Pancakes – American style / English drop-scones)

I like pancakes as a quick breakfast or snack for hungry kids. I make the small fluffy variety, whereas my husband specialises in the French-style crepes, which he makes using a dedicated flat crepe pan and wooden utensils he bought in France. I’ll show you these another time.

I tend to regard these as so easy they don’t need a recipe, but that is because I have made them so often and they are such a forgiving recipe in terms of quantities that they can be done half asleep.

These can be made with baking powder, which is how I always used to make them. I recently started making them by whisking the egg whites instead, which gives a better flavour and isn’t as much effort as you might thing. I whisk the egg whites with a balloon whisk as I am too lazy to get the machine out of the cupboard. I make sure I hold my shoulder in the right position and it gives me a bit of helpful exercise – my shoulder slightly dislocates and regular careful exercising is important.

Ingredients

100g gluten free flour – I use Doves Farm for this

100ml milk or non-dairy substitute

2 eggs

optional: if you are worried about them sticking or are using a fat free liquid add half a teaspoon oil. If you would like a slightly sweet pancake add some sugar or syrup – I like a squirt of agave syrup. Add salt if you want.

Method

Put a griddle or flat-bottomed frying pan on to heat. You want it a medium heat. Alton Brown says cook pancakes in an electric griddle at 350F – so I guess that is probably what we are aiming at. If I buy one of those laser temperature measurers I’ll check and let you know. I’ll show you what happens if you have it too hot. If you cook them on too cool a pan it is boring waiting for them to cook and they are more rubbery.

Wipe some vegetable oil over the pan with some paper towel. Keep the oily paper towel handy and re-wipe the pan between each batch of pancakes.

Separate eggs and place egg whites in a large clean bowl. Whisk them until the egg white is at the soft peak stage.

Mix the egg yolks and milk together then stir in the flour until the batter is smooth. Add any oil or sugar at this stage.

Fold the egg whites into the batter until almost smooth. Don’t worry about a few bits of egg white as they won’t be a problem – you don’t want to loose all the air by over mixing.

If you want to add berries, bananas or sweet corn to the batter do it gently at this stage.

Dollop whatever size pancake you want onto the pan.

Cook until it stops looking wet and bubbles are showing. Flip over to the other side and cook until it is golden.

If you have the pan too hot they will cook very quickly with large bubbles, but you will probably find they are too dark on the first side by the time you get around to turning them.

Eat with pleasure. To keep them warm wrap in a towel or keep in a warm oven. Thee freeze fine too – just zap briefly in the microwave or pop in the toaster to defrost and reheat.

We had these with home-grown blackberries and apple sauce; I composed a nice picture but I am using a new (washable) camera and the picture was blurry. Sorry, just imagine a stack of these pancakes with your favorite accompaniments.....