Pancakes

My style of pancakes are a little idiosyncratic, and have an English texture rather than the pan fried cake mix we seem to get here in Canada. I also like mine a little thicker than the classic English style which is traditionally served with lemon juice and granualted white sugar. The Bill Sticker style is dead easy to make, and great as an alternative to toast with butter, honey, syrup, marmalade, jam or maple syrup. Or maybe all of them, hell I don’t judge. I can also vouch for them being splendid with ham, bacon, sausage, baked beans and eggs of whatever preparation. The dietary choice is yours.

The ingredients are simple;
1 Cup of flour (Plain)
1 Large raw egg
Milk
1 pinch baking powder
Butter

Tools likewise;
Mixing bowl
Whisk
Cast iron 7″ (18cm) Skillet
Wood spatula
Warm plate

Put flour in mixing bowl, whisk in the egg and the pinch of baking powder (A pinch I said! Not a bloody spoonful!). Add in milk and whisk, a splash at a time until you have a slightly glutinous uniform beige mix. If you have a mishap and the mix gets too thin and watery, whisk in extra flour, a teaspoon at a time, until the desired consistency is attained.

Put cast your iron skillet on a medium heat and let it warm up. Smear a smaller than fingernail sized bit of butter around the pan, even if it’s non stick, although I’m not overly fond of non stick cookware. Give me enamel, stainless steel or cast iron pans every time because the heat distribution is better and cooks more evenly.

When you are satisfied that the pan is warm enough, add enough of the mix to create a roughly 5″ (12cm) disk of batter mix in the pan. Let it cook on one side until the mix has bubbles rising through and it looks more of less semi-solid. Flip (See this video) cook the other side until light brown and stick onto a pre-warmed plate while you do the next one. Put half a teaspoon of butter to melt on top of the cooked pancake while the second is cooking, repeat as necessary.

Of course if you have one of those fancy griddle gadgets, or even just a simple slab of cast iron to sit on top of your stove, you can do more than one pancake at once. On the other hand, I’m old school, and like to toss pancakes the old fashioned way with a frying pan, although I’m nowhere near as good as the lady in this video.