American style pancakes
This is the best pancake recipe I’ve found! It makes light fluffy pancakes which make a wonderful brunch. See my recipe for fruit compote to go with this or for a sweet treat in summer when all the berries are ripe slather it in golden syrup and your favourite fruits. I’ve tried to make the quantities as easy as possible to measure out - after all the last thing you want on a Sunday morning is to start mucking around with a set of scales.
Makes 6 medium sized pancakes
Ingredients
135g plain flour (1 cup if you don’t want to get out a scale)
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 tbsp caster sugar
130ml milk
1 egg
35g (or a large knob) butter
1 tsp(ish) of cinnamon
Toppings of your choice
Kitchen kit
Frying pan
Saucepan
Foil
Method
Put a non stick frying pan on a medium heat and leave to heat up. Put the butter in a saucepan to melt slowly on a low heat.
Sprinkle the flour, baking powder, salt, caster sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. In a separate bowl whisk the milk and egg together and add two tbsp of the melted butter after it’s been left to cool slightly for a minute or two.
Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture and using a fork or mini whisk beat together until the batter is smooth. Let this stand for a few minutes - it should be quite thick to prevent it spreading out too much in a pan.
Grease a frying pan carefully with a small amount of oil and a bit of the left over melted butter. Dollop in a bit of pancake mixture either using a small ladle or pour the batter into a jug and do it by eye from there. Cook until bubbles start to appear on the top of the pancake then get a spatula and flip it over. Cook the other side for around a minute until both sides are golden brown and risen about 1cm or 1/2 inch thick. Keep going until all the batter is gone, re-greasing the pan when it starts to look dry.
To keep them warm while you’re cooking, pile them onto a piece of foil or a plate and keep in an oven on a low heat setting. If you’re cooking for a big group you could always use a much bigger pan and cook a couple at a time.
When you’ve finished off all the batter take your pancake stack out of the oven, serve up with whatever toppings you like and enjoy stuffing your face!
NB: It’s important you leave the pan on a steady heat which isn’t too hot! Fiddling with the temperature while cooking the pancakes can cause some to burn and others to barely change colour as the heat fluctuates. It may take a couple of times making these to work out what’s the best temperature for you… On my electric hob it’s 5 out of 9.