Today in The Guardian: How to make perfect pancakes! Yummie!

How to cook perfect American pancakes

A stack of pancakes with lashings of maple syrup and strips of crispy bacon is the quintessential American breakfast

Felicity's perfect American pancakes. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

They may get confused about how to fry an egg and be blind to the delights of Marmite, baked beans and black pudding to help start the day, but in general our American cousins are Olympic-level breakfasters. Across the pond, just about anything goes, from a "heart attack on a rack" in a Deep South diner to spicy Tex Mex migas in Santa Fe. You name it, they'll have it for breakfast, preferably washed down with a bottomless glass of iced water and a vat of coffee.

For me, however, the quintessential American way to start the day has to be pancakes, dripping with maple syrup and criss-crossed with brittle rashers of crispy bacon. Kids in the Judy Blume books and Steve Martin films of my childhood seemed to live on these fluffy, saucer-sized discs (along with the equally mysterious meatloaf), yet the closest we ever came to them were scotch pancakes which, even at a distance of several thousand miles, were clearly the puny European weaklings in this particular transatlantic relationship.

Perhaps things are different now: Nigella certainly claims she makes up a batch for her children's breakfast at weekends, despite admitting that it's "undeniably a supermom-with-kids breakfast cliché". But what's the best recipe for aspiring domestic deities?

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Perfect American pancakes

Felicity's perfect American pancakes. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

That aside, it's very difficult to muck pancakes up, however rusty your qualifications as a supermom, dad, or just cook. They're quick, easy, and absolutely delicious with Marmite. Honestly.

Makes about 10

45g butter
115g plain flour
115g fine cornmeal
¼ tsp salt
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 egg
300ml buttermilk
100ml whole milk

1. Put the oven on low to keep the pancakes warm, and cook or otherwise prepare any bacon or other accompaniments. Melt the butter and leave to cool slightly.


2. Put the flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a mixing bowl.


3. Put the egg, buttermilk and milk into a smaller bowl and whisk to combine, then stir in 2 tbsp melted butter. Then add the contents of the bowl to the dry ingredients and mix briefly until just combined.


4. Put a heavy-based frying pan on a medium heat and brush the base with melted butter. Use a large spoon to dollop pancakes into the pan (you'll probably need to do this in at least 2 batches) and cook until they begin to look dry and bubbly on top: depending on the heat of your pan, this should take about 3 minutes. Flip over and cook the other side and cook for another couple of minutes until golden. Put into the oven to keep warm while you cook the remaining pancakes, unless you have customers ready and waiting.

5. Serve and devour immediately, while they're still hot.
Are these pancakes just like mom used to make – or a weedy British imitation? What do you top yours with, and which other American classics should we import?
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Kids, have you noticed that the British person who wrote this article seems convinced that adding Marmite to pancakes would make them better?! LOL! Remember our Marmite testing session???!!! LOL again!

Mrs P.