Tony’s Nutella Pancake Gateau

This is a dish that came about thanks to a drink-fuelled party and a challenge when I was 20…

“You're a chef, rustle us up something sweet to eat!”

Thus, the Nutella Pancake Gateau was born. You generally always have flour, eggs and milk in the house to make pancakes. Fill them with Nutella and bake in the oven. Simple as that.

Ingredients

Filling

• 1 x large jar Nutella hazelnut spread.

• 50g hazelnuts, toasted and chopped

Pancakes

• 250g plain flour

• 50g caster sugar

• 4 eggs

• 500ml milk

• 75g melted butter.

• Vegetable oil, for frying.

Marmalade sauce

• 1 x 450g jar of quality marmalade (any type - with peel or without)

• 100g butter

• 250ml orange juice

• 100ml Cointreau

Method

1. To make the pancake batter, sift the flour and sugar into a bowl. Whisk in the eggs, then slowly add the milk to this mixture, whisking it in. Finally, whisk in the melted butter and strain through a sieve to remove any small lumps.

2. Heat a thin layer of oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat and fry the pancakes one by one, cooking to a light golden colour on each side before removing to a cooling rack.

3. Preheat the oven to 160°C / gas 3½.

4. Once the pancakes are completely cool, warm the Nutella. You can either place the jar in a pan of just-boiled water (off the heat) for 10 minutes or transfer it to a bowl and microwave for 30 seconds on high, until soft. Mix in the chopped hazelnuts.

5. Spread each pancake with a thin layer of warm Nutella (you need to spread them before you start to layer as it's difficult to spread them once they're stacked).

6. Place one pancake, Nutella-side up, in a large ovenproof dish with sides or in the frying pan in which you cooked the pancakes (provided it's ovenproof).

7. Place another pancake on top, then keep building your gateau until you run out of pancakes.

8. To make the marmalade sauce, heat the marmalade with the butter, orange juice and Cointreau. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes or until syrupy.

9. Pour half the sauce over the gateau and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Check it's ready by inserting a metal skewer into the centre, count to five, then take it out - it should be piping hot. Towards the end of the cooking time, warm through some of the reserved sauce and serve with the gateau.

Enjoy!! And make sure to tag @McTSingh in photos of your Gateau on social media! 📷