So I’m a morning person. Whether it’s the holidays, the weekend, wherever I am in the world, my body clock is tuned to wake up at 6am. I suspect I never learnt to self settle as a baby – so let’s blame my parents on this one.

The downside is the rest of the world seems to be fond of a sleep in so I’m often pottering around alone until the rest of the household surfaces.

There’s plenty of upside however as having a few hours to amuse yourself, write your blog, read the news, watch the crap TV that sous chef doesn’t let you watch is a bit of a luxury. Also, if you do a supermarket run before the world gets up, all the shelves have been freshly stocked, no one’s around and it feels like you’re J-Lo getting the Woolies shut down especially for you (if J-Lo shopped for her own groceries like regular folk).

The shame of it is that I really hate making breakfast as I think a stack of prep and a sink full dishes is a lousy way to start the day. My exception to this rule is pancakes, particularly this easy recipe where everything gets stirred in one bowl and then waits in the fridge until the rest of the world wakes up.

PANCAKES (Serves 2)

1 cup self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
1 cup milk
1 egg
Butter for frying
Warmed maple syrup for serving

METHOD
1.    Put the self-raising flour, a pinch of salt in a bowl. Make a well in the centre.
2.    Drop the milk and eggs into the centre and whisk until just combined.
3.    Put in the fridge for at least (30 minutes).

4.    Heat a non-stick frypan on med-high heat. Melt a healthy knob of button until melted, then ladle pancake mixture into frypan.

5.    Wait until bubbles appear on the top then flip. (Only crazy people flip without an eggflip so don’t do that).

6.    Serve with a smear of butter between pancake layers and a generous drizzle of warmed maple syrup.

Watch outs: I haven’t worked out why the first pancake looks different to all the other ones. Generally tastes fine though and makes a good ‘chefs treat’. Excess beating makes tough pancakes so just combine and leave it. Don’t be tempted to use an electric beater.

Variations: If you have the will, a beautiful, fluffy pancake can be achieved by using ricotta/milk combination. When there’s a glut of blueberries in season, I like to sprinkle a small handful over the pancake on the raw side in the pan before you flip.