Alternative Pancake Recipes
Pancake Day is an annual affair and it’s the perfect excuse to tuck into pancakes. We've rounded up a few alternative ways to switch up your pancake day with these tasty pancake recipes. Whether you have certain allergy requests, prefer something more savoury than sweet, or just want to try something a little out of the ordinary.
Sweet Potato Pancakes
(gluten-free and dairy free)
Makes 12 pancakes
Ingredients:
1 small sweet potato (200g)
⅔ mug oat milk (200ml)
1 mug brown rice flour (200g)
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
coconut oil, for greasing
Method
Peel the sweet potato, discard the skin and chop the rest of the potato into small pieces. Either steam or boil the sweet potato chunks for about 10 minutes, until they’re soft. Then place them into a blender with the oat milk, flour, honey and cinnamon and blend for 30 seconds or so until the mix is smooth.
Place a non-stick frying pan on the stove and grease it with coconut oil, then allow it to get really hot before placing about 2 tablespoons worth of batter in it.
Use a spoon to shape the batter into a circle and then allow it to cook for 2–3 minutes until the top of it no longer looks like runny batter and is starting to firm.
Flip the pancake over and allow it to cook on the other side. Continue until you’ve used up all the batter.
The Gluten Free One
Blueberry & Yoghurt American Style Pancakes
Makes 12
Ingredients:
50g fine cornmeal
50g tapioca flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
200ml low fat natural yogurt
2 eggs
150g blueberries
1-2 tablespoons sunflower oil for frying
To serve
A little butter, extra blueberries and maple syrup or runny honey.
Method
Mix the flours, cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda together in a bowl. Add the yogurt and eggs and whisk together until smooth then fold in the blueberries.
Heat a little of the oil in a large non-stick frying pan, wipe out the excess with a piece of crumpled kitchen towel. Drop large spoonfuls of the thick batter into the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes until bubbles can be seen and the undersides are tinged brown.
Turn the pancakes over with a palette knife and cook the second side for a minute or two. Take out of the pan and keep hot in a folded napkin. Oil the pan once more and cook more pancakes in the same way until all the mixture has been used up, lowering the heat slightly if needed.
Stack the pancakes on to plates, top with a little butter, extra blueberries and a drizzle of maple syrup or honey.
Note: Fine cornmeal can be found in Indian supermarkets and some larger supermarkets, tapioca flour from your nearest health food shop.
The Savoury One
Lightly Spiced Crispy Bacon with Mushroom Pancakes
Serves 4
Ingredients:
25g unsalted butter
115g button mushrooms
1tsp Tabasco® Pepper Sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
15 rashers streaky bacon
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Savoury Scotch pancakes:
225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 medium egg, beaten
150ml – 200ml milk (add more milk for a thinner consistency)
Method
Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas 6.
Melt the butter in a medium pan. Cut the mushrooms into small dice and cook in the butter and Tabasco® until drying out, about 4 minutes, then season.
Cook the rashers of bacon in the preheated oven until well done and crisp (see below). Take out and chop three of the rashers into fine bits, leaving the others whole. Add the bacon bits to the mushrooms, along with the parsley.
Now for the pancakes. In a bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt together, then make a well in the centre and add the beaten egg. Stir, adding enough of the milk to make a stiff batter. Stir in the mushroom, bacon and parsley mixture.
Heat a griddle or frying pan and place on it a 5cm (2 ½in) greased metal ring. Using a tbsp, drop a spoonful of batter into the ring on the griddle, and leave to set and colour for a few minutes. Turn over, remove the ring and allow to cook on the second side. Each pancake takes about 5 minutes to cook. Store inside a tea-towel until all are cooked. You should have about twelve pancakes.
Stack three pancakes per plate, with two pieces of halved rasher between each pancake, and two on top (three whole rashers per three pancakes).
Chefs would cook the bacon rashers between two baking sheets in the preheated oven. This is not strictly necessary of course, but we do it because it keeps them flat, which makes them easier to use in so many ways. Pour 2oz melted butter with 1tsbp chopped parsley over to serve.
The Chocolate One
Chocolate berry pancakes with minted yogurt
Serves 4
Ingredients:
Pancakes
100g plain flour
15g cocoa
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vegetable oil plus extra for frying
250ml semi skimmed milk
Filling
170g carton fat free Greek yogurt
142g small carton ready made longlife custard
4 teaspoons fresh chopped mint
175g raspberries
225g strawberries, sliced
50g dark chocolate, optional
Method
To make the pancakes, sift the flour and cocoa into a bowl, add the egg and egg yolk, 1 tablespoon of the oil then gradually whisk in the milk until smooth. Leave to stand for 15 minutes.
For the filling, mix the yogurt, custard and chopped mint together. Mix the berries together in a separate bowl. Melt the chocolate if using to decorate, in a bowl set over a small saucepan of gently simmering water.
To cook the pancakes, heat a little oil in the base of an 18 cm (7 inch), pour the excess out of the pan into a bowl then add 2-3 tablespoons of the pancake batter to the pan, tilt pan to swirl the batter over the base in a thin layer then cook until browned on the underside. Turn the pancake over and cook the second side then slide out of pan and keep hot on a plate while you cook the remaining mixture until you have 8 pancakes.
Fold the pancakes into quarters, spoon in the yogurt mix and berries, arrange in pairs on serving plates and drizzle with melted chocolate, if using. Serve immediately.