I don’t normally blog about the peripheries of cakedom, but I am pleased to announce that I have nailed North American fluffy pancakes! These guys stand fully half an inch high, and are light, sweet-salty, buttery deliciousness!
Here they are:
Fluffy Pancakes and Amber Maple Syrup
Who could say no?
My breakthrough was triggered by my recent visit to Canada, the home of the best pancake topping in the world, maple syrup. I went to British Columbia, which doesn’t produce the syrup to end all syrups, and friends had warned me not to get too excited about the prospect of being able to bring much mapley goodness back to Australia, but I got excited anyway. Let’s face it. Canadians do maple. From the oh-so delicious maple and bacon flavoured potato chips (the best chips I have ever ever eaten), to maple yogurt to maple candies, there was enough to keep me happy. But perhaps the happiest find was that in Canada, one doesn’t have to put up with quaintly designed but ultimately measly 250ml bottles of this heavenly stuff. I mean there are recipes out there calling for cups of the stuff to go in cupcakes, frostings, candied bacon, BBQ sauce and so on. Maple syrup is more than just a pancake topping up North.
So it comes in litres. And it comes in grades… A, or 1, is the first sap from the tree, subtle and pale honey coloured. B, or 2, is the second sap, harvested later in the season. And finally there is the molasses of maple, grade C, or 3, which is deep caramel in colour, strongly flavoured and a little bitter. I hear that grade C is somewhat of an acquired taste, one held mostly by those who grew up in the maple syrup producing regions of Canada.
And so my trip yielded one litre of amber coloured grade 2, from a family farm in Ontario. I got it at the Maple’s Sugar Shack at the Granville Island Public Market in Vancouver, which is a lovely place to visit if you are a foodie (check out the maple smoked wild salmon too!). It cost a fraction of what a 250ml jug of maple syrup, unknown grade, questionable origin, packed in the USA costs in the antipodes, and it’s so good, now I’ve opened it, I’m going to have a hard time not chugging it straight from the bottle.
Fluffy Pancakes and my precious Canadian amber maple syrup
Where was I? Yes. Pancakes.
Well thin crepes are fine, but the have low absorption characteristics meaning your precious syrup winds up dripping onto the plate. Not so with the fluffy pancakes, which not only soak in the syrup, but mop to perfection.
See the dripping action on the left? Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Fluffy Pancakes, dripping
Perfect fluffy pancakes (worthy of proper real actual Canadian maple syrup)
Makes 12
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
22ml baking powder ( 1 1/2 tbsp)
4 eggs
1 cup milk
4tsp butter, melted, cooled
1/2 tsp good quality vanilla essence
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl, mix to combine, make a well in the centre.
Add combined wet ingredients, and stir with a wire whisk until smooth.
Heat a cast iron pan and grease by swirling a 1-2tbsp lump of butter over the surface, removing any butter that’s not melted. Reduce heat to medium.
Drop mixture by 1/4 to 1/3 cupfuls into pan, allowing them to spread naturally (you can assist with rounding the pancake a little with the blade of a knife if you like).
Cook pancakes in first side until bubbles form in the raw surface; turn with a spatula (they are quite tender with all that sir in them so take care!)
Serve hot with slightly more syrup than you think you’re allowed 🙂
enjoy xxx
Fluffy Pancakes
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