One of the joys of lockdown is having more time to cook what you would normally go out and buy. Here is one of my favourite recipes, Fluffy Homemade Souffle Pancakes.

INGREDIENTS for 3 pancakes

• 2 large chilled eggs
• 1 ½ tbsp milk
• ¼ tsp pure vanilla extract
• ¼ cup plain flour and ½ tbsp corn flour (once you have this take ½ tbsp plain flour out of the cup and replace with ½ tbsp corn flour). This is to make cake flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp sugar
• oil to grease pan (ideally a non-stick thick based pan)
• water for steaming

METHOD

1. Switch on the pan on low heat
2. Separate the egg whites and egg yolks into two different bowls and put the bowl with egg whites in the freezer
   
3. Add milk and vanilla essence to the egg yolks and whisk until frothy and slightly pale(approx. 5 minutes )
   
4. Sift in the flour and baking powder to the mixture and whisk together to form a paste like texture (approx. 2 mins).
   
5. Take out the egg whites from the freezer and start to beat them. An electric whisk is better for this part.
6. Once the egg whites turn foamy and pale, add in 1/3 of the sugar at a time to them.
   
7. Keep beating until you get stiff peaks (if the mixture stays in the bowl when you turn it upside down your mixture is ready (approx. 5-8 mins). Don’t overmix
   
8. Fold in 1/3rd of the egg white mixture with the egg yolk mixture. Ensure you mix this well but gently until totally combined
   
9. Add in another third, gently combine and finally the last part and combine to form a ribbon like mixture
   
10. The batter will make three pancakes and you need to pile on the batter about 4 times on each pancake to build the height
11. Spoon in a heaped tablespoon of the mixture onto the pan and make three pancakes. The pan should always stay on low because these pancakes cook slowly
    
12. Spoon another heaped tablespoon on each of the pancakes again and then repeat once more
13. Put a tablespoon of water in the empty spaces of the pan, cover and set your timer for 2 minutes. The water creates steam to help cook the pancakes
14. Open the lid and put the final spoonful on each pancake. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes
15. Now it is time to slowly turn them over. If you find they are still sticking, give them another minute
    
16. Turn them gently, put another tablespoon of water in the spaces, cover the lid and cook for another 5 minutes
17. Serve with whipped cream, maple syrup & fruit
    

This was my first attempt at making them and though they lacked the jiggle they were so delicious…light, fluffy and irresistible.
As you can see from the photos my pancakes were a bit too big for the pan but I used 2-3 tbls per scoop which was clearly too much. This also meant I didn’t have enough batter for the 4th layer which meant I lost some height.

Once I piled them on a plate and topped them with mixed berries and maple syrup the shape didn’t matter because the taste, texture and flavours won!

Hope you get to make these Fluffy Homemade Souffle Pancakes.

Neha