Fluffy Pancakes

In honour of Pancake Day,  I’ll share my perfected pancake recipe –which I generally eat with bacon and (being Canadian) maple syrup.

My trick to light & fluffy pancakes is quite simple really: instead of cracking and adding eggs whole, I separate them and make a meringue of the whites and fold it into the batter.

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg
• butter

Directions

• Sift the flour, sugar and baking powder together in a bowl.
• Add the milk to the dry ingredients and whisk together thoroughly –add a little more milk if too thick, more flour if too thin.
• Crack the egg and separate the white and yolk, whisk the yolks into the batter.
• Using a machine mixer, or by hand, whip the whites into a meringue with ‘stiff peaks’.
• Fold the meringue into the batter, taking care not to break it up too much.
• To a preheated griddle or non-stick pan, add some butter and heat until it just begins to sizzle.
• Using a ladle, pour out batter onto the griddle/pan –don’t crowd the pancakes you’ll need room to flip them.
• Flip only when bubbles begin to surface, and brown the other side.
• Serve with your choice of condiments.

You can add whatever excites you to the batter –fresh fruit, chocolate, arsenic, etc.– or omit the sugar if you’re going the savoury route.