‘I Tried Mary Berry, Gordon Ramsay and Tesco’s Pancake Recipes – and Learned the Best Tip’

When I think about Shrove Tuesday, I think about Aunt Bessie’s frozen pancakes, because that’s what my mom used to serve when I was a kid – cooking isn’t exactly her forte.

But I don’t care that they’re not homemade – they’re covered in sugar and so I’m happy.

However, to this day and I know that nothing can compare with pancakes you have successfully flipped yourself.

I was on a mission to try to make the best pancakes, and along the way, I experimented with popularity. cooking recipe by people who like Mary Berry and Gordon Ramsay along with a pre-made pancake shaker mix from Tesco to see how its ticket price.

Obviously there was a winner out of three and it helped me learn the trick to making the ultimate crepe-like pancakes.

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Mary Berry’s Method

I started experimenting with Mary Berry’s easy pancake recipe from her Complete Cookbook, which gives the exact timing of everything – the dough (made with 125g flour, 300ml milk , one egg and one egg yolk) needs to rest for 30 minutes, the pancakes are cooked for 45-60 seconds on one side, then flip and bake for another 30 seconds on the other side.

The recipe calls for two to three tablespoons of batter to be scooped into a pan over medium heat and spread all around, but even with a small pan of pancakes, this isn’t enough to cover the entire bottom, so there must be a few options. select. Take.

The 60-second cooking time was fine for one side, but the 30-second didn’t seem long enough for the other, so again I had to improvise a bit.

Despite some issues with the recipe itself, the pancakes are beautifully colored, look just like the photo from the recipe, and they taste pretty good.

Definitely your average pancake, but I wouldn’t complain if someone served these to me on Pancake Day.

Rating: 4/5

Gordon Ramsay’s recipe

Followed by Gordon Ramsay’s ‘best pancakes’ recipe, which he shared in a two-minute video on Twitter during the lockdown last year, garnering thousands of likes.

His method is slightly different from Mary’s, where two eggs are added to 100g of flour and 300ml of milk. Everything is mixed well before letting it sit for 15 minutes.

Ramsay encourages his followers to heat a nonstick pan to high, add a can of oil spray to make it smoke, before filling it with a ladle of batter and “rolling it around,” to make the pan. Pancakes are thinner and more crispy.

When it comes to cooking, he just says “let it cook on heat”, so you can time it yourself, but I did with about 60 seconds like before.

Flipping pancakes is a skill I’ve never mastered before, but thanks to a top tip from Gordon, that’s all changed.

“How to Flip a Pancake Perfectly,” he says, “tap your pan twice, shake and it comes apart. Bring the pie to the end,” he said. [of the pan] then push it away and stroke it back with your wrist. “

Turns out, it really is that simple.

After flipping, he recommends leaving it on the other side for 30 seconds before serving – and he says you can add lemon juice straight to the pan while it cooks for a truly delicious dish.

Pancakes are much thinner than Mary Berry’s, with crispy edges and a much lighter, savory taste, possibly due to less flour in the dough.

Ramsay wasn’t lying when he said his pancakes were ‘awesome’.

Rating: 5/5

Tesco Pancakes

In the end, I compared the chefs’ recipes to a pancake shake from Tesco, which I’m sure many time-strapped shoppers will also use today.

Even so, if you’re thinking of buying one at the last minute, I suggest you reconsider.

The method here couldn’t be easier, you simply add cold water to the bottle, pop the cap back on and shake well for two minutes or until the mixture comes together. Then you heat the pan and pour oil into the pan and pour in the ingredients to make pancakes.

However, you get what you give and in this case, you get a thick, lumpy dough that makes for bizarre pancakes.

Pouring the dough instead of using a ladle is a hassle because you have less control over the dough and how much dough ends up in the pan. As such, every pancake I make using this comes in a different size, shape, and thickness.

The dough itself is a weird color compared to the two homemade ones, it looks rather rubbery when cooked and gradually darkens – it’s very reminiscent of Aunt Bessie’s frozen one, which I realize doesn’t steam very lead. .

Cooking times for these are much longer, with the bottle recommending one to two minutes per side – and pancakes really need that extra time.

But despite everything, the end result is not completely inedible.

Don’t get me wrong, the pancakes are weird, with a saltier flavor that would go well with cold cuts and cheese fillings instead of lemon and sugar, but they didn’t go straight to the bin in the end, so I couldn’t give them a zero.

The £1 shaker bottle may seem like the best and easiest option at first when you’re in the supermarket, but it’s well worth the extra effort and making pancakes from scratch.

I spent around £3 buying the ingredients for the first two recipes (plus £10 for a proper pancake pan) and that’s a lot of money spent!

Rating: 2/5

Final thoughts

While Gordon Ramsay’s two-minute pancake tutorial isn’t quite as precise as Mary Berry’s or as straightforward as the Tesco option, it turns out to be the best of the bunch.

I’ve learned a lot from all three tests, though – letting your batter rest for 30 minutes instead of 15, for example, doesn’t seem to make any difference to the end result. .

Your pancakes also need to be really hot. That mean mean temperature just doesn’t cut it. Sorry, Bezza.

Likewise, touching the pancake pan on the stovetop before attempting to flip, works wonders – the push-and-swipe motion demonstrated by the Michelin-starred chef.

I’ve probably eaten enough pancakes by now to last until Shrove’s Tuesday, but you can bet that when it comes out in 2023, I’ll be looking for Ramsay’s recipe again.

Do you have a top cooking tip to share? We want to hear all about it. Email courtney.pochin@mirror.co.uk