Vegan pancakes

Pancakes are such a treat, which is totally bizarre given that they’re made with just a couple of ingredients and are essentially fried batter. It shows that pretty much any food can be given an aura of giddy excitement and occasion – especially when there's an entire day (Shrove Tuesday) devoted to them.

You would have thought that swapping out two-thirds of the ingredients from such a simple recipe may, well, completely ruin it. For this very reason, I assumed vegan pancakes were tricky to pull off.

How wrong I was. Flour, almond milk and oil, it turns out, have exactly the same kind of magic reaction when mixed together as flour, cow's milk and eggs.

The quantity of milk here is very provisional, as with all pancake recipes. I tested a few batches and found the slightly looser mixture easier to handle – these pancakes aren't as sturdy as the non-vegan version, so getting a good pan coverage first-time round was useful.

The only other difference is they take a bit more cooking to achieve a golden hue. But really, once they're sprinkled with sugar and lemon juice, spread with jam or drizzled with vegan chocolate spread, who cares what colour they are?