Madhouse recipe : Homemade Chicken & Bacon Crispy Pancakes #retrofood

You may have seen in my recent blogpost that Walkers Crisps have temporarily brought back five retro flavours (Barbecue, Toasted Cheese, Lamb & Mint, Beef & Onion and Cheese & Chive), giving you the chance to vote for one to be given a new lease of life permanently. If you didn't see that blogpost, do make sure you head over there because there's a Walkers Crisps giveaway where you can win two bags of each flavour, as well as news of another fabulous giveaway where you can win £100,000 by voting for your favourite flavour. Walkers also challenged me to recreate a retro recipe, along the lines of Black Forest Gateau or Cheese Fondue. I thought back to some of the things I ate regularly when I was a kid back in the eighties and I came up with Findus Crispy Pancakes. I was surprised to see that they still exist, but my childhood fave flavours, chicken & bacon or cheese and ham, seem to have been scrapped. I decided to try recreating them from scratch and, even if they didn't look the same as the frozen variety, they did taste spot-on !

 Homemade Chicken & Bacon Crispy Pancakes 

ingredients :

filling :

4 chicken breasts

200g bacon

4 mushrooms

20cl crème fraîche

100g cheese (I used raclette but grated cheddar would do just fine)

smoked paprika, garlic granules, oregano

pancakes :

2 egg yolks

140g flour

100ml milk

300ml water

pinch of salt

1tbsp oil

crispy coating :

2 egg whites

dried breadcrumbs

parmesan

smoked paprika/oregano

Start by creating the filling. Finely chop the chicken, bacon and mushrooms and fry until cooked through. (The bacon should release enough fat so you shouldn't need to add extra oil.) Add the herbs and spices

Drain off the excess fat then stir through the crème fraîche and the cheese until it melts. 

Turn off the heat and reserve.

Whisk together all the pancake ingredients to create a smooth batter.

Use a small frying pan to create small pancakes - using one ladle of batter for each should be enough for six pancakes.

Flip each one over to cook on each side for 2-3 minutes and reserve.

Mix the dried breadcrumbs, parmesan, smoked paprika and oregano together on a large plate. Put the egg whites in another shallow dish.

Place a couple of spoonfuls of filling in the middle of each pancake. Now it gets a bit fiddly - fold in the two ends then roll up.

Time to get messy ! Carfefully dip both sides of the pancake in the egg white then the breadcrumb mixture before frying on each side for a couple of minutes until the breadcrumbs go golden brown and crispy.

You don't get the bright orange crispy coating I remember from my childhood but they do taste very similar. They take about an hour to make though so they're definitely not covenience food, unlike their frozen counterparts !

Disclosure : I received a shopping voucher for ingredients, in order to recreate a retro recipe !