps 3 - 4 for each new pancake, taking care to keep an eye on the heat in the pan. Pull it away from the heat for a moment if you think it is getting too hot – the pan shouldn’t be smoking at any point. If it is, then it’s too hot! Also, the first pancake is never perfect, so don’t worry if that practice one gets a little messy. The 2nd, 3rd, 4th attempts will be better!   

The Toppings:

There is an endless feast of yummy toppings that you can add to a pancake. But the best ones will always include our favourite tipple – gin! These 3 gin-filled toppings are some our favourites:

1. Lemon and Sugar

We have revolutionised this Pancake Day classic by giving it an extra citrus kick and a ginny twist. Instead of adding the sugar and lemon separately we use a lemon, orange and gin syrup. Here’s how to make it:

Pancakes with orange and lemon syrup

Ingredients:
100g sugar
100ml water
Juice of 2 lemons
Juice of 2 ornages
Zest of 1 lemons
Zest of 1 oranges
25ml gin (we recommend City of London’s Six Bells for its citrussy edge, but any citrus forward London Dry Gin will work well)

Method:
Step 1: Add the sugar, water, lemon and orange zest to a pan and heat through, stirring every now and then until the sugar has disappeared. Bring the liquid to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes and then remove it from the heat.

Step 2: When the solution has cooled, add the lemon and orange juices and gin.

All that’s left to do is drizzle it all over your pancakes! We also love to add orange segments or naughty dollop of Chantilly cream* to serve, making it extra special!

*For the Chantilly cream, whip 300 ml of double cream together with 15 g of icing sugar and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract until the cream is just thick enough to hold its shape.

Cocktail suggestion: This recipe works wonderfully with a Ginerita cocktail. Together they make for a truly zesty experience!

2. Gin-laced Chocolate Spread and Strawberries

This our interpretation of another classic crêperie mainstay! Chocolate, strawberries and gin, is there a better trio? We don’t think so!

Gin-laced Chocolate Spread and Strawberry Pancakes

Ingredients:
450g dark chocolate (this needs to be 70% or more – Green & Blacks are available in most supermarkets)
225ml double cream
100g unsalted butter
40g roasted hazelnuts
100g sugar
50ml gin (we recommend Naud Gin, the delicately spiced edge to its flavour profile works so well in this spread)
strawberries – a handful per pancake
A pinch of Salt

*You can use Nutella if making your own spread is a little too much for a weeknight. Just stir 25ml gin into 100g of Nutella until they are incorporated.

Method:
Step 1: Melt your chocolate in a bowl over simmering water as you blend your hazelnuts and sugar into as smooth a paste as possible.

Step 2: Mix the cream and butter into the chocolate, followed by the nut paste, salt and gin. When everything is incorporated, pour the chocolate mixture into a jar and leave to cool.

Step 3: Cut your strawberries and then you are ready to go!

We like to spread the chocolate spread onto a fresh pancake and then add the strawberries so that we can fold the pancake over with them inside. Delicious! 

Cocktail suggestion: This recipe is rich and indulgent, so it would go great with a light, effervescent cocktail like a French 75 to keep your palette feeling fresh.

3. Berries and Ginned Honey

Simple, elegant and rather more delicate than the last recipe – this one is for the more health conscious gin lovers out there (it’s also the quickest to make if you are in a rush).

Berries and Ginned Honey Pancakes

Ingredients:
100ml honey
25ml gin (for this recipe we recommend ELG No.1, it works so well with the fragrance of a good honey!)
berries, a handful per pancake (we like blueberries and raspberries together on our pancakes!)

Method:
Stir the gin into the honey until the two are fully incorporated and then drizzle over blueberry strewn pancakes.

Cocktail suggestion: With its fragrant notes, our Breakfast Martini pairs really well with the berries and honey in this recipe.