Pancakes sound complicated but they’re actually very easy to make.
They make a great rest-day breakfast when you have plenty of time in the morning, or try them for supper.
On a shorter tour, you can, mix the dry ingredients at home before you leave. On the road, you can use water instead of milk and leave out the vanilla. Otherwise, buy a boxed mix – still good but more expensive and with preservatives. The same batter without sugar makes great savoury pancakes or crepes to go with ham and cheese.
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder *
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda *
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4-1 1/2 cups milk (we usually carry powdered milk) or water
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla (optional – only if you’re really lucky!)
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (optional)
Mix the dry ingredients together. Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk or water. Keep a bit of milk aside until you mix everything together and then see if you’d like a thinner batter or not. Add the eggs, vanilla and oil. Mix well.
Heat your frying pan and put a bit of oil or butter in it. When hot, pour in some pancake mix. We do about 1/4 cup a time for small, easy-to-flip pancakes. When the pancake starts to bubble on top and is golden brown on the cooked side, turn it and continue cooking until both sides are golden brown.
The first pancake is always a bit of a test so adjust the batter by adding more flour if you need to make it thicker or more milk if you want a thinner pancake. In either case, just add a few spoonfuls at a time until you get it right.
Keep going until all your batter is cooked. For extra cycling value, smear peanut butter on the pancakes and slice up some apples to go with them.
14th August 2011 at 3:06 pm #
I wonder how many of these recipes you’ve actually made on tour. How many times do I have flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, eggs, vanilla? in my panniers? Never had any.
14th August 2011 at 5:52 pm #
Hi Sam, we make pancakes quite a lot on tour.
If you’re on a shorter tour, you can pre-mix the dry ingredients at home. If you’re on a longer tour, the flour is a bit heavy to carry, but then we plan to have pancakes (and maybe make pizza as well) on a few days so by the end of the week it’s gone.
Also, in many countries you can buy self-raising flour, so you don’t need to buy separate packages of rising agents.
Eggs you just pick up on the day. This is easier if you can buy them in quantities of 6 or less. Have pancakes for one meal, and an omelette for the next and the eggs are gone. Milk can be from milk powder (ultra-light) and the vanilla flavour might come from vanilla sugar (easy to find in Europe in tiny packets) but it’s really optional.
It’s definitely not going to be for everyone, and to some extent it depends on where you’re touring as well (for example, in North America we sometimes found it hard to buy small quantities of things, but this was easier in Europe). We know people who are happy to eat pot noodles for days, which we never eat, but pancakes are definitely do-able and a very cheap and filling meal.
29th March 2012 at 7:18 pm #
We are planning to go on a 4 day bike trip next week through the Peruvian Andes and find these recipes quiet nice and easy to do. It is a matter fo mental condition and preferences. Some like the easy processed food from the shelves, others like the charm of making their own food from fresh ingredients despite all the work, time and etceteras involved. Keep cycling.
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