Perfect Pancakes with Bacon

Makes: approx. 20 pancakes

While pancakes with syrup are undeniably a supermom-with-kids breakfast cliche, they are also undeniably good, and in my book that alone argues forcefully for their inclusion here. They are anyway very easy to make, easier than thinner English pancakes or crepes, and it's not hard to get into the weekend habit of mixing them up. They're what I make for my children's breakfast at weekends. I make up half-quantities of the batter (or the full amount on Saturday, saving half of it in a clingfilm-covered jug for Sunday) and let them squeeze golden syrup, rather than the smokier maple, over them; we dispense with the bacon altogether.

Recipe posted by Nigella

Ingredients

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 heaped teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

1 pinch of salt

1 ¼ cups whole milk

2 large eggs

10 slices bacon (or approx. 100g / 4oz wafer-thin-cut pancetta)

2 teaspoons vegetable oil (for frying bacon)

butter (for frying pancakes)

Instructions

1. Melt the butter and set aside to cool slightly while you get on with the rest of the batter and the bacon.

2. In a wide-necked jug, measure out the flour and add the baking powder, sugar and salt. Stir to combine.

3. In another jug, measure out the milk, beat in the eggs and then the slightly cooled butter, and pour this

jug of liquid ingredients into the jug of dry ingredients, whisking as you do so. Or just put everything in

the blender and blitz.

4. In a vegetable oil, fry the bacon (cut into half crosswise) or the pancetta strips until crisp, remove to

kitchen towels and cover with more kitchen towels (not because I'm fat phobic - as if! - but because this

will help them keep their requisite crispiness). Now, heat either a griddle or non-stick frying pan, smear

with a small bit of butter and then start frying. I just pour small amounts straight from the pan (but you

could use an American quarter-cup measure if you prefer) so that you have wiggly circumferenced discs

of about 4cm / 2 inches in diameter. When you see bubbles erupting on the surface, turn the pancakes

over and cook for a couple of minutes, if that, on the other side.

5. Or just use a blini pan (approx. 7cm / 3 inches) and turn when the bubbles break through to the

uncooked surface. There is a Russian saying to the effect that the first pancake is always botched, so be

prepared to sacrifice the initial offering to unceremonious stove-side gobbling.

6. Pile the pancakes onto plates wigwam with pieces of crispy bacon or pancetta and dribble or pour over,

depending on greed and capacity, that clear, brown, woodily fragrant syrup.

7. Makes about 15 pancakes if cooked in a blini pan; or if not, about 25 pancakes the size of jam jar lids.