'Findus' style ham and cheese crispy pancakes

When the frozen food company Findus was implicated in the horsemeat scandal, all I could think about (since I don't eat their frozen lasagnes anyway) was how much I loved their crispy pancakes as a child. They were a regular feature of Sunday tea - folded over pancakes with a golden crispy coating with ham and cheese inside. Apparently they also came in other flavours but these are the only ones I remember eating.

I looked on the internet to see if I could find any recipes to recreate these and found this wonderful blog post at Warm & Snug & Fat - I strongly encourage you to check it out. She made pancakes with a chicken and sweetcorn filling but I wanted to make ham and cheese. I ended up not actually using her recipe but just getting the basic idea for how to go about this - which is actually really simple.



First you need to make your pancake mixture - there are different recipes and methods you can use for this, but I tend to do it this way: To make two pancakes, break one egg into a jug and beat. Add an equal quantity of plain flour to the egg and beat well. Add an equal quantity of milk to the flour and beat again. In other words, in my jug the beaten egg takes up about 100ml so by the end I have 300ml of liquid.

Make two pancakes from the mixture. I'm sure everyone knows how to make pancakes, but just in case: Heat a little oil in a frying pan, pour in the pancake mixture and allow to cook for a few minutes. Turn with a spatula or, if you're brave, toss the pancake, and cook the other side.

You also need to make a cheese sauce and there are countless recipes you can use - but your sauce needs to be quite thick. I cheated as I was short of time and used a packet mix.

When your pancake has cooled slightly, add some ham. You could use cubed pancetta (fried) but for the more authentic taste I used a tin of Ye Olde Oak ham which I cut into cubes. Sprinkle over half of the pancake.

Now pour half your cheese sauce over the pancake - remember it needs to be quite thick.

Break another egg into a shallow bowl and beat. Fill another bowl with golden breadcrumbs (from a packet - I was trying to recreate the Findus pancakes after all!). I did a bowl of flour as well but decided I didn't need it.

Carefully fold your pancakes in half and dip in the egg and the breadcrumbs.

Heat a centimeter or two of oil in a pan - you can use the same pan you made the pancakes in if it is deep enough. When the oil is hot carefully slide in the pancakes and fry on both sides.

They turn a lovely golden brown colour

Lunch!

When you cut into the pancakes the cheese oozes out.. these were delicious and I've already made them twice!