Ultimate Breakfast: Pancakes

Always wanted to make them but dismissed the idea 'cause I had the unfortunate experience of having really doughy ones some years back (also being the first time I ever had them) and since then I have religiously avoided pancakes. If you look at the number of brunches and breakfasts I have had in restaurants and cafes and add them to the times I have been offered a bite by a kind friend (which of course I refused), that's quite a number! 

But the pancake-stars magically aligned one fine day and by a miraculous play of destiny I found myself happily tossing one pancake after another in my very own kitchen, loving them and even trying out various twists on the classic pancakes. Ha! 

Yes, I admit to severe exaggeration and over dramatisation. Here is what happened:

a. My then fiancé and now husband (gosh I am married!!! will take me some time to adjust and accept this, I presume) landed up at my house rather hungry and wanted something nice for breakfast relatively fast

b. There were only a few ingredients in my pantry, not sufficient to whip up something elaborate

c. I had everything I needed to make pancakes (easily available in India and for anyone who bakes they are probably already lying around anyway!) 

d. Saving the best for the last...

    ...The only option he liked amongst the ones I presented were pancakes

I modified a recipe I found in Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess. 

Ingredients

1 cup plain flour

1 tbs baking powder

1 tbs sugar

Pinch of salt

2 eggs

30 gms butter-melted

1 1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

Butter/oil for frying

How to

Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl - flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Make a well in the flour mixture and beat in the eggs, vanilla essence, melted butter and milk. That's it - batter is ready! I told you it was simple :)

The next steps are pretty intuitive.

Heat a tsp of oil or butter in a pan. Having a non-stick pan helps.

Pour a ladle full of the batter in the centre of the pan and rotate the pan so that the batter flows to the sides.

Once you start to see bubbles on the upper side of the pancake, it's time to turn them over.

Cook till the pancakes are golden on both sides, which takes a minute or two at most.

You can go creative and add all sorts of toppings just before flipping the pancakes or right before serving. I leave that up to you.

Here are a few versions I tried out.

Classic pancakes drizzled with a generous amount of honey

Strawberry pancakes dusted with powdered sugar

Chocolate pancakes served with chocolate sauce and fresh strawberry

Even though I say so myself, but believe me, all of them turned out amazing. Although, I might go lighter on the chocolate sauce next time. A little goes a long way actually. 

I am going to be making them again for sure, specially on weekends when both of us can linger around in the kitchen and go creative with the toppings! Trust me it was so much fun that I can't wait to try them again and whenever I do, I will definitely share pictures with all of you.

Thanks for reading my blog and please do share what are your breakfast favourites.