Baghrir Pancakes with Honey Mascarpone

Our summer has finally come to an end. It's been long and eventful. Filled with lots of travel, family visits, celebrations. And work too amongst all the play. We celebrated Ramadhan, then Eid. A few birthdays were dotted along the way- it seems like July is a popular month for birthdays, no? We ate a lot of this.

We visited the beautiful city of Cape Town. One of the most amazing holidays I've had. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have noticed the different shades of blue, turquoise, emerald and green I saw in Cape Town. That's when I realised how much I missed raw nature, the countryside, seafood, the mountains and rain. Yes, rain. And fog. And that light! Cape town has amazing light. And beautiful sunsets.  

And the best part of the summer holidays- long and leisurely breakfasts. We had eggs every way possible- baked, fried. But not poached. That's just not up my alley. Or Maryam's. Or Hassan's for that matter. In fact, eggs are not up his alley at all. Yet. I'm hoping that will change though. 

But what we all did agree on and always have is, pancakes. They're usually the Saturday pancake kind. Standard batter but different toppings. Maple syrup for me, honey for the kids, Nutella for everyone. Oh, and additional sprinkles for the kids. Sometimes, we add fruit and nuts too. 

These are a slight variation though, semolina pancakes. I first had these in Morocco- everyday for breakfast at El Fenn. I was smitten, still am actually. Even the name, baghrir, meaning one thousand holes that appear on the surface whilst cooking, is beautiful. Agree?

They smothered theirs in honey butter at El Fenn. I decided to fill mine with honey sweetened mascarpone instead. We were celebrating Eid actually so its seemed only appropriate. They went down well, really well actually. Although the kids would have preferred to have their topped with sprinkles. 

Our Eid celebrations were topped off with my mom's smoked kofta biryani and gulab jamuns. You can find the recipe on the Tesco blog who commissioned these recipes. 

Baghrir Pancakes with Honey Mascarpone

Ingredients:

250g (8oz) fine semolina

2 tsp flour

1 tsp instant yeast

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sugar

480ml (16fl oz) warm milk

500g (16oz) mascarpone cheese

4 tbsp honey, plus extra to serve

butter, for greasing

pistachio nuts, to serve

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the semolina, flour, yeast, baking powder and sugar. Put the milk in a blender and add the dry ingredients. Whizz until the pancake mixture is combined and no lumps remain. Transfer to a bowl and cover with a tea towel. Leave in a warm, dry place for 45 minutes, until slightly risen and bubbles have formed on the surface.

Meanwhile, whisk the mascarpone with the honey and set aside. When you are ready to cook, whisk the pancake mixture – it should be the consistency of double cream. If it is too thick, add a little water.

Put a large nonstick pan over medium heat and grease with butter. Ladle some batter into the pan, tilting and swirling it around for an even layer. Cook for 1-2 minutes until the bottom is set and many bubbles have formed on top. Using a fish slice, remove the pancake from the pan and set aside on a plate. Repeat with the remaining batter.

Dollop a spoonful of the honey and mascarpone mixture over each pancake, then fold it over to make a half moon; pinching the edges to seal. To serve, drizzle with a little more honey and scatter over the pistachios.

Makes about 40 pancakes.