With the elderflower season in full swing – and not for long at that – I decided to make elderflower pancakes, a traditional sweet from the south west of Germany as well as parts of Switzerland. Despite the beer in the dough and the fact that they are fried, they nevertheless have a subtle elderflower taste that works well with the crispness of the batter.

Elderflowers in flower

I chose this dish to say thank you to Skdarvesh from Aromas and Flavours from my Kitchen, who presented me with the Dragon’s Loyalty Award. I really enjoy her posts, recipes and photographs really live up to the wonderful name as you can almost smell and taste the food you are introduced to. I feel incredibly valued by her generosity.

Skdarvesh’s food is so colourful and spicy in comparison to my own Western European fare that it took me quite a while to come up with a recipe that reflects my own cooking as well as allow me to nod in her generally spicy direction. Perhaps this very local and delicate flower will do the trick?

Elderflower Pancakes

• 8-10 elderflower heads in full flower
• 1 egg, separated
• 150g plain flour
• 250ml beer
• 200ml water
• 2 tsp caster sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 l neutral cooking oil (rapeseed or sunflower)
• icing sugar to decorate

The elderflowers are best picked on a dry morning to ensure they have that lovely scent. Although they are often growing right beside busy roads, pick them from a more remote spot to avoid eating the fumes! You don’t wash them, but especially if you are vegetarian you need to gently shake them to allow any insects to go and mind their own business.

In a small bowl, beat the egg white until it forms soft peaks.

Mix all the other ingredients in a second bowl until you have a smooth batter. Fold in the egg white and add more water if necessary: you need a fairly runny batter.

Heat up around 1 l of oil in a heavy pan, but only to a medium heat (around 180C if you have a sugar thermometer): you want the batter to brown lightly, not to go completely black.

Dunk a flowerhead in the batter, holding it by its stem, and dunk it into the oil; fry it to a nice golden brown before putting it on kitchen paper to soak up the excess fat. Repeat until you have finished.

Frying the flowerheads one at a time as I have used a rather small pot!

Serve with icing sugar and – perhaps, if you fancy even more indulgence – some vanilla ice cream on the side.

As a mere beginner in the blogging scene it might feel a bit preposterous to nominate other bloggers for the Dragon’s Loyalty Award: after all, I haven’t really had much time to build up long-term blogging-relationships! Nevertheless, starting out is quite daunting and I have been incredibly lucky by receiving support, encouragement and praise from the following bloggers, who in turn I would like to nominate for the award:

1: Marita from MyDinner – your comments and encouragement have been absolutely brilliant!

2: Andrea Giang from Cooking With a Wallflower for her sweet comments and beautiful blog

2: Dana Fashina from I’ve Got Cake for her fun-filled and sun-filled blogs

3: Chica Andaluza for her lovely comments on my blog, which are really encouraging!

4: Gerard Villanueva of Bread and Tortillas for his inspiring and colourful recipes

5: Alice from Alifemoment for her encouraging comments

6: Lois Elsden for sharing her reading and writing with us, as well as for her lovely feedback.

I hope you don’t mind me using this as an opportunity to express my gratitude to you for your inspiring posts, recipes and pictures – you have all helped me so much and I cannot thank you enough for your kind comments and responses!

Finally I have to share 7 things about myself which you might or might not have guessed already from reading this blog:

1: I don’t get out much.

2: If I do, it’s usually for a meal!

3: I don’t like chocolate very much, but

4: I would murder for handmade chocolate truffles, especially the ones my brother brings me when he comes to visit!

5:  I love the food Chinese friends or flatmates have cooked for me in the past: light and full of delicate flavours – unlike many Chinese takeaways … 😉

6: My favourite non-German food is Turkish food with its mix of fresh vegetables and meat, as well as the lovely bulgur dishes.

7: The food I would like to be able to cook most is Iranian food, especially the all wonderful ways they prepare rice. One day I might try and learn how to do it!

The rules for Dragon’s Loyalty Award are:

1   Visit and thank the blogger who nominated you.
2   Acknowledge that blogger on your blog and a link back.
3  You must share  7  things other bloggers may not know about you.
4   Nominate up to  15  bloggers for Dragon’s Loyalty Award, provide a link to their blogs in your post, and notify them on their blogs.
5   Copy and paste the award somewhere on your blog.