How To Make Perfect Pancakes... plus recipes..

I've always loved pancakes, they're so naughty! Fortunately my family love them too, so I make piles of them each year and it pleases everyone.

Making pancakes is really very simple, but requires a couple of easy techniques to make them right every time.

Basic Pancakes 

The batter is a standard batter which is incredibly cheap and easy to make. It's what you'd use toad-in-the-hole or Yorkshire puddings, but works slightly better when it's a little runnier, so has an extra 150ml of water added.

Ingredients

175g Plain Flour
2 Free Range Eggs
300ml Milk
150ml Water
Pinch of Salt

Method

Put the flour in a bowl and add the eggs, give it a mix and add the milk 1/3 at a time, mixing well with a whisk after each addition. Add the water and a pinch of salt.

Heat a frying pan and add cooking oil of your choice. Give the pan a good shake so that the oil covers the whole base of the pan and then pour out any all the excess into a heatproof container (such as a small saucepan). Your pan is now perfect for your pancake mix.

Add enough pancake mix that it covers the base of the pan when you again give it a good shake. Then leave it on a medium heat and watch. Don't fuss with it, you need to leave it alone until the bottom side is cooked. You can tell when it's done because when you shake it (again!), the pancake won't be stuck to the pan, it'll be free to move about, and the edges will have a lacy effect.

Flip it over and do the other side for  few seconds.

Your first one will often be a bit of a failure, the pan always seems to perform better for the second one onwards.

I've was challenged to come up with an interesting and different pancake recipe. I'm not the most adventurous cook, and I like to share recipes that anyone can make and my teenagers will find useful, so here are a couple of ideas...

Pancakes are very much a 'bread', with a high percentage of egg. They're a breakfast food, so surely they're ideal to have with an English breakfast....

All Day Veggie Breakfast Pancakes

 
 Ingredients

Bacon
Sausage
Mushroom
Red Onion
Tomato

Pancake batter mix (shown above)
Thyme
Black Pepper

Method

Cook bacon and sausage and cut into slices - I'm using vegetarian options as I'll be eating some myself.
Lightly fry sliced mushroom and red onion.
Add grilled sliced tomato  if you wish.

Keep everything warm.

Add a little thyme and black pepper to your pancake batter and cook.

Roll the cooked breakfast ingredients into your pancake...

If you want to get a little more adventurous then you can add more ingredients to your batter itself before cooking. Cocoa or a little cinnamon are good, but my favourite is apple.

Apple, Banana and Cinnamon Pancakes 

Ingredients

 Batter mix (shown above)
Apple

Banana
Cinnamon Sugar (3 parts granulated sugar to 1 part ground cinnamon)
Whipped Double Cream

 Method 

Stew some apple or cheat and chop it into small pieces, add a tablespoon of water and microwave covered for a minute.
Let it cool and then add it directly to your pancake batter before cooking.

Top with sliced banana and whipped cream, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

And of course pancakes can always be cut or stacked for another special effect...here with Duerr's strawberry jam and whipped cream....