American Style Pancakes - made with Whole Wheat Flour

Pancakes. Every country has its own variation. In India we have Dosa, Cheela, Uttapam, Pesarattu and what not!

The first time I had “American Pancakes” was when I was on business travel to Chennai. The hotel I was staying in had a luxurious breakfast spread. I don’t think I have ever been so motivated in my life to wake up early only for breakfast. A standard item on the breakfast menu was “American Pancakes” – served with melted butter and honey. They were absolutely divine – soft, fluffy and moist.

After that, I have visited the city multiple times, but never had the opportunity to stay at that place.

I finally decided that it can’t be too difficult to make pancakes at home. Google helped me in my endeavour, and after going thru numerous sites and recipes, I finally zeroed in on this one at www.ralpharama.co.uk. The primary reason was that the recipe seemed simple to make, and more importantly, I had the ingredients readily available. The only difference was that I used whole wheat flour instead of plain flour. The result was fabulous.

Sharing the recipe with you as well.

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Flour / Atta: 1 cup

Milk: 1 cup

Oil: 1/8 cup

Sugar: 1 tbsp

Egg: 1

Vanilla Essence: 1 tsp

Baking Powder: 1 tsp

Salt: a pinch

Method:

- Seive the flour, baking powder and salt together

- Add the sugar, oil, milk and egg

- Mix it to form a batter. It’s ok to have a few lumps. I let the batter stay for around 10 minutes before using it

- Heat a non stick pan, and grease it lightly with oil

- Pour a ladle or 2 of the batter when the pan is hot, but not very hot. I like my pancakes to be thicker and slightly large so I poured a bit more than required.

- When the top is filled with air bubbles and the sides begin to firm up, its time to flip the pancake. This should take around a minute

- The other side takes less time to cook. Lift it a bit to check whether it has achieved a golden texture

- Transfer onto a plate, and serve hot or cold. I served mine with melted butter and honey on top