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Pancakes 101. Alllllll the recipes — i.e. pancakes for every occasion
Hello! Welcome to this 101 on pancakes (this is a paid subscriber edition of the Small Wins newsletter). Each month I tackle a big topic in one go, so that you have these handy reference guides at your fingertips — e.g. on kitchen organisation, on principles for cooking vegetarian food, on all the ways to prep and cook a chicken and so on. Thank you for being here.
I was 7. We were in the car with Capital Radio blaring out of the speakers, and the presenter was inviting listeners to call in and answer the question ‘What’s your favourite day of the year?’
My mum thought it a pointless ask — obviously people were going to say Christmas or their birthday.
Right?
At that moment I piped up from the back seat and shouted ‘pancake day!!’, which I think tells you all you need to know about my feelings towards today’s deep-dive.
Pancakes are the perfect not-too-sweet treat. They are fundamentally very quick and easy to make, but there’s also just the right amount of ceremony and jeopardy built into the cooking of them to ensure that they feel like an event.
And much like a taco party is fun because it lets everyone build their own taco adventure, the same can be said for a table piled high with pancakes. Sure, I’ll never understand those who smother their crepes in nutella, but I don’t need to: they can have their pancake, and I’ll have mine, topped with sharp lemon and crunchy sugar, thank you very much.
A couple of decades on, Pancake Day is still my favourite and my preferences remain thus: pancakes > waffles, Pancake Day > Valentine’s Day, pancakes > a fry up. I said what I said.
Love,
Alexina
P.S. Next month, it’s a 101 on the savoury side of eggs!
PANCAKES 101
As an ardent pancake lover I have tried a lot of recipes over the year, and this is a collection of the very best — a pancake for every occasion.
Here’s what to expect:
To rest or not rest your pancake batter?
The secret ingredient that will level up your crepes
The lazy person’s pancake
The cutest pancake
The lightest pancake
The rumpled pancake (i.e. the one for serving a crowd)
The most nutritious pancake
The only use for cottage cheese
The sophisticated pancake (an exclusive recipe from my cookbook Sweet)
Help, I’m gluten-free!
Let’s get into it!
A quick note for my US readers
All of the recipes below state UK medium eggs — the equivalent for you are US large eggs.
TO REST OR NOT TO REST?
I have talked about the importance of time in the kitchen before and here’s how it bears on pancakes: