Buttermilk Pancakes

There is still nothing that says "Sunday Morning" more than some warm, fluffy pancakes. It is even better if they are buttermilk pancakes; but you can always make a healthier version by replacing the buttermilk with regular milk, and omitting the butter entirely, as shown here.

But I am feeling especially Sunday-ish today, so we are going full buttermilk. Mmmm; then I shall take a well-deserved nap.

For about 6-8 medium pancakes, you will need:

• One tablespoon of melted butter
• One egg
• One tablespoon of sugar
• One cup of buttermilk
• A quarter teaspoon of baking soda
• One tablespoon of vanilla sugar*
• One tablespoon of baking powder
• One cup of flour
• A pinch of salt

* If you do not have vanilla sugar, you can substitute this with a half teaspoon of vanilla syrup and a half tablespoon of regular sugar.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Resting Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes


Start by mixing all your dry ingredients with a whisk, i.e. the flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

Next, break and whisk the egg in a bowl until it is nice and frothy.

Add the rest of the wet ingredients, i.e. the melted butter and the buttermilk (and the vanilla syrup if you did not use vanilla sugar).

Whisk the mixture until it is homogenous and frothy.

Make a well in your dry ingredients.

And add the wet ingredients into the middle.

With a spoon or spatula, incorporate the wet and dry ingredients. Do not over stir, or mix too quickly, or you will start developing gluten which will make your pancakes taste weird and feel elastic. A general guide is to stir ten times and then stop. Okay, sometimes I go to twelve, but the point is to actually count each stirring revolution you make and be conscious of not over-stirring.

If your batter seems lumpy, that is fine.

Let the pancake batter sit for about ten minutes so that the wet and dry ingredients can get to know each other a little bit better.

After the ten minutes are up, warm up a flat pan or griddle on medium heat and grease it lightly.

Scoop some of the batter onto the pan. If you have a large enough pan, you can make a few pancakes at a time. If this is your first time making pancakes, I suggest making one at a time.

There are many different guides for when you should flip your pancakes. Some say it is ready to be flipped when the bubbles stop forming on the top. Others say the edges will seem dry. Some even follow a strict 90 second rule. I find that if you keep a close eye on the edges, you will get an idea of when is it ready to flip. It is okay, go ahead and slip the edge of a spatula under the pancake and sneak a peak to see if it is ready. Eventually, you will find your own way.

Whichever way you choose, flip your pancake when it is ready.

This side will take less time to cook, so keep an eye on it.

Finally, serve  your pancakes with maple syrup and jam, or whatever other decadence you like.

Yum.

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Shyamal Addanki

Yummy Breakfast Sandwich

Here is a delicious breakfast sandwich that will help kickstart your weekday and help shake off those Monday blues. It is easy enough to put together in a jiffy, in between ironing your shirt and finding matching socks.

To make this sandwich, you just need:

• One or two eggs; depending how eggy you like it
• English muffins
• A tomato slice
• One or two slices of canadian bacon; depending how bacon-y you like it
• A few leaves of basil
• Cheese of your choice, a sharp cheddar would be a good choice.

Preparation time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 15 mins

I was making a few sandwiches at the same time, so you will see me using ingredients for multiple sandwiches in the pictures below.

Lay your cut muffins (cut-side up) on an oven tray, add the slice of cheese on one half and place it in the oven to grill. Don't grill it just yet, just get it ready.

Slice your tomato and season the slice with some pepper, salt and dried basil.

Let the tomato slice rest of a bit. Meanwhile, beat your eggs in a bowl and add some salt and pepper.

Now we are ready to start cooking things. Basically, you need to grill the bacon and tomato, and cook the eggs. I did them as a scramble, but you can do them any way you wish.

When you're eggs are almost done, pop the muffins with the cheese in the oven on your grill setting to get the muffins toasted and cheese melted. Alternately, just toast your muffins if you would rather do that.

Finally, assemble your sandwich. I did Muffin-cheese-bacon-eggs-bacon-tomato-basil leaves-muffin.

Now go start your day feeling energised!

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Shyamal Addanki