Buttermilk pancakes - easy and delicious

One of the things I have this blog to thank for is learning how to make pancakes, or American style pancakes as we call them here – I grew up eating what we call pancakes here, which are thin like crepes and filled with savory fillings like beef mince or chicken, and covered with tomato or Béchamel sauce (they’re very much like manicotti).

The pancakes I grew up with are delicious, indeed, and I still make them every now and then, but they are not fit for breakfast or those afternoons when you crave something sweet and there isn’t much in the pantry or refrigerator to bake or cook with – for those occasions, fluffy pancakes drizzled with syrup are perfect.

These are fluffy, delicious and super easy to make – I have lost track of how many times I have made this recipe, always with wonderful results. When I’m not in a hurry to watch something on TV I cook a sliced banana in a bit of butter, sugar and cinnamon until it’s caramelized and eat with the pancakes – so, so good.

Buttermilk pancakes
from the delicious Bill's Basics

100g all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten with a fork
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon (14g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled + a bit extra for frying the pancakes
150ml buttermilk*

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in the sugar, egg, melted butter and vanilla. Stir in the buttermilk.

Heat a large nonstick frying pan over medium heat and brush it lightly with butter. Using about 2 tablespoons of batter per pancake, pour the batter onto the pan and cook the pancakes for 2-3 minutes – when bubbles appear on the surface, turn the pancakes and cook for 1-2 minutes on the other side.
Serve with maple syrup, honey, dusted with icing sugar or with whatever strikes your fancy.

* homemade buttermilk: to make 1 cup buttermilk place 1 tablespoon lemon juice in a 240ml-capacity measuring cup and complete with whole milk (room temperature). Wait 10 minutes for it to thicken slightly, then use the whole mixture in your recipe

Makes about 10

Pea pancakes

I’ve realized that I’ve been craving vegetables more and more each day, instead of meat: the more I eat vegetables, the more I want to eat them, in all sorts of ways – every time I see a great vegetarian recipe around I want to try it immediately.

(That said, I’ll cook Jamie Oliver’s roast beef tomorrow for lunch. :D My husband saw a bit of the show days ago while I was watching it and has been craving that dish ever since, with all the trimmings, including the Yorkshire puddings – I have made Jamie’s yorkies and they’re oh, so good).

Back to the vegetables, I saw these pea pancakes on Valli Little’s stunning cookbook and right away thought that they would be great for a snack – I had everything in my fridge and pantry to make them, and on top of it all it would take me moments to put them together, even making the ricotta from scratch, which is super easy and I highly recommend you try – I doubt you’ll ever buy ricotta again.

The pancakes turned out delicious, light and fluffy, and I ate them with sweet chili sauce, as per the author’s suggestion – she also suggests the pancakes to be served with bacon, but even though I’m crazy about it I don’t think it was necessary here.

Pea pancakes
slightly adapted from the über beautiful Delicious. Love to Cook

120g frozen peas
2 eggs
200g fresh ricotta – I highly recommend using homemade
¼ cup finely grated parmesan
1 teaspoon olive oil + more for frying the pancakes
¼ cup (45g) all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 spring onions, white part only, finely chopped

Cook the peas in boiling salted water for 5 minutes, drain and refresh under cold water. Drain well and set aside.
Place eggs, parmesan, ricotta, 1 teaspoon olive oil, flour, baking powder, salt and pepper in a medium bowl and stir to combine. Stir in the peas and spring onions, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Heat ½ tablespoon of olive oil in a large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Scoop two tablespoons of mixture per pancakes and place onto the pan, pressing each to 1cm (½ in) thickness. Cook for 3 minutes each side or until golden.
Serve immediately.

Makes 6

Mini buckwheat pancakes

For some people, retail therapy means lots of clothes, shoes, DVDs... To me, it means ingredients for my recipes. :)

After buying this beautiful book, I went crazy and started buying lots of different types of flour: buckwheat, barley, rye... Time went by and I haven’t baked with them as I should have. Not good, Patricia. Not good.

Buckwheat flour begging to be used + Bill Granger’s recipe + my obsession with teeny-weeny food = these pancakes. :)

Mini buckwheat pancakes
from bills open kitchen

1 cup + 2 ½ tablespoons (165g) buckwheat flour
6 tablespoons (60g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons caster sugar
pinch of salt
4 eggs, separated
2 cups (480ml) buttermilk
butter, for greasing the pan
to serve: yogurt, maple syrup, honey, fresh fruit or jam

Preheat the oven to 120°C/248°F. Place the buckwheat flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl and stir to combine. Place the egg yolks and buttermilk in another bowl and stir well to combine. Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour and mix lightly until just combined. A few lumps are fine, so do not overmix. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gently fold them into the batter.
Heat a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and brush with a small portion of butter. For each mini pancake, ladle 1 tablespoon of batter* into the pan and cook for 30-40 seconds or until bubbles appear on the surface of the pancake. Turn the pancakes and cook for another 20-30 seconds. Transfer to a plate and keep warm in the oven while you make the remaining pancakes.
Serve with whatever strikes your fancy.

*to make larger pancakes, use ¼ cup of batter per pancake

Serves 4

Banana pancakes

I love holidays – who doesn’t? :)

Lazy days like today call for a special breakfast, like these banana pancakes – they are delicious with fresh fruit, especially strawberries. A wonderful way to start the day. :)

Banana pancakes
from Simple Essentials Fruit

2 cups + 2 tablespoons (300g) all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup (116g) brown sugar, packed
1 cup (240ml) buttermilk
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1 ½ tablespoons (21g) unsalted butter
½ cup maple syrup or honey, to serve

Place the flour, baking powder, sugar, buttermilk, eggs and bananas in a large bowl and mix to combine. heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add a little of the butter and pour 1/3 cup (80ml) of the mixture into the pan and cook, in batches, until bubbles appear on the surface. Turn the pancakes and cook for 1 minute or until golden. Repeat with the remaining mixture.
Serve in stacks layered drizzled with the maple syrup or honey.

Serves 4 – I halved the recipe, used ¼ cup (60ml) of batter per pancake and got 12

Cinnamon pancakes

Valentina has created a new blog in which she wants to gather foodblogs that are written in Portuguese.
Every fortnight, a special ingredient will take the stage in an event called “The king of the fortnight” - her readers are supposed to cook something using that ingredient.
Her first choice was cinnamon – I can’t tell you how excited I was about that! :)

I’m willing to participate with more than one recipe, so here’s the first I’ve made: cinnamon pancakes.
They’re delicious but I must warn you: they’re only for cinnamon lovers. I used Nic’s recipe – she tells us to serve these with maple syrup; I had them with honey and they tasted fantastic, too.

Cinnamon pancakes

140g (1 cup) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
240ml (1 cup) milk – I used low-fat
1 egg
1 tablespoon butter, melted – optional, I used it

In a medium bowl, sift together flour and baking powder, add cinnamon, salt and sugar.
In a separate small bowl, whisk together milk, egg and butter (if using). Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until well combined, with only a few lumps.
Heat a griddle or nonstick pan over medium/high heat – I prefer to use low heat. Drop batter to form 7,5cm pancakes – I used my 1 ½ tablespoon measuring tablespoon for that. Cook for about 2 minutes, until pancake bubbles and looks slightly dry around the edges. Flip and cook until golden brown.
Serve immediately with maple syrup.

Makes about 12 x 7,5cm pancakes.