Perfectly good pancakes made with just s/r flour and water, and they cost 1p each!

[Breadandwine]

No need for eggs and milk - I've been making these pancakes for several years now, and everyone enjoys them:

nobreadisanisland.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/pancakes-using-just-flour-and-water.html

For some reviews of these, scroll down to the foot of the post.

Oh, I agree, I treat pancakes as health food for DS2 who won't eat any dairy or eggs if they're recognisable. A lovely way to get some good stuff into him.

powerhoop share pls!

allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/22467/traditional-scotch-pancake.aspx - I will try this one, has good reviews

chinese pancakes like the ones you have with crispy duck. No milk or egg. The flavours in the fillings.

I make these by mixing very hot/ boiling water with the flour with a fork then as soon as its cool enough, roll out on side into a long sausage, cut up to desired no. of pancakes, roll into ball shapes and use a rolling pin to flatten each ball to get the desired big circle pancake. They can be steamed or fried. They are more a texture than flavour but hold together various fillings for a tasty bite.

I wonder if you could put the traditional sugar and lemon on (maybe raisons too), roll up then put back into a pan of caramelising sugar to make a kind of vegan pastry/ variation on a traditional pancake.

Pancake day for me is pancakes of eggs, milk and flour dressed with sugar and lemon.

what you have there is fried glue. At least use some cow's milk alternative, like soy, almond or oat.

Out of curiosity I did try a flour & milk pancake (omitting the egg). Twas a bloody disaster and tasted like I had fried some congealed white sauce. I'm afraid I hold out no hope that switching the milk to water would improve things. Tbh from a health point of view I'm more interested in finding a way to ditch the wheat flour than the eggs/milk.

You can lose the flour split - it's called an omelette! :)

Hehe, of course, I adore omelettes (no milk though, they need cheese!), but less good with lemon & sugar/banana and maple syrup!

However, incase it's of use to anyone wheat disagrees with, I have discovered that you can switch the plain flour for corn flour and they work fine, a bit lighter but I quite like that. I also put in a tbsp or so of oats and stick all batter ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth. Let the bubbles settle and fry in butter as you would a normal pancake. You'll need to give the pan a good swirl as you pour the batter in and don't worry about the bubbles, it sorts itself out.

You did this exact same post before OP.

Nope - I did a similar one, which, after it was reported, was given the seal of approval by MNHQ. Wasn't you, was it?

Tomorrow is pancake day. So I posted a pancake recipe. Isn't that what the recipe forum is for?

I remember because everyone came on saying that flour and water weren't nutritious.

Not everyone, there were some quite pleasant people on there, as I recall.

And the ones that agreed with you can have no conception of basic principles.

Glue can be made from flour and water - that's all we had when I was young. But it isn't cooked, is it? As I remember it, we used the glue raw!

Cooking flour and water together in various proportions causes magical transformations to take place. And throughout history, people have been making various types of bread with just those ingredients - often, but not always, adding salt.

So, what else can be made from flour and water apart from glue - and pancakes, of course?

Soda bread - a loaf made with 200g of flour will cost you around 10p.
Dumplings
Pizza crust
Pasta
Tempura
Sourdough
Naan bread
And more.

(BTW, all these are to be found here Oops, I've done it again! Thanks for giving me the opportunity, Hector! )

And to this list, thanks to MisForMumNotMaid, we can add Chinese pancakes. (Thank you, I shall try steaming those. I've steamed (yeast-risen) Chinese buns before, which were quite good.)

Oh, mustn't forget chappatis! Tell me, do you guys go after anyone who posts about chappatis the way you've gone after me? Because they too are made out of nothing but flour and water!

OK, so the curious will check out my blog - but in return I hope to reach the other parts of Mumsnet community who are not very well off, or who have allergies, or are vegan. That's not a bad thing is it?

Which leads me to another aspect of my OP - in addition to the groups I mention, it's intended for anyone who's following some sort of calorie counting regime.

I don't know what it is about challenging the established order, here on Mumsnet. It's not the open-minded, welcoming, tolerant forum that is so evident on the 5:2 fasting threads.

