I have now made a range of American Pancakes, trying to figure out which recipe I like the best, and this is the one I am sticking with. My breakfast favourite is the banana or sweet potato pancakes - they are delicious and nutritious
too!
Yesterday, whilst my baby Olivia was asleep, I had a bit of a cupboard organising session where I took stock of my spices, baking ingredients etc. Those days always end up with some creative concoction. In a jar, I mixed together the little bit of chopped hazelnuts I had in a bag, the pralines I made for the truffles before Christmas, and the cinnamon sugar I had mixed up in another bag. Considering it was pancake day yesterday (shrove Tuesday), I made a pancake batter as below, with self raising flour (whoooop, they turned out super-fluffy), olive oil in place of butter and a couple of tbsp of my hazelnut/praline/cinnamon sugar mixture. Served with caramel sauce. YUM.
I never really thought about how creative you can get with pancakes, but there you go. Experimenting is so much fun. Be flexible with the ingredients. For example, for dinner, we had spare ribs with sweet potato and
corn cakes (click to see recipe). Next, I will try and make savoury pancakes after being inspired by my friend Amy, who added stir fry with pork to hers.
Ingredients
135g/4¾oz plain flour (or self raising flour for extra fluffy pancakes. Still add the baking powder, though!)
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp caster sugar (or vanilla sugar, if you please)
130ml/4½fl oz milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp melted butter (allowed to cool slightly) or olive oil, plus extra for cooking
Optional extra fillings:
1 or 2 Bananas, mashed with a fork
Bacon bits - fry these till crispy and add to batter along with the mashed banana or on their own
Mashed sweet potatoes (great way to use up leftovers!) + 1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 can pumpkin puree
1/3 cup cream cheese (mix in with the wet ingredients)
Chopped nuts or praline
Blueberries
Raspberries
Chocolate chips
Raisins and lemon
To serve:
Maple syrup
Golden syrup
Butter
Honey
Honey butter (home made butter mixed with honey)
Nutella
Caramel Sauce
Preparation method
Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar into a large bowl. In a separate bowl or jug, lightly whisk together the milk and egg, then whisk in the melted butter.
Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture and, using a fork, beat until you have a smooth batter. Any lumps will soon disappear with a little mixing. Add the optional extras and mix till incorporated. Let the batter stand for a few minutes.
Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and add a knob of butter. When it's melted, add a ladle of batter (or two if your frying pan is big enough to cook two pancakes at the same time). It will seem very thick but this is how it should be. Wait until the top of the pancake begins to bubble, then turn it over and cook until both sides are golden brown.
Repeat until all the batter is used up. You can keep the pancakes warm in a low oven, but they taste best fresh out the pan.
Serve with lashings of maple syrup or any of the other serving suggestions above (as suitable to your filling).