Pancakes

My children and I like to have hot, fresh pancakes for morning or afternoon tea.  

My Mum, Aunties and Grandparents also cooked pancakes for me when I was little. It was so lovely to come home from school absolutely starving, as you always seem to be as a child, and find a fresh stack of pancakes with butter and jam ready to be eaten.

Pancakes are so quick to make and the children can help. You can add in any fruit you've got that needs eating also. Banana pancakes are beautiful, especially if the bananas are extra ripe and brown. Today I had a handful of cherries that I chopped up and used. Any berries go really well as cooking them makes them extra sweet. 

For me, there must be butter and jam, honey or golden syrup to serve with these. And you must serve them warm, straight from the pan.

What you'll need

Makes 16 medium-sized pancakes

2 cups plain flour

1/3 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups milk

1/3 cup caster sugar

1 egg - beaten

1 pinch salt

1 tsp vanilla essence

200g butter spray oil for the pan

What to do

In a bowl, sift dry ingredients. Make a well in the centre and add milk, egg and vanilla. Mix until just combined. I put the chopped cherries onto the pancakes when they were in the pan (as I didn't want purple pancakes), but you could mix whatever fruit you might use into the bowl at this stage.

Heat pan over medium heat. Add butter or spray the pan with oil. Using a tablespoon or serving spoon, scoop mixture and pour slowly into heated pan. Make the pancakes as large or small as you like. I was able to fit four pancakes in the pan at a time.

Cook until you see bubbles popping on the surface of the pancake. Flip with an egg flip and cook for approximately two minutes on the other side. Remove from the pan, place on a plate and keep warm, covered by a damp, clean tea-towel.

In between cooking each batch, you can wipe out the pan with some paper towel to remove any burnt bits of batter and over-cooked butter or oil. 

Serve warm with lots of butter, golden syrup, honey or jam.

Pancakes are also great for picnics and lunchboxes.