Pile up these easy pancakes and smother them with maple syrup and bacon, or fruit, yoghurt or chocolate sauce
Pancakes are so easy, they’re the first thing many of us learn to cook. From Indian dosa to Ethiopian injera, Vietnamese bánh xèo to Russian blini, the world loves a pancake, but perhaps nowhere more than the US, where fluffy stacks drenched with maple syrup are the weekend breakfast of choice for millions – not least because they’re simplicity itself to make.
Prep 5 min
Cook 10 min
Makes About 10
45g butter, plus extra for frying
115g plain flour
115g fine cornmeal/polenta
¼ tsp salt
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
100ml whole milk
300ml buttermilk
1 egg
1 Organise your toppings
Turn the oven on low and put a wire cooling rack inside, to warm up. This is to keep the first pancakes warm while you cook the rest, so if you plan to serve them up straight from the pan, skip this step. Prepare your toppings – see steps 7-9, if you fancy them. Melt the butter in the microwave or a small pan.
2 Mix the dry ingredients
Put the flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, baking powder and bicarb into a large bowl and whisk to combine. You can use all plain flour if you don’t have cornmeal, but the corn gives the pancakes a lovely, yellow colour and a sweet flavour, as well as making them slightly crisp. It’s often in the Caribbean section of supermarkets, or look for polenta instead, which is the same thing.
Read more: www.theguardian.com