A Guide to Making the Perfect Pancakes As A Birthday Surprise for Best Friend

Who doesn't love pancakes? From America to the UK and from Asia to Antarctica, everyone enjoys pancakes, either for breakfast, as a meal, or as a dessert. There’s plenty of ways of making them that adhere to different tastes and dietary preferences. There’s eggless pancakes, pancakes with protein powder, chocolate pancakes and several other variations. Here, we’re going to make whole wheat pancakes that are healthy and delicious. They are quick to make and don't require too much effort on your part either.

You can top these pancakes with any garnishes, the choices are endless. You can add sliced fruit like banana or apple slices, a scoop of ice cream, a dollop of whipped cream, chocolate sauce, strawberry or some other jam or compote, bits of chocolate, peanut butter, or chopped nuts like almonds, cashews, pistachios or any other topping of your choice. You can get as creative with the toppings as you like.

Ingredients:

• 260 gm whole wheat flour (spooned &anp; leveled)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 248 gm plain Greek yogurt, at room temperature
• 300 ml milk, at room temperature
• 60 ml pure maple syrup, at room temperature
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 42 gm coconut oil, melted (or vegetable oil, or melted butter)
• for cooking: butter or nonstick spray

Directions:

In a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Mix well and set aside.

In another bowl, add the yogurt, milk, maple syrup, eggs and vanilla. Mix well and whisk until fully combined. Then add the oil and mix well.

Now, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, a little bit at a time. Whisk them well until combined. Ensure that there are no lumps or dry patches and everything is fully incorporated.

Let the batter rest for 5 minutes while the stove heats. This gives the batter a chance to combine.

Now, heat a pan over medium heat. Add some butter and tilt the pan until fully spread. Once it's hot, pour a spoonful of batter onto the pan. Spread it out a bit. Cook till the edges have set. There should be slight holes on the surface of the pancakes and around the border. Then flip and cook on the other side. Then spoon it out onto a plate.

Serve the pancakes warm with any toppings or your choice.

Notes, tips and tricks:

If you want to prepare the pancakes ahead of time and have less work to do in the morning, you can collect all the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ones in another. But don't mix them together, since the baking powder gets activated once it's wet. So combine the dry and wet ingredients only when you're ready to cook. Also, don't add oil to the wet ingredients bowl. In the fridge, the oil will solidify and create problems when you try to cook it later. So leave these tasks for the morning but collect the rest and keep it ready.

Instead of plain Greek yoghurt, you can also use vanilla, honey flavoured, chocolate, strawberry or any other flavoured yoghurt of your choice. Also, you can use full fat, low fat, non fat, any composition that you prefer. You can also use sour cream if you don't have yoghurt on hand. Remember, the type of yoghurt you use won't make a difference to the overall pancake taste. But make sure you're using fresh and cool yoghurt.

Similarly, you can use any milk of your choice, from full fat milk to skimmed milk and from dairy milk to non-dairy alternatives like almond milk, oat milk, or any other milk according to your preference.

Even with the sweetener, you have the choice of using any one you like. This can be honey, coconut sugar, brown sugar or maple sugar. Or any other sweetener that you would like to use.

Cover and store the leftover pancakes in the fridge for up to a week. You can also freeze pancake batter and store for up to 3 months. You can also make the pancakes and then freeze. When ready to eat, reheat them in the oven or microwave. Heat until defrosted and warm.