My very best pancake recipe

Fluffy, crisp-edged everyday pancakes. The recipe I cook the most

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Hello,

There are some recipes which sometimes feel too simple to make it out of my kitchen into the world. When I think about sharing easy everyday recipes - most recently that was a pancake recipe - a little voice in my head says, ‘Everyone has a pancake recipe already’. Or ‘this is just way too simple to be interesting’.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about basic recipes recently and as a generation, (I’m a millennial) where our cooking skills are at. It was prompted by some very good questions about cooking skills or lack of them for this article where I shared some thoughts..

However simple the recipe, at the stage of life I am at, recipes that work every time, fit into life and stop my kids (and me) from eating junk are golden. So I’m going to share more of them with you.

Onto the first of those recipes. My very best pancakes. I make pancakes probably three mornings a week. My kids love them. I love them. I eat them once a week but my kids eat them many more times than that. They are easy, they are flexible, they taste good and they are made from good simple ingredients that I trust. And I will not ask you to whisk any egg whites.

I know for most people pancakes are a weekend thing and if that’s you then great. But I’d like to make an argument that pancakes (with batter already made) can be made in less time than it takes to make a piece of toast. I feel better about eating my pancakes than eating a piece of toast.

What makes this recipe the one I go back to again and again:

• Ease - I use cups measures (so ratios) rather than weighing out. I don’t want to ask you to get a set of scales out in the morning and I find using ratios works better and allows me to tweak the recipe to use what I have easily.

• No processed stuff - These pancakes are made with good simple things. Real foods. Flour, ground almonds, eggs, yoghurt and milk. I know what’s in them. There are no ingredients I can’t trace back to an actual food and that is important me.

• Protein - I use eggs, almond flour and yoghurt to make pancakes I like the taste of, and also so there is a bit of morning protein in there.

• The batter keeps for days - I make this batch of batter and it keeps for 2 or 3 days in the fridge. That way I get a few good breakfasts. On the second day it’s fine to use as it is but on the third day I often add a teaspoon of flour (it gets thinner as it sits) and a touch more baking powder to enliven it.
  

  

  
  

• It’s variable - as the recipe works on cup ratios, it is easily halved, doubled and changed up based on what you have. I usually make a 2 cup batch and by that I mean 2 cups of flour in total (I use a mix of plain, wholemeal and almonds to 2 cups of liquid (I count the eggs as part of the liquid and then make it up to 2 cups with milk). So if you wanted to halve it then just do 1 cup of flour to 1 cup of liquid including the egg.

• Flour - I use a mix of plain spelt, wholemeal spelt and ground almonds, it's the combination I love for ease and texture and feeling good about what we are eating. But you could use all plain or all wholemeal (you might need a little more liquid). I use ground almonds but you do not need to use them - I like the texture they bring but you can just replace with the same amount of flour. I would imagine some buckwheat in there would work. I have used ground-up oats too. And a GF blend would be fine (again might need a little more liquid)

• Savoury switches - what I love about having this batter in the fridge is that it's an easy route to a savoury fritter for lunch or my 2 year old’s dinner. Grate a carrot and a little cheddar into a bowl and add 2 tablespoons of batter and fry. This works with squash, sweet potato, courgette, cooked frozen peas, spinach. You can add cheese, herbs, spices. Endless variations.

What you will need to make this work:

• A cup measure

• A decent frying pan ( my favourite linked below)

• Ghee or an oil you are happy to fry in

  With love, 
  
  Anna x

My very best pancakes