Stacks of Bill Granger’s ricotta hotcakes, spoonfuls of creamy salted caramel swirled mascarpone, brown-sugar caramelised sticky banana slices, fresh tart strawberries and a drizzle of maple syrup. Jump to Recipe 

Solo airport travel is a strange experience. Surrounded by people on holiday, on business, with family or friends, all hurrying along different points on their journey, yet still completely alone. Observance is heightened – overheard snippets of conversations, harried family quarrels, the rumpled clothing and smart business suits of people on the move. Time is slightly warped – crossing timezones does that, but so does blurred hours sitting at 30,000 feet, breathing stale air, eating predictable airline food and rushing through terminals, security and baggage claims. Emerging out the other side into bright daylight (or night, as it may be) seems a little surreal – back to exactly where you started a week ago. You question vaguely whether the time away even happened, or whether it was just a particularly vivid dream.

The rush continues: onto the airport bus, through train stations, out to the suburbs, back to college. Unpacking, attempting to finish the mountain of work that sat unattended through the week away. And soon it will be tomorrow, with university rolling on for the final push towards the end of the year.

At least the memories remain. And can be paused on at different times, recollecting hazy moments of sunshine, sandy toes, supermarket trips, conversations, time spent reading, swimming, baking and photographing the latter. There was a lot of food. Good food, too.

Our last lunch together as a family was yesterday: these ricotta hotcakes with caramel mascarpone and caramelised bananas. It was a last minute decision to photograph and record the recipe – Mum took over the hotcake flipping while my youngest brother aided my mission to capture them in the few minutes spare before we sat down to eat. I think it must have been the fastest photography session I have ever done, quick-snap in the corner of the room by the white-washed shutters, and the fewest photos taken – but some of my favourites. Caramel mascarpone melted and slid off the warm hotcakes straight from the pan as sweat beaded on my forehead, sun streamed into the hot kitchen, a brief attempt at a maple syrup pour shot, and everything brought to the table to devour.

Stacks of fluffy ricotta hotcakes, spoonfuls of creamy salted caramel swirled mascarpone, brown-sugar caramelised sticky banana slices, fresh tart strawberries and a drizzle of maple syrup. We felt like kings.The hotcakes are an adaptation of Bill Granger’s famous Sydney recipe via Izzy Hosack – and they are well-known for a reason. Light and not too sweet, studded with small bits of ricotta, which you might not realise unless you knew, made with beaten egg whites to incorporate extra air, and ridiculously easy to put together – they are hard to beat. I even managed to cook them successfully in a couple of battered old pans with no non-stick surface whatsoever on an oven top where it is near impossible to control the heat – and yet still received satisfying golden swirled surfaces. Even the few where the flip went slightly awry tasted perfect.

The bananas disappeared swiftly: sauteed in a hot pan with brown sugar and olive oil, they caramelise and turn soft-edged and sticky in a matter of minutes. The mascarpone does require caramel sauce – easy to make earlier in the morning (or you could buy it..but really making your own takes 10 minutes), swirled to combine the creamy tanginess of Italian cheese with salty-sweet, dark golden caramel. Strawberries are the ideal spring or summer accompaniment, although leave them out and the recipe seems rather autumnal and warming, for those of you in the Northern hemisphere.

A summery, sticky sweet end to a week away. A match for any occasion, enjoyed by all ages, not hard to construct, eaten at any time of day, whether outside on the deck in the sun or inside shielded against frigid air, rain or snow. You can’t go wrong.

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