Pancake Schmancake

On Tuesday night, in honour of Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day, I made pancakes. Or more correctly 'griddle cakes' as these were officially called. Said cakes did not make me happy.

I should've known this would happen.

Pancakes and I are friends, but only from a distance. We're more acquaintances. Definitely not besties. You could, at a push, say we run in the same circles. Maybe.

It's not that I don't like pancakes. Au contraire! I love them! But eating them and loving them is different to making them and loving them. I'd like to be better friends but every time we try to work together it turns to custard. No, not custard, custard is good. These pancakes were sad.

I followed an old recipe (2008 is old from an online perspective) from The Wednesday Chef. Now don't get me wrong, I love The Wednesday Chef and my dreary pancakes are no reflection of her talents, tastes or her recipe. They are a reflection of my lack of ability to handle pancakes. I just struggle with them.

Tonight this one even taunted me. Do you see the face? Do you? It is mocking me. It's beady little eyes saying 'why bother? You know you'll never win'. Evil pancake.

Anyway. The only redeeming quality of these pancakes were the chunks of chocolate and sour cherries I added to jazz them up a bit. I don't think these additions were why they didn't work - they were why they were eaten. Without the chocolate and cherries I may not have bothered (to eat the three that I did). They were soggy, sappy, sad messes of pancakes. A wimpy, weak, flaccid example of cake made in a pan. That may sound a little harsh, but it's how I felt at the time.

I really wanted to get on board with Pancake Day but for me it was just a sad reminder that I can't cook them. I think I've had success once. Once. With a buttermilk based recipe. But I am determined not to let this get me down! I will find the perfect pancake/griddle cake recipe. Because pancakes are one of my favourite breakfast (or dessert, or even dinner) items and I don't want there to be beef between us. Here's how I'm going to find this 'perfect' recipe.

Tactics to be implemented by me:

• Use a better frying pan - it may not have helped that I was using an electric pan that turned itself off once it reached temperature. Why would it do that? Who wants a pan that turns itself off once it's hot enough? That's just silly.
• Letting my batter sit for at least 30mins before cooking. I'm not sure why I think this is a good move but it feels right.
• Different buttering/greasing options - butter, no butter, oil etc and also wiping away the butter from the pan and adding fresh butter between each round of pancake frying.

I'm going to attempt these recipes:

• Oatmeal Pancakes from Molly
• Blueberry Pancakes (including a handy Pancake 101 that I will be referencing along the way) and Lemon Ricotta Pancakes from Smitten Kitchen
• Perfect Pancakes from The Pioneer Woman
• Fluffy Pancakes with a very promising 5-star rating from over 3,000 reviews from All Recipes.

And any other interesting recipes I may find along the way. During my research I also found I'm not the only one who makes terrible pancakes - thank you Ms Humble for making me feel a little bit better.

So it's game on pancakes! Batter up. (I couldn't help a pancake pun! There were SO many to choose from. The pun possibilities almost made my poor pancake experience worthwhile). I'll leave you with a half decent picture of Tuesday's sad pancake attempt...this very average photo makes them look better than they were. Raspberries make anything look tasty.