It’s Pancake Tuesday tomorrow, just in case you hadn’t noticed your local shop trying to make displays of flour and Jif lemon look enticing.

I love pancakes and eat them regularly, and often make American Pancakes as an alternative to crepes.  They’re smaller and thicker than the usual pancakes, and because of this other ingredients can be added to the batter. They’re really fantastic with maple syrup.

American Pancakes

Ingredients

• 255g/9oz plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 250ml/9fl oz milk
• 2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
• 6 tbsp cottage cheese, or yogurt, or creme fraiche
• 55g/2oz unsalted butter, melted

Instructions

1. Make the batter by combining all the ingredients in a mixing bowl or food processor.
2. Heat the frying pan and add a small amount of butter.  Pour in the batter to make circles approximately 8cm in diameter.
3. Cook on a medium heat until bubbles appear on the surface, which usually takes 1-2 minutes.  Flip the pancake over and cook the other side for about the same amount of time.
4. Serve with your choice of toppings: maple syrup, honey, nutella and ice-cream are all good.

You can also add fruit or chocolate to the batter – try small chunks of banana, strawberry, blueberries or chocolate chips.

In case that doesn’t sound fancy enough for you, the Guardian has some suggestions for cheffy pancakes.  And tomorrow, I think I’m going to try the Coconut Macaroon Pancakes from 101 Cookbooks that we mentioned here before.  If you want to keep it old-school, Donal Skehan has a Basic Pancake Recipe on Good Mood Food.

Related posts:

1. It’s Pancake O’Clock! Crispy Spicy Lamb Pancakes and Coconut and Cardamom Pancakes
2. Flat after pancakes
3. Maple syrup at Aldi