Ah pancakes. Glorious fluffy beasts. How I love thee. Truthfully I actually like waffles and crepes better but I will make exceptions for these guys. I’ve knocked them up for Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day, despite having zero religious leanings. I won’t let this get in the way of having a good time.

Funny enough, during my schooling years I found the drama and theatre of Ash Wednesday much more exciting than Shrove Tuesday. As an adult though, Fat Tuesday has well and truly taken its place.

The divinity of these pancakes is in the vanilla. I go a bit whole hog with it and add about two tablespoons worth of the stuff. I didn’t have any on hand today but if you have some vanilla bean paste add this in place and round it down to two healthy teaspoons of the stuff. Worry not, extract (never imitation) works just as well in these fluffy carb dreamcakes.

Now the strawberry “jam” is not a necessity but I do often serve with. It’s also a great way to re-spruce old forgotten strawberries in the fridge or ones that haven’t quite reached their seasonal peak. It’s not necessarily jam but not necessarily a sauce but somewhere deliciously in between. Maple syrup is, of course, always welcomed here.

Ingredients

Pancakes

2 cups self-raising flour

1 teaspoon bicarb

2 tablespoons caster sugar

1 1/2 cups of buttermilk

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1 egg

Strawberry “Jam”

Roughly 250 grams of strawberries sliced erratically (neatly if you have the patience)

2 tablespoons caster sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Method

In a small saucepan place the strawberries, sugar and vanilla and combine.

Place on a low heat and bring to a simmer. Leave it to bubble away for around 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until everything breaks down, amalgamates and thickens.

Turn it off and let it rest while you get on with the pancakes.

First up, sift your flour and bicarb into a bowl. No photo evidence because I don’t think you’re a moron.

Chuck in your sugar, here mainly pictured to show you my tiny cat plate.

Mix to combine and work out any lumps.

Next take the buttermilk and pour it on in, swiftly followed by the vanilla.

Crack in your egg and gently whisk until combined into a thick batter. Worry not if it’s not completely smooth.

Marvel at it, in it’s early morning sun-lit glory.

I use an icecream scoop to measure out even scoops. Generally for pancakes sized pancakes I do one full scoop plus 1/4 extra.

Next tip, make sure your pan is actually hot and pick a non-stick pan, non-greased. I don’t grease the pan to ensure an even colour across the pancake, plus if you have a good pan, no stick-age occurs. Don’t worry, butter can be placed between each freshly cooked pancake to reach our butter/fat quota.

I also place a lid over my pancakes to allow them to almost steam and make them fluffy while they’re cooking. Flip once they’ve got some holes like so.

Flip and get going with the rest of the batter. I store mine under foil to make sure they stay warm and continue to steam inside their foil kingdom.

And there you have them. A glorious stack to munch into. Generally I make 9-10 pancakes and the mixture can be easily doubled to feed a bigger crowd.

These also freeze amazing if you layer baking paper between each pancake and tightly wrap with cling.

Top with whatever you desire. Of course I used the strawberry quick jam.

And butter.

Happy Shrove Tuesday to those religious amongst you and happy Pancake Day to the rest.

Happy Baking!

Yak x