Have a lay-in and wake up to these filling Dutch style pancakes.

I don't know about you, but when I'm on holiday I love a good lay-in. There's no routine. No setting the alarm for work. No dropping the kids off to before school club. Bliss. Last week I had a break from the office at home with my children (equally lazy) and our go-to late breakfast/lunch of choice is pancakes. Because, quite frankly, after a few days of school holidays sandwiches start to get pretty dull.

One of our favourites and a recipe we go back to time and time again is our family's take on a dish we ate earlier this year during a visit to the Netherlands. Just up the road from the Center Parcs where we were staying (De Kempervennan) was a shoddy looking-pancake house that actually turned out to serve extraordinarily good food. If we'd discovered it on the first day we would have eaten there for every meal! What did it for the kids was the fact they got two 'gold tokens' with their lunch to 'spend' in the shop inside the restaurant on toys or sweets!

De Familie Suykerbuyck's speciality was huge, thick, gut-busting pancakes, and their Dutch pancake in particular is the one that's stuck in my mind and been recreated over and over again back in my kitchen. Inside the batter was an Alpine cheese, sautéed leeks and onions, sliced browned mushrooms and thyme. Thin, herbal, salty pieces of speck ham were layered over the top and baked in under another layer of oozing cheese.

It is quite simply one of the most incredible things to eat late morning/early afternoon when minimum effort, maximum taste is required. Try it. Just leave out the ham if you're veggie.

Dutch brunch pancakes

(Makes 4)

Ingredients

280g plain flour

2tsp baking powder

Pinch salt

280ml milk

2 large eggs, beaten

2tbsps butter, melted

4 handfuls cheese (I recommend locally made Norfolk Alpine or a gouda style cheese)

8 slices speck ham (or Parma or prosciutto)

1tsp fresh or 1/2tsp dried thyme

150g button mushrooms, sliced thinly

1 bunch spring onions, sliced very finely

1 clove garlic, crushed

Oil for frying

Seasoning

Method

Whisk together the eggs, milk, flour, baking powder, salt and butter to make a thick pancake batter. Once smooth mix in two handfuls of cheese and the thyme.

In a non-stick frying pan add a little oil and fry the mushrooms until starting to soften and colour. Add the spring onions and garlic and saute for another minute.

Add the mushroom mix to the pancake mix and combine. Season with a little more salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.

To make each pancake drizzle a small amount of oil in a non-stick pan, rip two slices of ham and lay in the pan. Pour over enough batter to fill the pan and cook on a high heat until it starts to bubble. Once the edges look set turn it over and sprinkle over half a handful of cheese. Pop under a hot grill until the cheese oozes and melts. Yummy.