Yoghurt Berry Pancakes

February 07, 2013 / Meadow View

Shrove Tuesday is next week, so a pancake recipe seemed timely. These delicious small pancakes are really simple to make for a teatime treat or a delicious warm breakfast.

Use the best quality plain flour you can find and mix in baking powder and sea salt. I had some sea salt I'd infused with vanilla pods on the shelf, so this seemed like a perfect opportunity to give it a try. Make a well in the dry ingredients and mix together the wet ingredients in a large mixing jug: organic whole milk, vanilla whole milk yoghurt and two beaten organic free-range eggs. The yoghurt gives the finished pancakes an amazingly light fluffy texture and a slight sourness that complements the sharp berries.

Pour the wet ingredients into the well and whisk together by hand or in a food processor, ensuring you bring in all the flour from the sides of the bowl. I add the melted butter separately at this stage to avoid cooking the eggs.

The batter should end up at a nice, thick dropping consistency that can be easily poured from a ladle onto a griddle pan.

The only decent fruit crop we harvested after last years dreadful rain was a glut of blackberries, and this is a good dish to include them in.

Blueberries or raspberries would also work well. Folding the berries into the batter can make the juice leak out and discolour the pancakes, so I prefer to dot berries I'd frozen onto the batter as soon as it hits the griddle. This maximises the chances of keeping them intact, but still cooked through.

Use a good cast iron pan which is naturally non-stick, and a tiny knob of butter just to make sure the pancakes lift easily. The batter will firm up with tiny bubbles around the edges which suggests that its time to flip them over; a couple of minutes on each side is about right.

These pancakes are small enough to be easily flipped in a controlled fashion with a spatula. Once you’ve turned them, press down gently to ensure good contact with the pan.

Make a batch, and serve with spoonfuls of the vanilla yoghurt, honey or maple syrup.