Mmmmm pancakes

A major craving (not to mention a raging hangover) has fuelled my recent foray into making American (as opposed to the French) style pancakes from scratch (and without the help of Bisquick). It's surprising easy, you probably already have all the ingredients in the cupboard and they taste pretty damn fine (even when not hungover). Even The Boy has converted and hasn't bitched about been fed pancakes the last three weekends in place of his favourite eggs on toast. Mind you I did bribe him with a side of bacon...

Anyone brought up on pancakes knows that there are many choices when it comes to flavouring these puppies. Mashed up banana was tops as a kid, chocolate chips worked into the mix gives you that extra sugar high- extras can go in the mix or on top it's up to you. In the picture above I topped the stack with summer berries- freshly picked strawberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants and raspberries- and since I was put of maple syrup, I drizzled a little of the syrup from a jar of stem ginger. DELISH!

Fluffy American Pancakes

Makes 10 small pancakes

Ingredients:

3 eggs- separated
120 g. plain flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
150 ml. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
pinch of salt

Mix the yolks and the vanilla. Mix in the milk. Add the flour, baking powder and pinch of salt. Put to one side.

Whisk the egg whites until they reach the soft peak stage. Slowly whisk in the flour mixture.

Heat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. You can add a knob of butter if you want a light buttery taste.

Using a tea cup, pour the mix into the skillet so that you have two or three round pancakes.

It's time to flip the pancakes when they form little holes all over the top side of the pancake- it's almost swiss cheese like holes. You'll know when you see it but allow roughly three to four minutes on each side. Don't worry if you think one side has cooked more than the other- you can flip it back over and cook it to your liking.