American favourites: A hangover from IHOP: Blueberry pancakes (USA stylee)

If there is one thing that America knows how to do it is breakfast. When I lived in America, after a night on the town we regularly used to make late night visits to IHOP (The International House of Pancakes) for a post-match recuperative carb-fest. A couple of times I passed out in the car before we even reached the car-park (sorry Mum), but if I made it to the booth I only had eyes for one order: a blueberry stack with bacon. Now breakfast is one of my favourite meals (along with dinner and, um, lunch…!) – and no doubt through the course of this blog you will hear me wax lyrical about numerous breakfast wares – but truly, blueberry pancakes with bacon is the perfect breakfast. Sweet spongy pancakes, dotted with juicy tart blueberries, served alongside salty bacon, all smothered with ladlefuls of maple syrup. Genius.

These little beauties are perfect for a leisurely brunch, so I often whip up a batch when we have friends staying with us. To keep them warm, pop a dish lined with a clean tea-towel in the oven for ten minutes or so before you start cooking then cover the little patties over with the cloth as you make each batch.

Blueberry pancakes

Adapted from ‘Spooning with Rosie’ by Rosie Lovell

• 1 free-range egg
• 130g self-raising flour
• 50g caster sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 150ml milk
• a couple of knobs of butter
• 200g blueberries.

Break the egg into a large mixing bowl and beat thoroughly. Then add half the flour, the sugar, salt and baking powder and mix until you have a thick doughy batter. Add the milk (I used full-fat, why not?) and continue to mix until the batter is very light, making sure you have no lumps. Then finally add the remaining flour and mix again. This method gives you a really smooth batter. If you can bear it, leave the batter to develop for 30 minutes or so.

Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan over a medium heat and when the butter is hot and foaming, ladle in half a spoonful of your batter – I like my pancakes little, but you can make them bigger if you wish. Drop over a few blueberries (probably 5 or 6), then repeat a couple of times. I could comfortably fit 3 little pancakes in the pan at a time. Leave them cooking for a minute or so, until bubbles start to rise to the surface and the patties are brown on the bottom, them flip them over. Brown the other side for a minute or so. The pancakes will puff up a bit.

Put each batch in a warmed dish whilst you continue until all the batter is used up. You will probably need to add a bit more butter between each batch. You’ll end up with enough pancakes for four hungry brunchers.

Serve with crispy bacon and lashings of maple syrup. Heaven.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine