This summer was so cool that most of the tomatoes died off last week and the eggplants won’t have time to mature. Now Autumn feels like winter. Here we are midst the best month of the year and today the temperature plummeted to 12 c. What happened to my Keatsian season of mellow fruitfulness, close bosom friend of the maturing sun? Time to light a lovely wood fire and renew my acquaintance with baking, butter and wonderful winter treats.
Like many others around the world who received a gift of sourdough starter from Celia, of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, I have religiously fed mine, (who is also named Celia ) since last July and have often been forced to throw out the excess, especially during summer when bread making wasn’t on the agenda.
Today’s cold produced a spate of frenzy in the kitchen, with soup stock on the boil and a batch of sourdough pancakes for afternoon tea, using Celia’s recipe which can be found here.
After cooking, I simply piled them on a plate, dotted them randomly with dabs of butter and drizzled them with cherry jam. I made about 25 and there are only 2 left. Who needs dinner?
If you have an excess of sourdough starter, I highly recommend Celia’s recipe. Don’t waste that sourdough starter: pancakes (or pikelets ) never tasted so good.
ALMOST ITALIAN 
