American Breakfast Pancakes

Pancakes, light and fluffy and filling, are a jolly fine way of getting eggs into the bodies of small children before school. They also make a perfect brunch over a weekend. Also, if you don't count the toppings of cinnamon sugar or syrup - which, of course, you don't actually need to add - they use only a modicum of sugar in their making.

As with all things baking, methodology is key; after all, baking is pretty much a materials science, to which I am sure both +William Carter and +Rajini Rao both foodies and scientists, will testify. Hence, after much experimentation, I have finally succeeded in creating a light, fluffy and filling pancake. The recipe is standard, it's just the methodology I advocate that is different. 

American Breakfast Pancake Recipe

This recipe will make enough to feed a hungry family of five over a weekend, plus make room for an extra guest or two.

Stage 1: 

340 grams plain flour (3 cups)

Pinch salt

1 ½ teaspoons sugar

450 ml milk

Stage 2:

3 large eggs

1 ½  Tablespoons baking powder
45 g 0r 3 Tbs butter, melted and cooled 

Vanilla essence - optional 

Butter for frying 

Notes: 

If the eggs are on the small side you can put an extra egg into the mixture; I found eggs in the Middle East weren't that big and that way I got more protein into the kids. Also I have previously substituted the butter with grape-seed oil in which a vanilla pod has been extracted. It was slightly extravagant but very nice indeed, not only flavouring the pancake delightfully but also ensuring its texture is beautifully soft. I was given the vanilla oil by Marius and Lizette in New Zealand and it proved to be a boon to baking.

Methodology for Breakfast Pancakes: 

Place the flour, sugar and salt together; stir thoroughly to ensure even distribution throughout. Add milk and mix thoroughly. You can do this by hand but a beater is better. 

Beat the flour, milk, sugar and salt together, let the breakfast pancake mixture stand for 20 minutes

As with all flour mixtures, you need to let it stand for at least 20 minutes. During this time period you can melt the butter, and leave it to cool down. The butter is easily melted by placing it in the microwave on defrost for 1 minute.

The reason for letting the flour sit for so long is in order to make the pancake tender, in that the flour cells must burst for it to be soft. However, in order for it to be fluffy, the pancake must be full of bubbles. Remember, baking powder can only increase the size of the bubbles, it does not create bubbles - it's the beating that does that.

Hence, in order for the pancake to be both soft and fluffy, you let the milk and flour mixture stand for twenty minutes (soft), and then, just as you are ready to put the mixture in the pan, it is at this stage and this stage only that you add: the cooled-down butter, the baking powder and the beaten eggs to the mixture (fluffy). The reason I am only adding the eggs at this stage is simple - over-beaten eggs lead to tough cakes and pancakes (tender). So, like any materials scientist, you adopt your methodology for best results.

As you are about to ladle the mixture into a pan, check it for thickness. These pancakes are more like crumpets, so the mixture is a thick one, however, if it will not flow much at all, do add a splosh of milk into the mixture.

Place in pancake pan (yes, I do have one which is only manufactured for pancakes). Do use butter in the pan: 

Breakfast pancake mixture fried on low heat with butter

I always use butter for frying things like pancakes for the very simple reason that, since butter burns at moderate temperatures, if your butter starts to brown, you know you have the pan too hot for cooking the pancake mixture on anyway. Things like pancakes and fried eggs are cook-intensive in that you should be standing at a warm stove making them fresh and putting them on plates as they are done to be eaten immediately. Poor Bethany! She came down the other day and happily waltzed to her plate only to discover hers still was empty. Her face was a picture of absolute misery, and she sat there with tears coursing down her cheeks, banging her empty plate. She wasn’t very understanding of the fact that pancakes take time and so dad ended up going without since he needed to get to work. 

Watch for the bubbles:

Bubbles like these tell you to flip the pancake now - my daughter likes little pancakes

The pancake only needs to be turned for about 30 seconds or so on the other side, if in doubt, poke the centre of the pancake; it's the most likely place still to be gooey. It needs to be cooked right through, and since these make remarkably thick pancakes, do ensure that you cook them on a low heat for a prolonged time, rather than on high heat for a short time (black on the outside and raw in the middle is not the most compelling combination). 

This is what the breakfast pancake should like before turning - almost cooked right through

What I do find is that, as the mixture settles, gravity starts to do its work in deflating the bubbles. Given that it is the bubbles which make the pancake fluffy, I often re-beat the mixture half-way through the cooking, to ensure the final pancakes are as fluffy as the first.

For topping, I find a mixture of caster sugar with cinnamon works well, and of course, American pancake syrup.

This breakfast pancake is yellow because we used our own free-range bantam eggs