Mix

I've never dabbled with anything to do with flour before. No cookies, no delicate french pastries, no fluffy cupcakes. I've always seen baking as a delicate art, something which involves precise measurements and the exact following of recipe steps, and then praying & hoping for the best when you put it into the oven. I've never been able to do that, but some days you wake up and you just have to eat pancakes (and not those from the box). It kinda feels like a life-and-death-situation. I'm sure you foodies can relate.

And pancakes... Well, pancakes are a nice in-between cooking and baking. The recipe is adapted from I Am Baker, a wonderful site with excellent recipes & food photography. I like it because unlike many other pancake recipes, it insists on using only egg whites. The recipes using yolks tend to produce more moist and heavier batches, which is fine too, if you like it that way. I like the insides of mine fluffy :) In fact, this recipe is so light that you could use it as a crepe mix.

On toppings and fillings: go crazy on the fruit, icing sugar, chocolate sauce and honey. One thing I love to do is to toss a few blueberries on one side of the pancake and flip it over, patting it down softly so that the berries burst and you can see beautiful irises of juice splattered on one side. Semi-sweet chocolate chips work the same way. It's nice to see the half-melted chips smeared on the top, or burst berries peeking out of one side of the pancake.

Reminiscent of all things sweet and summer. Enjoy!

Peppermint-scented Buttermilk Pancakes 
with Blueberries

The recipe halves nicely, if you're making it for two or three (go ahead and use three eggs for half the amount of batter). Highly recommended with a thick, milky cup of tea. The trick to having that smooth golden-brown hue is using vegetable oil spray instead of butter when it comes to greasing the pan (a lesson I learnt after four terrible pancakes). This video is also especially helpful when it comes to whisking the egg whites by hand. 

Ingredients

3 cups of plain flour

5 tbsp white sugar

2 tsp baking powder

5 egg whites

2 & 1/4 cups of buttermilk

50g softened butter

4 tsp vanilla extract 

Vegetable oil

Peppermint oil

Blueberries

Strawberries (optional)

Maple syrup/honey

Icing sugar

1. Place flour, sugar, baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Fold in the melted butter and mix, forming a well in the centre for the liquid ingredients.
2. Combine two cups of milk, the vanilla essence and 4-5 drops of peppermint oil/extract in another mixing bowl.
3. Whisk the egg whites into soft peaks.
4. Slowly mix the liquid mixture into the base mix, and then fold in the egg whites. By hand, it can take  a good five minutes of mixing till you get the right consistency. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of milk in slowly, to ease the mixing.
5. Grease frying pan with vegetable oil using a brush, or oil spray (anything that will coat the skillet evenly. Put on medium heat.
6. To make smaller pancakes, pour in 1/4 cup of batter at a time and spread them out a little with the back of your ladle.
7. They are ready to flip when tiny bubbles start to appear at the top. Just before flipping to the other side, add blueberries or chocolate chips on the top.
8. Pat the pancakes gently to break the berries. Fry till ready.
9. Garnish with icing sugar, and serve with halved strawberries and honey!

Makes 18 - 20 small pancakes, serves 5