AMERICAN PANCAKES WITH WAFER BACON AND
MAPLE SYRUP
NIGELLA
Photograph by Francesca Yorke
INGREDIENTS

30g (2 tablespoons) unsalted butter
225g plain flour
2 heaped teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
pinch of salt
300 ml full-fat milk
2 eggs
10 rashers streaky bacon or approx. 100g water-thin-cut pancetta
1-2 teaspoons vegetable oil for frying bacon
butter for frying pancakes
best-quality maple syrup
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METHOD

1.Melt the butter and set aside to cool slightly while you get on with the rest of the batter and the bacon.
2.In a wide-necked jug, measure out the flour and add the baking powder, sugar and salt. Stir to combine.
3.In another jug, measure out the milk, beat in the eggs and then the slightly cooled butter, and pour this jug of liquid ingredients into the jug of dry ingredients, whisking as you do so. Or just put everything in the blender and blitz.
4.In a vegetable oil, fry the bacon (cut into half crosswise) or the pancetta strips until crisp, remove to kitchen towels and cover with more kitchen towels (not because I'm fat phobic – as if! – but because this will help them keep their requisite crispiness). Now, heat either a griddle or non-stick frying pan, smear with a small bit of butter and then start frying. I just pour small amounts straight from the pan (but you could use an American quarter-cup measure if you prefer) so that you have wiggle circumferenced discs of about 4cm in diameter. When you see bubbles erupting on the surface, turn the pancakes over and cook for a couple of minutes, if that, on the other side.
5.Or just use a blini pan and, as above, turn when the bubbles break through to the uncooked surface. There is a Russian saying to the effect that the first pancake is always botched, so be prepared to sacrifice the initial offering to unceremonious stove-side gobbling.
6.Pile the pancakes onto plates wigwam with pieces of crispy bacon or pancetta and dribble or pour over, depending on greed and capacity, that clear, brown, woodily fragrant syrup.
7.Makes about 15 pancakes if cooked in a blini pan; or if not, about 25 pancakes the size of jam jar lids
ADDITIONAL INFO

If you can, buy pancetta from a deli or a butcher and ask them to slice it finely. This makes for crisp salty wafers, perfect with the resiny sweetness of the syrup. Otherwise ordinary bacon is, of course, fine, though I’d go for streaky rather than back. It’s the fat in the bacon that makes it crisp up.

REVIEWS

an american favourite

thedude

Has been a firm favourite ever since i bought Nigella Bites!! Have had many great brunches with these babies!! Soooo good!! PS...the best pancake recipe ever so fluffy and so yummy

emj23

Made these on the weekend - fluffy and divine! I added caramelised banana and a sprinkle of cinnamon - YUM!

CharlottaFood

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