The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Greek yoghurt fluffy pancakes Great for pancake Tuesday
WHEN we were young, giving up sweets for Lent was a big thing. It was, in fact, obligatory and, to be fair, we mostly stuck to it. There were two concessions when we could eat as much chocolate as we liked: St Patrick’s Day and St Joseph’s Day. That these dates have stuck in my mind even today, shows how much we looked forward to them.
To help us off to a good start, pancake Tuesday was a thrill – we all made our own versions and ate our fill. These fluffy yoghurt pancakes are easy to make and, once cooled, can be popped in separate bags in the freezer – easy to pull out and microwave any time Lent gets too hard.
Ingredients
250g plain flour
4 flat teaspoons baking powder Pinch salt
1 tablespoon caster sugar
2 large free-range eggs
375 ml semi-skimmed milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, to taste 125ml Greek yoghurt butter
Method
Sieve the flour into a bowl and mix in all the dry ingredients, baking powder, sugar, salt.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and stir in the skimmed milk.
Add the vanilla extract; just enough to give a background vanilla hint. Don’t overdo it.
Now, mix this liquid into the flour – beating everything together to get a smooth batter. Fold in the Greek yoghurt. Choose a non-stick frying pan or cast-iron skillet. Heat on a medium heat.
Test the heat by adding a drop of batter onto the pan. If it sets almost at once it is ready to use. Rub the pan with kitchen paper smeared with a little butter, just enough to stop the batter sticking.
Add tablespoons of the batter mixture, spaced well apart, and cook for 2-3 minutes until large bubbles start to show in the surface and the pancake browns on the edges. Flip over and cook another minute until the underside starts to brown a little. They should be thick and fluffy. Place on a warmed dish. Cook the remaining pancakes.
To serve
Assorted berries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, caster sugar, lemon juice maple syrup and icing sugar.
Hull and cut the strawberries. Add in a bowl with the rest of the berries. Sweeten with a little caster sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice. Leave for 1015 minutes for the flavours to develop.
Serve the pancakes with a generous drizzle of maple
syrup and pile with plenty of fresh berries.