Parsi pancakes

Instructions

1. Step 1

   Mix the flour, sugar, saffron, cardamom and nutmeg together in a large bowl. Combine the eggs, coconut milk and vanilla in a large jug, then gradually pour the wet ingredients into the dry, whisking as do. Stir in the pistachios and ground almonds. You should have a thick pancake batter; if it’s too thick, you can add a little milk. Let the batter rest for 30 mins while you prepare the marzipan.

2. Step 2

   Dust your work surface generously with icing sugar, then roll out discs of marzipan about ½cm thick that are the same size as your frying pan (so you know they’ll fit between the layers of pancake). You want these to be as thin as possible, but ½cm is ideal. You should end up with around 16 discs of marzipan.

3. Step 3

   Heat a frying pan (ours was 16cm) over a medium heat. Heat a drop of ghee and, once melted, pour in a ladleful of mixture. Tilt the pan in circles so the mixture spreads around evenly, covering the bottom base of the pan. Lower the heat to medium-low and cook for 1 min until pale golden brown. Carefully flip it over and cook for a further minute. Put on a plate or serving platter – whatever you’ll serve it on – then top with a disc of marzipan. Add a little more ghee to the pan, then fry the next pancake in the same way, removing from the pan and topping it with another marzipan disc.

4. Step 4

   Continue until you’ve used up all your batter (you should have around 17-18 pancakes), alternating with a disc of marzipan and ending with a pancake on top. You can help keep the pancakes warm as you stack by covering the them with a clean tea towel as you go. Serve with double cream, if you like.