Uses: Makes about 10 - 12, 13 to 14cm (5-5 1/2inch) pancakes

Assembling the recipe:

Sift the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Add the eggs and melted butter and the milk a little at a time. See notes below.

Do not stir the batter too much you only want to get it smooth. A few little lumps won't really effect the cooked pancakes. Big ones will!

Cook the pancakes by heating a heavy cast iron skillet (frying pan). until hot. Put in a little butter (1 tsk - 1 teas) and let melt. Then with a soup ladle or large spoon, drop some of the batter into the hot pan to make a disk 13 to 14cm (5-5 1/2inch).

Let cook 3 to 4 minutes until bubbles begin to rise to the top and the pancake begins to get a dry, cooked look around the outer edge of the pancake. The bubbles should just be ready to pop.

Turn the pancake over and cook for 1 minute more. You can tell when the pancake is cooked by it's weight. It should be nice and light.

You should wipe out the pan with a paper towel between pancakes to remove any burnt butter and add a little bit more before pouring in the next pancake.

Serve 3 to 4 pancakes per person with bacon, 2 fried eggs and lots of softened butter and even more wonderful Maple syrup.

Pancakes in American are the national breakfast dish and there are lots of ways of making them. I really put up this recipe because I am so sick and tired of crappy European TV chefs coming up with ridiculous and down right stupid recipes. It's no wonder you can't find decent pancakes for breakfast here. The object is to cook a light golden colored pancake about 3/4 of a cm thick.

About the batter: The batter should be on the thick side (not runny) in order for the pancakes to puff up and be light. You should try and rest it for as long as possible but not longer than 6 hours. The reason I give you 2 measurements for the milk is that flour absorbs liquids differently depending on the humidity in the air and how it is stored. Remember these are not crepes or Swedish style pancakes the batter is much thicker. If the batter is too thick it can be thinned with a little more milk or thickened with a little more flour. By the time you have tried this recipe 2 or three times you will see exactly how the batter should look.

Tip: You should not pour the batter into the pan, try and hold it as close to the pan as possible and let it slide off the spoon into the hot pan. I have got a large spoon which gives me exactly the right amount of batter to pour in the pan to make the pancake the right size. Look around your kitchen and see if you can find one that gives you the right amount

Frying the pancakes: Pancakes are best cooked in a heavy cast iron skillet (frying pan). To save time use a large frying pan where you can get 2 or 3 pancakes in it at a time. Heat the pan hot - not smoking - but very hot. You can test the pan by making a little mini pancake to see how it cooks and colors. Wipe the inside of a pan with a paper towel with some softened butter on it. After each pancake or batch of pancakes wipe the pan out with some clean paper towel, the butter will burn and you want to remove it after the first pancake(s) are cooked. Continue this process until all the pancakes are cooked.

Storing cooked pancakes: Pancakes are best just out of the pan but this is a bit difficult when you are making for the family. Heat your oven to 50°C or (100°F) and lay cooked pancakes on a kitchen towel placed on a baking tray or cookie sheet, not overlapping to stay warm. Because they are hot and will produce steam and wrapping them or stacking them will make them soft and spongy. I have frozen unused pancakes but I have to say that they were in honesty pretty terrible.

Fruit pancakes: I have seen a lot of things put into pancakes but I prefer the more traditional additions. To this recipe you can add a big handful of blueberries, banana slices and even sliced strawberries. Why not wild strawberries whole. We don't really have them in the Northeast where I come from but I think they would make a great addition. My mom used to put a half a small can of corn (drained) into her batter and we would have corn pancakes with Maple syrup- a great memory!

To cook fruit pancakes: Spoon the batter in the pan and then place the sliced fruit on the batter and very gently push it down into the pancake. I will not become completely submerged in the batter no matter how much you try so don't bother. You want to get it down so the top of the sliced fruit is a millimeter below the top of the batter. With blueberries sprinkle them over the top and gently push them into the batter then cook as normal. You do need to be a bit careful when you flip them over as fruits contain sugar and sugar burns, so keep and eye on them.

Maple syrup is Maple syrup and nothing is quite the same. It is readily available here in Sweden for a price! I remember being young and my aunt cooking liters and liters of maple sap. They collected it in the woods of Pennsylvania where they lived. It takes approximately 40 liters of sap to make one litre of Maple syrup, and a mature sugar maple tree produces about 40 liters (10 gallons) of sap during the 4-6 week sugaring season. 75% of the worlds Maple syrup comes from Canada with some of the balance coming from the northeastern states in America (Vermont & Maine).

This is where the purists die! There are only 2 decent Maple syrup substitutes which are worth bothering with "Log Cabin" and "MississippI Bell" neither of these have more than 2% Maple syrup (if any in reality) in them but they come the closest to tasting like Maple syrup. They are technically called "maple flavored syrups". I have found both of them at Grey's American Food in Stockholm but I have also seen them at the really big ICA Maxi stores.

Pancakes in general: "Pancakes", "Flapjacks", and "Griddle Cakes" are all the same thing in America. Johnny Cakes are made with stone ground corn meal, and Buckweat Cakes are of course made with a combination of plain flour and buckweat flour (bovete).The size of pancakes is really up to you but they average from 5cm to 8cm at most. "Silver Dollar" pancakes are the same except they are the size of a silver dollar about 3 cm across. Kids love these and they were a treat when my mom used to make them for us. In Sweden we have Plätter which are eaten with much relish for dessert but they are made from a different recipe and are a bit lighter than American pancakes.

"Buttermilk Pancakes" are different and they taste slightly more yeasty because the raising agent is the buttermilk which has a slightly sour taste.