(Don't mean you guys, AtSea1979, Patchouli, figgypuddings Technical, YoureBeingASillyBilly, nicename, MisForMumNotMaid - )

(Coincidentally, while I've been typing this, Panorama have been broadcasting about the recent rise of food banks in this country. Imagine if, at the Food Bank, you're given a bag of self-raising flour and a jar of jam, say - then you come on here and find out how to make pancakes using just those ingredients.)

One last thing - when you give your DC a piece of toast, do you give it to them dry? Or do you spread it with something?

Because, like it or not, that toast most likely contains the same nutrition as my pancakes!

I'm a devout (and greedy) omnivore, but it's good to have recipes available for vegans and those on tiny budgets.
No need to be rude if a recipe isn't to your taste.

Use banana instead of flour for a wheat fee version.

I do this with blackberries for breakfast and they are lovely.

banana pancakes

flour-free cream cheese pancakes

Also if you google Paleo pancakes, there's lots of wheat flour free variations with almond flour, egg and bananas.

I thought it was against MN rules to promote a personal blog other than through their bloggers network?

For me, it's the flour that's the unhealthy bit (I do have some Dove's Farm GF SR flour though, which makes lovely pancakes).

I'm going to try the banana/egg mixture.

Actually this has jogged my memory, I did try making banana & egg pancakes once, but they were a bit wet and flat. So I have just googled mikes link which says to add baking powder too. Sounds hopeful, I will definitely try it. The flavour was fine before, the texture was just off and fingers crossed a raising agent would help taht.

I just imagine they'd be tasteless , that's not a criticism btw because I know it's all about the filling.

my never fail recipe is 100g of flour, 1 egg and 200ml of milk. No sugar required in the mix.

Naan bread very often has yoghurt and egg in it. Or at least some milk. It's not just flour and water. Just so you know.

The photo is the OP looks unappetising. I'd suggest better food photography if you want to entice people to try austerity pancakes.

I'm making American style pancakes today because my lot dislike rubbery English pancakes.

For example, these low carb pancakes look delicious. The one in the OP looks like a disaster.

allrecipes.co.uk/m/recipe/22467/traditional-scotch-pancake.aspx - these were yummy and the kids gobbled them up today. only makes 6 though so would need to double up if you wanted more.

I suppose if they do taste any good (when covered in sugar/lemon/golden syrup/maple syrup/for god's sake, SOMETHING with flavour), they'd be suitable for vegans/people with lactose intolerance etc?

Apart from that... nah.

Chapatis can be made from just flour and water - but they don't have much taste either.... ours (made from my Dida's recipe - Bengali) contain either oil or oil and natural yoghurt - depending on what you have... and they taste lovely ....

my friend is Italian and would never just use flour and water for pasta - the pasta itself is a main player in her Northern Italian cooking, she always adds eggs.. and for Pizza dough.... the oil, salt and yeast add flavour too... I've never had flour and water pizza dough - is there really such a thing?

there is a common theme - flour and water is pretty tasteless - all you taste is the cooking medium or any filling... if all you want is something in your stomach it is fine... I guess... but I like everything I eat to be "worth it" taste wise too...

You can make these things without additional ingredients.... but why bother if they taste of nothing and have no added nutritional value.

sorry - I missed the Naan bread - flour and water does not a Nann make..... Naan is leavened with yeast....

Dumplings - add suet
Pizza crust- add yeast and oil
Pasta - add oil
Tempura - add a filling
Sourdough - add a starter culture
Naan bread - add yeast

I'd imagine pizza dough without yeast would be a bit flat and not very nice. People having been adding extra stuff to improve the flavour and texture of flour and water dough for a long, long time.

Soda bread needs bicarbonate of soda and buttermilk (and salt and sometimes other stuff). It's not just flour and water either.

And, as others have said, no one makes tempura batter on it's own. You use it to coat something else. Pitta bread has yeast in it too.

If you just use flour and water and nothing else you won't get anything like the variety of different types of bread/dumpling/batter that exist in the world.