MY FLUFFY, AMERICAN-STYLE PANCAKES

I love pancakes – flapjacks, crepes, call them what you like. I love them all.

There are two other pancake recipes  on this site already, but I particularly like this one for those ‘stacking’ kind of pancakes.

I found the recipe on Pinterest, but as I’ve had some bad experiences with Internet recipes, I was a bit wary until I’d tried it a couple of times.

And yes, I do realise that you’re reading this recipe on the Internet 😉

You’ll be happy to hear that this one is a winner – I did the experimenting so you don’t have to!

This recipe makes about 12 pancakes.

EQUIPMENT:

• a large flying pan
• a spatula or slice for turning the pancakes
• A bowl, to mix the ingredients
• A hand whisk, or electric beater.

INGREDIENTS:

• 200g  Self-raising flour
• 25g golden caster sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 225mls. Buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 50g melted butter
• low calorie spray/knob of butter, for cooking

 

METHOD:

• Melt the butter in the microwave/on the hob. Set aside.
• Put the flour, sugar and salt into a medium-sized bowl and mix together.
• Add the egg to the Buttermilk, and beat together until well combined.
• Make a well in the flour and add the Buttermilk/egg mixture and beat together with either a hand or electric whisk .

• The mixture will look lumpy at the beginning, but keep beating for a few more minutes and it will turn, as if by magic, into a thick, smooth batter.
• Add the melted butter and mix in.
• Let it rest for a minute while you heat up the pan.

COOKING:

• Heat your pan to a medium-hot heat – until a flick of cold water thrown onto it sizzles immediately – that’s a useful guide when you’re using a heated pan for other recipes too..
• Give it a good cover of low calorie spray or melt a knob of butter (even on non-stick pans)
• Drop a tablespoon of batter onto the pan, then gently guide it into an-almost circular shape with the tip of the spoon. Then repeat as many times as you can until you run out of room.

• Leave the pancakes until the uncooked batter on the top develops bubbles, and the bottom is beautifully golden (lift up a corner to have a look) .

• Slide your spatula under each pancake in turn and flip it over quickly to cook the other side. You’ll get more confident about this as you go through the recipe. Anyway, your lucky recipients will be too busy fighting over the maple syrup to be worried about exact symmetry.

• When the underside is done, remove the pancakes to a plate and either keep lightly covered in a warmed oven , or on a plate over a pot of simmering water.

• Continue as above: spray, pour, wait, flip, wait, remove, eat – until all the batter has been used up – and isn’t that the best cooking instruction ever?
• Divide the pancakes between some warm plates; serve in a stack, and offer the usual accompaniments.

NOTES:

• The best way to serve these is to have your favourite people sitting at your kitchen table on a special morning (like Birthdays or Christmas), and start them off with one or two pancakes each, and then just keeping going, dropping them onto their plates straight-off-the-pan until the bacon and blueberries run out – just like my Mum did on Pancake Tuesdays when we were kids – it’s a special kind of treat, and starts any day off beautifully.

• Consider making a platter of pancakes as a seriously easy dessert for a dinner with friends or family. See my easy reheating method in NOTES.  It looks like you’ve taken a huge amount of trouble, but if you don’t tell, then I won’t either!

• Our friends in the west, John and Julie make delicious Blueberry Pancakes, so don’t hesitate to throw on a handful if you have them lying about..

• Use the low-cal spray if you’re trying to keep the calories down, but the butter allows the pancakes to crisp up beautifully..
• Don’t worry that the batter is quite thick, it’s meant to look like that, and it makes really light pancakes
• You can add cinnamon, vanilla extract, or even some grated Orange zest to the batter to change the flavours.
• Reheating: For a quick reheat, just stack the pancakes about 3 high on a plate and microwave for 30 seconds to a minute. or, just wrap them all loosely in  tin foil and put into a hot oven for 5-10 minutes, then serve immediately. We have also found that they are delicious when cold – I’m not really a fan of cold pancakes, but with a quick spread of butter they are just yummy! Perfect for sticking in lunch boxes for school and work..
• These pancakes are really suited to adding a little stewed apple, raspberries, white chocolate chips, or blueberries. But truthfully, you don’t really need the fillings; they are great on their own. As you can see from the picture below – I think that virtually anything goes well with pancakes!

• The family favourite in our house is plain pancakes, with crispy bacon, strawberries, raspberries or blueberries and Maple syrup – you might want to give it a go..