Best. Pancakes. Ever.
Thems are fightin’ words.
It’s a brazen claim, I admit. Who could boldly claim to have The Best Pancake Recipe Ever in all honesty? Or to put it politely: Just who the hell do I think I am?
Okay, I’m not a world renowned expert on the subject. And this recipe has never been peer-reviewed. I’ve never even submitted a pancake to a pancake tasting. Truth be told I don’t even eat pancakes very frequently… But I have toiled with my vegan recipe for the past 20 years. As the Chef in one of the most popular Breakfast spots here in Skerries, over the past 8 years I have cooked far more pancakes than I or (I daresay) anyone will eat in their lifetimes. I mean, Medical School is only 7 years… if they gave out Ph.D’s in pancakes, I would have one by now. So, I truly mean it when I say that this Pancake Batter is not only Fluffy, Light, and Delicious but it is an absolute pleasure to work with. It’s not lumpy. There’s no need to “let it rest”. The first one is not a throwaway. This is the staple Pancake Recipe that you have been waiting for.
Of course, it’s also egg-free, dairy-free, plant-based and vegan, but shhhh, if you don’t tell your friends I promise they’ll never know.
Pancake Tuesday
“The Day Everyone in Ireland Has Pancakes For Dinner”
Just For the Hell of It
That is the official introduction S gave me to Pancake Tuesday when I first came to Ireland. I loved it! It would be several years later before I finally realised it wasn’t entirely accurate. 1 (Yes, most people in Ireland mark the day by eating a pancake or two or twenty, but it’s probably a solid minority who swap out their evening meal for them!) I still adore it by that initial introduction. The pure whimsy of it.
I think we could all use a touch of the whimsical in our lives. Adulting is hard. It’s a relentless pattern of rule-following that can be laborious or even soul-sucking… Most of us are trying our best every day to eat right, take care of ourselves and our loved ones. (For example, by not serving pure sugar for dinner) Sometimes we deserve a short break. It’s fun and liberating to, just one day out of the year, live in the moment and serve up a ridiculously bold and self-indulgent dinner of pancakes and everything that goes with them. After all, life is short, and none of us are getting out of it alive. We have 364 other days out of the year to try and eat something healthy for dinner over the soundtrack of our children crying that they hate whichever vegetable was the favourite last week, or that the foods on their plate are touching, or that rice is the new poison.
So I took the ball that first year in Ireland and I rolled with it. Pancake Tuesdays in our house involve three or four different types of pancake stacks (i.e. vanilla, blueberry, chocolate chip, raspberry), bowls of fresh berries, lemon wedges and sugar, maple syrup, peanut butter, plant-based sausages and rashers, orange juice, fruit coulis and maybe some whipped coconut cream.
The Best Vegan Pancakes Ever
Ingredients
- 250ml Soymilk
- 1 Tablespoon Distilled Vinegar
- 210g Plain Flour
- 2 Tablespoons Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 3 Tablespoons Aquafaba
- 1 Tablespoon Rice Bran Oil (Plus more, for cooking)
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Directions
- Add the Vinegar to the Soymilk, mix together and set aside for about five minutes.
- In the meantime, sift together the Flour, Sugar, Baking Powder, and Salt into a mixing bowl.
- Add the Aquafaba, Oil, and Vanilla to the Soymilk mixture. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and whisk together until smooth.
- Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Lightly grease the skillet, pour in some pancake batter, and allow to cook until bubbles appear around the edges. Flip the pancake over, and cook until the centre of the pancake springs back when pressed.
Aquafaba is the water in a tin of Chickpeas. It is nearly flavourless, but is an amazing egg replacer that essentially costs nothing!
Make your life even more exciting by adding Berries or Chocolate Chips to the batter! I went classic Americana and added a punnet of Fresh Blueberries to the stack pictured above! Now not only is our life full of excitement, but our bellies are full of antioxidants.
- Of course I did know that it marked the beginning of Lent, in America of course we call it Mardi Gras. If you are observing the day as a religious rite then power to you and best of luck with your 40 days of penance. Most Irish people I’ve spoken to just use it as an excuse to indulge in pancakes, albeit usually before rather than as dinner.
I was going to ask what the heck is aquafaba, and we only talked about it last night 🙂
I thought my pancakes are best in the world, and Mati swears by it, but.. they far from being vegan, I’ll give it a go, and we shall see 😛 Secret ingredients I use for batter are not in yours, so I might tweak it, and it still will be vegan (hint). And again with rice bran oil, I tried few shops and no luck, where is this thing?
this is gold:
” After all, life is short, and none of us are getting out of it alive. We have 363 other days out of the year to try and eat something healthy for dinner over the soundtrack of our children crying that they hate whichever vegetable was the favourite last week, or that the foods on their plate are touching, or that rice is the new poison.”
3 Tablespoons chickpea water = 1 egg, 2 Tablespoons = 1 egg white. And to think, until I heard that I had been pouring it down the drain all of these years! It even whips like egg whites (for use in meringue or mousse, for example).
Tesco sometimes stock Rice Bran Oil, and sometimes even Dealz stock a good brand of it! But, if you can’t find it any vegetable/sunflower oil will work just as well. (The positives about Rice Bran Oil is that it’s trans fat free, and unique to RBO contains significant amounts of Oryzanols which actually reduce cholesterol, making it a doubly superior for your health compared to hydrogenated oils.)
I’ll let you keep your secret… We’ll have to get together for a pancake tasting! Maybe we should make it a ticketed event? ?
And yes, I think it really is the one day out of the year I don’t get grief from somebody or another over dinner! ?
Great Idea!!! Kids can make tickets :)) ask Mati 4 secret he’ll tell anyone who will listen :° D I’m planning 2 make batter at home and make them at work fresh at lunch. 🙂
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