Septem­ber is that strange time when spring is offi­cially here but winter is still insist­ing on mak­ing itself felt. You’re either freez­ing and rain-soaked or skip­ping through mead­ows gath­er­ing flowers with baby lambs, you know? These pan­cakes are per­fect whatever’s hap­pen­ing out­side, using sweet, fra­grant, new sea­son apricots and warm, spicy cinnamon.

The apricots turn jammy and deli­cious while fry­ing in the pan­cake bat­ter, and the cin­na­mon-tin­ted chocol­ate sauce adds spice and depth and makes everything feel a bit more com­fort­ing. The pan­cakes are quick enough that you could prob­ably make them any day of the week, and dried apricots are a per­fect sub­sti­tute if fresh ones are elu­sive, but I say save them for when you’ve got time to appre­ci­ate your pan­cake-flip­ping efforts.

If you want, just serve these with the clas­sic lem­on wedges and sug­ar, but the chocol­ate sauce is fast and any leftovers can be poured over ice cream. Or straight into your mouth.

Apricot Pancakes with Cinnamon Chocolate Sauce

Ingredients

Pan­cakes

• 1½ cups flour
• 2 tsp bak­ing powder
• Pinch salt
• 1 egg
• 1½ cups milk
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 25g melted butter
• 3 ripe apricots, finely diced
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• But­ter for frying

Chocol­ate sauce

• 125g dark chocolate
• 175ml cream
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

Method

1. Sift the flour, bak­ing powder and salt into a large bowl.
2. Tip in the egg, the milk and the sug­ar, and stir thor­oughly till a smooth bat­ter forms. If it’s too thick, pour in a little more milk.
3. Fold in the melted but­ter, diced apricots and vanilla.
4. Heat a little but­ter in a large sauce­pan, and gently fry quarter-cup­fuls of the bat­ter in it. Once bubbles start to form on the sur­face of the pan­cakes, flip them over with a spat­ula or fish slice.
5. Sit the pan­cakes on a plate covered with a paper tow­el and a lay­er of tin­foil to keep them warm while you make the sauce.
6. For the sauce, slowly melt the chocol­ate into the cream in a small pan over a low heat.
7. Stir it so it forms a thick, glossy dark sauce. Stir in the cinnamon.
8. Serve the pan­cakes with the chocol­ate sauce in a jug on the side, dus­ted with more cin­na­mon if you like, and pour the sauce over the pan­cakes as you eat them. If you have plenty of apricots, you could dice some more to sprinkle over.

Makes 10–12 pancakes