American Pancakes w Cooked Prunes

My sister's taking an intensive exam next week.  She leaves for the library early every morning.  I've become quite motherly towards her (when it comes to food, that is.) 

I believe that by making delicious food, life's worries are that much easier to handle. 

I jumped out of bed this morning when the radio came on.

"American pancakes?" I asked Emma.

"Yes, please!"

During breakfast, you don't usually have time to get a recipe book out and measure things by the gram.  It's usually a chuck in- mix that- heat that- you take that- start eating that- there's your coffee-  and hop you go moment-

So I put the coffee on, and started to prepare the american pancake mixture.

Put a large nob of butter in a bowl and put it to heat in the microwave.
Once the butter is melted, add a long splash of milk and an egg.
In a separate bowl, some flour, a small tablespoon of sugar and three turns of the salt mill & a teaspoon of baking powder.  Add the "wet" ingredients to the "dry."  Mix.

I knew a few moments before properly getting up this morning that we had neither maple syrup nor Nutella.  (Also, not eating too much Nutella at the moment, apparently it's terrible for the environment.  As if it wasn't bad enough for the waistline.)

A slightly healthier breakfast would be better for a library bound day.

A breakfast where some vitamins were involved in some form or other.

I thought about cooked prunes - before they turn to a real compote - to go with the american pancakes.

This can be done with any fruit you have that are either: not ripe enough to eat, or too ripe to eat, or even fruit that are good to eat.  For this, I chopped two prunes up (can be done even with apple, peach, pears, etc) put in a small pan with a couple of tablespoons of sugar on a hot stove.  Shake the pan once in a while.  5 - 10 minutes, just enough for heat to pass through the fruit and the sugar to make a syrup.  Add a drop of water at the end.  

Meanwhile, make the pancakes!

Put the frying pan on the stove with a little butter.  When the pan is hot, you can use a tablespoon to pour the mixture into small pancakes.

Flip 'em.  Then put on a plate.  Add the cooked fruit.  Also good with a tablespoon of yoghurt.

I'm going to write proper ingredients and measurements out, anyway.  Some people like things to be a little clearer, especially for the first time.

American Pancakes/ Pancakes Américaine

Serves 4 for Breakfast 

200g - Plain Flour                                             200g - Farine
2 Tablespoons - Sugar                                      2 Cuillères a soupe - Sucre 
1 Tablespoon - Baking Powder                       1 Cuillère a soupe - Levure Chimique
1/2 Teaspoon - Salt                                          1/2 Cuillère a cafè - Sel

375 ml - Milk                                                   375 ml - Lait
45g - Melted Butter                                          45g - Beurre Fondu
2 Large Eggs                                                   2 Gros Oeufs

1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence (optional)        1/2 cuillère a cafè- Essence de Vanille (optionnel) 
(or fresh vanilla-  even better)                          (vanille fraiche- encore mieux)

Mix the "dry" ingredients, then mix the "wet" ingredients.  Add the "wet" ingredients to the "dry" ingredients.