Happy Bob Pancakes Day!

Every year on pancake day, millions of Brits experience temporary amnesia, and hit the web to search for a recipe for a traditional British pancake.

There are plenty of those around, so that’s not what I’m going to show you today. No, today, we’re cooking Bob Pancakes’ American-style pancakes.

Warning to our non-British readers: this recipe uses British (imperial) teaspoon and tablespoon measures. These may differ from your own, and I know they are different from American and Australian measures at least. So, for the avoidance of doubt, 1 teaspoon (tsp) is 5ml, and 1 tablespoon (tbsp) is 15ml.

Shopping list

Serves: 2 greedy adults, or 1 Bob Pancakes. Makes around 8 small pancakes.

• 135g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 large egg
• 60g butter (about 1/4 of a 250g pack)
• 130ml whole milk
• 2 tbsp maple syrup, plus extra for serving
• 4 slices of streaky bacon (or a vegetarian alternative, optional)
  

  Shut up and get to the pancakes already! Let’s make some pancakes… Bob Pancakes…

Equipment

You’re going to need to have some basic kitchen utensils handy – a whisk, a fork, a sieve, something like a plastic fish slice for flipping the pancakes over, a pastry brush, and a small ladle. Plus a large mixing bowl, a small mixing bowl, a frying pan if you’re cooking bacon.

Finally, you need a suitable surface for cooking your pancakes on. I was very lucky to receive a crepe maker from my brother-in-law this Christmas, which is basically a large very flat non-stick hot plate. You can also use a frying pan for this – the larger and flatter-bottomed the better.

How to do it

1. Cut 60g butter into small cubes and put it in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave it until it’s melted, and set it aside to cool slightly.
   

   Cut the butter into small cubes and melt it in the microwave.

2. Weigh 135g plain flour, and add 1 tsp baking powder, 2 tbsp caster sugar, and 1/4 tsp salt. Sift into a large mixing bowl. You might need to push the last of it through with a spoon.
   

   Weigh out the flour and add the baking powder, salt and sugar. Then, sift it into a bowl.

3. Crack a large egg into a small mixing bowl, and whisk briefly until it’s pretty much all the same colour.
   

   Whisk a large egg

4. Add 130ml milk, 2 tbsp of melted butter and 2 tbsp maple syrup to the egg. Whisk until it’s well combined.
5. Pour the wet mixture from the small bowl into the dry ingredients in the large bowl, and beat it all together with a fork. It will be quite lumpy to start with, but it doesn’t take too much mixing before you have a nice smooth batter.
   

   Use a small ladle to pour the mixture onto the hot surface.

6. Heat your hot plate or flat bottomed frying pan to a medium heat. Use a (preferably heat-proof!) pastry brush to paint melted butter all over the surface, then take a small ladle-full of your batter, wait for it to stop dripping, and gently pour it onto the hot surface. It’s a thick batter, so it will naturally spread slowly to form a small, round pancake.
   

   The mixture will spread slowly and form small round pancakes, which will rise as they cook.

7. If you’re having bacon, now is the time to start that cooking. I’m not going to tell you how to cook bacon, there may be no hope for you if you need instructions, but don’t forget to keep an eye on it and flip it over while you’re cooking your pancakes.
   

   Bacon makes an excellent pancake topping!

8. Watch the top of your pancake for small bubbles. When bubbles are forming on top, flip the pancake over and cook the other side until it’s also golden brown (this will take much less time than the first side), then remove from the heat.
   

   Watch for bubbles forming on the surface of the pancake to give you a hint that it’s time to flip it.

9. Repeat until all your pancakes are cooked. If you’re feeling confident, you can cook more than one pancake at once. I can fit 3 on my hot plate comfortably.
10. If you have some butter left over, brush the top of each pancake with some melted butter, and stack them (this helps to stop the middle of the stack seeming dry). Top with maple syrup, bacon if you’re using it, and, if you want, even more butter.
    

    Stack ’em up, and top with bacon, maple syrup, and even more butter!