I grew up in a small village in rural Canada for a large part of my childhood, and one of my abiding memories in that big old farmhouse was my father making pancakes on weekend mornings. CBC burbling away on the radio, drifts of snow outside that made everything else eerily quiet and a quick finger on the side of the crusty maple syrup can.
When I moved out, it didn't take me long to go to pancake making for comfort on weekend mornings. Sometimes I would feed a horde of drunken friends at 3am, which is technically a weekend morning but in a slightly different sense. Of course, pancakes could always be had from a local diner, functioning a bit like ballast in the rolling ship that was my hungover stomach.
Since the big move from Canada to England, one of the things we've missed most is pancakes, as we know them. The fluffy, thick and comforting pancakes of the old country. So I set about making the best ones possible.
Nigella's recipe for 'American Breakfast Pancakes' from How to Be a Domestic Goddess has been the best I've found for using UK ingredients, but her method doesn't work for me. I've spent five years fine-tuning this to yield the fluffiest pancakes with the fewest amount of dirty dishes.
Erin's Canadian Pancakes
Adapted from Nigella Lawson's American Breakfast Pancakes
100g all-purpose flour
140g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
2 large eggs
30g butter, melted
300ml milk
1. Melt your butter in the microwave in a 2 pint measuring jug (or something similar). Set aside to cool.
2. Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Don't bother getting a spoon dirty for this, you're not going to use it later - just use your hands.
3. Dump the eggs into the 2 pint container you have the butter in, and use a small whisk or a fork to beat them until you've got a mostly uniform consistency. Add the milk to this same jug and whisk it together with the butter and eggs.
4. Pour your liquids into the dry ingredients all at once and use the whisk to mix it together. Now don't over mix here. You want to combine the ingredients so you have a gloopy batter, it shouldn't be anywhere as liquid as British pancake batter. Whisk gently until the flour is incorporated, but if there are small lumps, don't go crazy trying to get rid of them. If your batter is too liquid, add flour a teaspoon at a time until it's more like wallpaper paste. If it's too solid, add milk, again a little at a time.
5. Put a good quality non-stick frying pan on medium heat. You're going to have to adjust the heat throughout the cooking process, so don't expect to walk away at any point from now on. Don't be tempted to use any butter here to fry in, it just ruins your first three pancakes. Fill a large squeeze bottle, with the nozzle chopped halfway down its length, with the batter.
6. Squeeze your first pancake on the pan and watch it carefully. You want to flip it when the surface is covered in bubbles that are just about to burst, only then. Don't be tempted to keep flipping, this is a single-flip operation here. Your first pancake is likely to be pale on the first side and that's fine, it's your pancake. Cook's prerogative you know, eating the first one. Use what you've learned about the heat and how long it's taking to adjust on the second pancake. You have to constantly monitor the heat until you get used to how long it takes to get a perfect light brown.
A note on serving: Personally, I subscribe to the informal shout from the kitchen when the first ones are ready. It does mean I eat my own standing next to the hob, but I don't mind.
A note on pancake size: 12-15cm in diameter is a good start. It depends on your flipping device and size of pan, but I find much bigger than that makes for rubbery edges and more flipping accidents.
Maple syrup: This is critical. These pancakes are to be served with a little melted butter on top and PROPER MAPLE SYRUP. Read the label carefully, weird corn syrupy abominations can be called maple syrup and contain no more than 10% real from-a-tree maple syrup. It will be expensive, but I promise you, it's worth it. Waitrose and Marks & Spencer both sell bottles of Real Maple Syrup from Canada with a big maple leaf on the front. I prefer the No.3 Amber from Waitrose. You want to start with a teaspoon on your pancake to start, it's intensely sweet. Unless you're my husband, who likes about 3 tablespoons per pancake - but that requires a childhood spent building up a tolerance, so you know, take it easy at first.
And finally, streaky bacon is the natural accompaniment here, to get a bit covered in maple syrup as well for an authentic experience.
VARIATIONS
Blueberry pancakes are the obvious thing here, and all it requires is adding the blueberries to each pancake after you've squirted them into the pan. Do wait 10-15 seconds before adding them or they'll sink straight through. You want to have a perfect brown side and a fruit-studded underside. You'll have to leave the pancake to cook slightly longer on the first side, because when you flip, the blueberries prevent the batter touching the pan as effectively. When flipped, push down gently to get as much pan contact as you can, but don't lean into it or you'll burst the blueberries.
My father used to make orange waffles (similar batter recipe, I haven't mastered this yet though) by replacing part of the milk with orange juice and adding orange zest. These were incredible orange-scented pieces of heaven, and when I get the hang of them, I will post about it. He occasionally made pancakes the same way, so I know it can be done.
Enjoy your morning!
