Easy Eggnog Pikelets

I had three favourite teachers growing up. One was my fourth grade teacher Miss Adams who I was convinced was the most stylish lady in the universe. She wore platform heels, coloured bracelets and had a brunette version of the Farrah Fawcett hairdo. Apart from that, she spoke softly and kindly, wrote neatly and her classes were always fun. And that's not because she taught a class of 30 kids how to cook.

I remember the day with much excitement. There was an electric frypan on each group of tables and an oven at the front of the room. I was assigned one recipe-the pikelets. Each child had a photostatted (this was before photocopiers) list of recipes and although I was never a glue sniffer, I loved inhaling the smell of those freshly printed stencils-does anyone else remember those? One each sheet, there was a range of other items to make including school fête classics like coconut ice, scones and butterfly cakes. Truth be told, I really wanted to make a butterfly cake. The pikelets seemed so boring in comparison.

Oh how wrong was I? Pikelets, in this incarnation, are an Australian item. Similar to American pancakes or hot cakes, they are a small round version that can be eaten hot or cold, unlike pancakes. They were usually with jam or cream or with a sauce. I came home that day with my recipe and begged my mother to let me make them again. My whole family loved them and this week I searched for Miss Adams' recipe. Alas, I couldn't find it and even my sister was so smitten by these that she searched for the recipe a couple of years back. All I remember is that there were five ingredients and that a pinch of salt was the last one.

After Christmas, I saw this idea on SavoryMoments and thought that it was a brilliant idea to use up Christmas leftovers. If you're like us and have an excess of egg nog from Christmas, this is a great recipe to use. Not only do you not need eggs you can use up any leftover egg nog too. Eat these with the egg nog sauce or with jam and cream.

So tell me Dear Reader, did you have a favourite teacher growing up and what were they like? And what was one of the first things that you learned to cook?

Easy Eggnog Pikelets

• 1 cup self raising flour

• 1 tablespoon caster sugar

• Pinch of salt

• 1 1/4 cup eggnog

• A little extra nutmeg (optional)

• butter for frying

For sauce

• 1/2 cup egg nog

• 1/2 cup maple syrup

Step 1 - In a bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, salt and nutmeg together and make a well in the centre. Gradually pour in the eggnog, about half of it and then whisk and then pour the other half in and whisk until smooth. There might be tiny lumps but just make sure that there aren't big lumps of flour.

Step 2 - Heat a frypan onto low to medium heat and add a little butter. Drop tablespoons of batter and when several bubbles form, turn them over and cook on the other side.

Step 3 - Serve with the sauce which is simply mixing the egg nog and maple syrup together.