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.