They utterly remind me of long Scottish walks, hiking over the hills or along a rugged blowy coastline. The scenario is always a bit blustery, a bit chilly and by the end, a bit feet-draggy. And the homecoming prize is a folded-over tea towel stuffed full of hot-off-the-hot-plate pancakes, with butter, honey, a pot of tea… heaven!
Scottish pancakes are generally a tea-time treat but the cinnamon butter I’ve added at the end would be a good brekkie treat for sure. Or you could go off-piste and try American-style crispy streaky bacon with maple syrup. Frankly you can’t go wrong. Still, for me nothing beats a tea-time pancake (or few) dressed with just a slab of cold butter and a spoonful of lovely honey like the Tweedside honey I have in the cupboard at the moment, from the wonderful Chain Bridge Honey Farm. They do freeze well, I’ve often been told, but sadly we’ve never been in the position to test the theory as there’s never a crumb left over! Enjoy.
WHAT YOU NEED:
225g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
50g caster sugar
60g melted butter
2 eggs
300ml milk (not skimmed!)
Sunflower oil for frying
WHAT YOU DO:
- Get a large bowl and sieve the flour and baking powder into it.
- Then add the sugar.
- Separately, beat together the eggs, melted butter and milk.
- When this is nice and whizzy, add it to the flour mixture. Mix it well, I use a hand-held blender but an enthusiastic wooden spoon or hand whisk would do.
- Use a brush or paper towel to oil the thing you’re going to cook on - griddle (not one with grooves), hot plate or frying pan. I do mine on the cooler plate of an Aga.
- When it’s hot, take a large spoon and drop batter onto the hot surface, about the size of a normal jam jar lid. When the bubbles appear all over (might be less than a minute if hot), flip them over, do for the same time again.
- As they’re done, tuck them inside a tea towel to keep warm.
I used to have a cut-out recipe for a cinnamon butter to go with Scottish pancakes… I can’t find it but it’s basically a twist on a brandy butter, with the same delicious grainy finish. I’ve just improvised one and it was divine, so try this:
100g soft salted butter
100g light brown sugar
1.5 tsp of cinnamon
Whizz them all together as you would a butter icing, for at least 5 minutes, ideally a bit longer, so you get a really lovely, light, fluffy butter.
