These pear and date pancakes are quick, simple and, when smothered in chocolate spread, very, very naughty.

Whether you’ve just returned from hours exploring the trails, or just fancy something warm, sweet and ever so deliciously naughty, these pancakes really hit the spot. They’re the perfect camping food – there’s only a handful of cheap ingredients and they take next to no time to whip up on a gas stove. Now we always keep a bag of plain flour in the van’s pantry, either for damper or pancakes…or sometimes both!

For this amazing dessert, lunch or breakfast (because you’re worth it) you’ll need the following:

1 cup of plain flour

1 egg

Half a pear (apple is good too)

Splash of milk (or milk powder if you’re on the road or camping)

1 big handful of dates

Dollop of butter

A topping of your choice…we chose a cheapo chocolate spread from Aldi (delicious!)

Follow these easy steps

Step 1. Grate half a pear (apple is good too) and slice up the other half.

Step 2. Chop up the dates. Be rough…nobody cares about perfectly chopped dates! Keep your eye on the prize…

Step 3. Put all your ingredients into a bowl, but leave the milk and the pear slices until last.

Step 4. Whisk the mixture with a fork, gradually adding the milk. The consistency of the pancake batter is determined by how much milk you pour in. If you live thin pancakes, like crepes, add more. If you want thick pikelets, add less. Ours looked lumpy and thick like  a porridge mix…just go with it.

Step 5. When you are happy with the pancake batter, heat up a dollop of butter in the frying pan and run it around so the pan gets greasy all over.

Step 6. Into the pan, dollop two generous tablespoons of batter. Again move the pan around so that the batter spreads out nice and even.While the batter is still wet, place a couple of pear slices on top and press them in a little.

Step 7. Let the batter cook a little, and have a sneaky peek under the edge of the pancake. If it’s turning a dark golden brown colour. time to flip it over. If it is still pale, let it cook a little longer.

Step 8. Flipping the pancake – be the hero or play it safe? I like the hero option but sometimes this ends in tears, so if you are really hungry don’t sacrifice the pancakes – use a flipper or a fork to coax the pancake over and cook the other side to a golden brown. If you dare, flip the pancake and enjoy the satisfaction of the little victories as the pancake lands safely back into the sizzling pan after it’s brief dice with airborne danger. There really is nothing quite like it, is there?

Step 9. When you are happy with the golden colour of your pancake, slide it out onto a plate, re-grease the fry pan and repeat until all the mixture is gone. We squeezed four super-thick pancakes out of our batter.

Step 10. Smother them with chocolate goodness and scoff them down while they’re still hot!

Feeling adventurous? Next time add some chestnuts to your pancakes for nutty goodness. Learn how to prepare chestnuts here.