The Anti-Recipe – American Pancakes

After the scandal of last week’s Chicken Fajita Anti-Recipe, I thought I’d put a little bit more effort in this week and do some actual cooking.

But then I remembered I’m not really a fan of cooking, so Rob did it instead. Hooray!

When Rob and I went on our American Roadtrip last year, we became accustomed to brunch. Brunch is a highly underrated meal that we simply don’t enjoy enough here in the UK – that little pocket of time between breakfast and lunch is prime for food consumption. Especially if said food consists of bacon and maple syrup.

Since the Roadtrip, I’ve had to switch back to regular-person eating during the week (muesli just does NOT compare)… but weekends are another story entirely. This Saturday, we had a lie-in, pottered about for a bit then made a classic brunch – American-style pancakes with bacon, blueberries and maple syrup. Here’s how…

You will need:
– 135g flour (some recipes call for self raising but we used plain with no issue)
– 1 teaspoon baking powder
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 2 tablespoons caster sugar
– 1 large egg
– 130ml milk
– knob of melted butter
– 4 rashers of streaky, smoked bacon

To serve:
– Blueberries
– Maple syrup

Get cooking:
– The measurements for this dish are based on this recipe, but it’s best to mix it all up and tweak ’til you’re happy. Start by chucking your flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar into a bowl. You can sift it in if you want, but it takes forever and gets EVERYWHERE, so I always skip that bit.
– In a separate bowl, whisk your egg and milk together then add in your butter. Throw in (carefully, mind) your flour mixture and combine the two, like this:

(Just in case you’re not sure what a mixing bowl should look like)

– You might want to add more milk at this stage – Rob is Pancake Mix King and he decreed more milk was needed to loosen the mixture. Add a bit, give it a whisk, see what you think.
– Heat a little more butter in a frying pan and pour in a bit of your mixture. Not sure how to do that? Here’s a handy gif:

Woo!

– Let your mixture cook for a couple of minutes then flip it over and do the other side. Repeat until you’ve used all your mixture. Feel free to make your own gif of this step and send it to me.
– Pile your pancakes on a plate and cover with foil so they don’t go cold.

– Put your bacon rashers into the frying pan and cook ’til crispy. Assemble everything on various plates and bowls and transfer to your table setting…

– Serve yourself a stack of pancakes, add bacon, blueberries and pour over maple syrup. Eat. Enjoy!

Looking at these photos makes me want to slam-nom this brunch all over again. Yum!

What do you think – are you a fan of bacon and syrup or are you still to be initiated?