On moving to the UK I found some confusion surrounding the pancake. Now to me a pancake is a large, fluffy, saucer shaped disc that you stack. You could do a polite pair or even a cheeky trio or quad but you definitely don’t have just one! You slather butter and maple syrup all over them while they are warm and have a side of crispy bacon (sometimes also drowning in the maple syrup if you’re not one of those people who is slightly suspicious about the sweet/savoury combo thing). I’ll have my crispy bacon by the side thanks. But this is not the case here in the UK which I found out when I added ‘pancakes’ to my breakfast menu.
It seems, however, that the pancake has many different connotations! There’s the crepe, the pikelet, the blini or blintz, hotcakes, Scottish pancakes and the list goes on and on. So after explaining my version of pancakes to our guests more than a fair few times…cue to change of my menu which now offers ‘American Style Fluffy Pancakes’ – actually to be perfectly precise ‘Nana Bev’s Fluffy American Style Pancakes”. Nana Bev is my Mom and she has been using this recipe forever! I think there’s nothing better than a stack of fluffy pancakes as a breakfast treat and really, isn’t a weekend away a reason to indulge? I don’t ever mind sharing recipes so here it is for you to try at home. Let me know how you get on.
Nana Bev’s Fluffy American Style Pancakes (you’ll have to do your own metric converting – that’s another ‘confusing business’ for me!!).
1 ¼ cups self-raising flour
1 tbsp of sugar
½ tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large egg (beaten)
Mix everything together – I just use a fork to mix. The batter goes smooth quite quickly. Leave the batter to rest for 10 – 15 mins. I know you will want to skip this step but don’t!
Put a little butter in your pan and then I drop about ¼ cup of batter in for each pancake. Cook on a fairly gentle heat. I cook mine on the simmering plate of the AGA so that’s between a low and medium heat on a regular stove top. Cook on one side until bubbles appear on top and then flip (be confident in your flipping technique – no hesitation allowed) and cook on the other side. Both sides should be lovely and golden brown. This recipe makes 4 large pancakes so double or treble for a crowd!
Enjoy with lashings of butter and pancake syrup (another hard to find product – I can’t get my trusty Aunt Jemima syrup (an American product) in the UK but I have found a close second – it’s amusingly called Bobby’s American Pancake Syrup!)
Serve with a side of crispy, streaky bacon and enjoy. Here’s a freshly made batch just for you 🙂