Last Tuesday was pancake day, and Barny was once again scheduled to be on BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, this time talking about pancakes. He had decided to go for broke and make his all time favourite ones, tried and tested over several long summers in America and much mulled over with a friend from that side of the Atlantic, now living in Warwick.
You will need:
140g Self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp Caster sugar
2 tbsp butter (melted)
1 large egg
140ml Whole milk or butter milk
A kitchen aid or Kenwood will make this a lot easier, especially when you get half way down and realise you shouldn’t have added the blueberries and have to make it again. Sorry about that.
Method:
Sift all the dry ingredients together first, your mixer bowl if you are using one.
Grab a separate bowl and beat the egg until fluffy, then gradually add the milk and butter, stirring continuously.
Pour this gently into out flour, then fire up the mixer and let it have its wicked way with your ingredients.
Once you have a lump free batter pause for a moments quiet contemplation.
Add a good handful of blueberries and fold in gently, then place a large splodge of mix in your pre-heated pan. Notice how the mix burns gently on one side, and then falls apart when you try and turn it over. Interesting. Remove this unsightly mess from the pan and consider your options. Barny considered them. I ate the pancake.
He started again, fresh batter, this time whipping a plating ring from his draws and popping it in the pan. Plating rings are used for constructing artful stacks of food in restaurants, but a large metal biscuit cutter will probably work. Why he was keeping it there is anyone’s guess.
This time no blueberries were added to the batter, as trial and error revealed these to be the source of the problem. Instead he dolloped a helping of batter into the pan, inside the ring, and then popped half a dozen blueberries in on top. This enabled the pancake to be flipped effortlessly, whilst maintaining that all-important structural integrity. A few minutes on either side, then transfer onto a plate and stack.
The final step I did not witness, as the actual tasting was done the following day live on air, but he saved me one, and we microwaved it later that day and were pleased that although the blueberries were almost immediately hotter than the sun, the pancakes were still pretty good. If you do ever need to bake in advance and reheat later, these are the ones to go for.
Serve with maple syrup and, if you are feeling foolish and carefree, squirty cream.
This looks really good. I think you should post this to recipes on reddit.com!
Though these look incredible, I’m never ever going to ever say that any pancakes can or will EVER beat traditional flat wafer-thin pancakes made by the British, or indeed the all-butter ones made by the Scots. I mean no disrespect to the Americans or their pancakes, they are very tasty, just nowhere near as tasty or as more-ish as the afore-mentioned. In my opinion.
Ok so this isn’t the place to say it as it is 2018 now but; blueberry and clotted cream toastie?