Pancake Day is an annual affair and it’s a perfect excuse to tuck into pancakes. It’s the one day you can 100% get away with it without feeling a pang of guilt. But how experimental do we actually get with our pancake recipes?

If you’re anything like my family, year after year it was always the same batter mix, with Dad in charge of quantities – it’s one of the only things he cooks well, bless him – and the usual fillings. Think golden syrup, or lemon and sugar, or both if you’re feeling particularly radical.

Which is why this pancake day, it’s going to be different. I’ve rounded up the five most alternative ways to spice up your pancake day with great new pancake recipes. Whether you have certain allergy requests, prefer something more savoury than sweet, or just want to try something a little out of the ordinary; we’ve got you covered. See you on the flip side!

1. The Vegan One 

Pancake Recipes, Pancakes, gluten free pancakes, vegan pancakes, DELICIOUSLY ELLA by Ella Woodward. Hodder & Stoughton Publishers 2015.

Deliciously Ella’s Sweet Potato Pancakes
(also gluten free and dairy free)

Makes 12 pancakes

1 small sweet potato (200g)
⅔ mug oat milk (200ml)
1 mug brown rice flour (200g)
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
coconut oil, for greasing

Method

Peel the sweet potato, discard the skin and chop the rest of the potato into small pieces.
Either steam or boil the sweet potato chunks for about 10 minutes, until they’re really soft.
Then place them into a blender with the oat milk, flour, honey and cinnamon and blend for 30 seconds or so until the mix is totally smooth.
Place a non-stick frying pan on the stove and grease it with coconut oil, then allow it to get really hot before placing about 2 tablespoons worth of batter in it.
Use a spoon to shape the batter into a circle and then allow it to cook for 2–3 minutes, until the top of it no longer looks like runny batter and is starting to firm. Flip the pancake over and allow it to cook on the other side.
Continue until you’ve used up all the batter.

Top tip
Make sure that you cook the first side for long enough. It’s tough to be patient, but if you’re not then they won’t flip properly.

Recipe extracted from Deliciously Ella by Ella Woodward

2. The Gluten Free One

american style blueberry pancakes, Pancake Recipes, Pancakes, gluten free pancakes, vegan pancakes,

Blueberry and yogurt American style gluten free pancakes

Makes 12
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 10-15 minutes

50g (2oz) fine cornmeal
50g (2oz) tapioca flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
200g (7oz) low fat natural yogurt
2 eggs
150g (5oz) blueberries
1-2 tablespoons sunflower oil for frying

To serve

A little butter, extra blueberries and maple syrup or runny honey.

Method

Mix the flours, cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda together in a bowl. Add the yogurt and eggs and whisk together until smooth then fold in the blueberries.
Heat a little of the oil in a large non-stick frying pan, wipe out the excess with a piece of crumpled kitchen towel. Drop large spoonfuls of the thick batter into the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes until bubbles can be seen and the undersides are tinged brown.
Turn the pancakes over with a palette knife and cook the second side for a minute or two. Take out of the pan and keep hot in a folded napkin. Oil the pan once more and cook more pancakes in the same way until all the mixture has been used up, lowering the heat slightly if needed.
Stack the pancakes on to plates, top with a little butter, extra blueberries and a drizzle of maple syrup or honey.

Cook’s tip
Fine cornmeal can be found in Indian supermarkets and some larger supermarkets, tapioca flour from your nearest health food shop.

Recipe and image thanks to Seasonal Berries.

3. The Savoury One

Brian Turner’s Lightly Spiced Crispy Bacon with Mushroom Pancakes

Serves 4

25g (1 oz) unsalted butter
115g (4 oz) button mushrooms
1tsp Tabasco® Pepper Sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
15 rashers streaky bacon
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Savoury Scotch pancakes

225g (8 oz) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 medium egg, beaten
150ml – 200ml milk (add more milk for a thinner consistency)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas 6.
Melt the butter in a medium pan. Cut the mushrooms into small dice and cook in the butter and Tabasco® until drying out, about 4 minutes, then season.
Cook the rashers of bacon in the preheated oven until well done and crisp (see below). Take out and chop three of the rashers into fine bits, leaving the others whole.  Add the bacon bits to the mushrooms, along with the parsley.
Now for the pancakes. In a bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt together, then make a well in the centre and add the beaten egg.  Stir, adding enough of the milk to make a stiff batter.  Stir in the mushroom, bacon and parsley mixture.
Heat a griddle or frying pan and place on it a 5cm (2 ½in) greased metal ring. Using a tbsp, drop a spoonful of batter into the ring on the griddle, and leave to set and colour for a few minutes. Turn over, remove the ring and allow to cook on the second side. Each pancake takes about 5 minutes to cook. Store inside a tea-towel until all are cooked.  You should have about twelve pancakes.
Stack three pancakes per plate, with two pieces of halved rasher between each pancake, and two on top (three whole rashers per three pancakes).
Chefs would cook the bacon rashers between two baking sheets in the preheated oven.  This is not strictly necessary of course, but we do it because it keeps them flat, which makes them easier to use in so many ways
Pour 2oz melted butter with 1tsbp chopped parsley over to serve

Recipe by Brian Turner for Tabasco.

4. The Chocolate One

Pancake Recipes, Pancakes, gluten free pancakes, vegan pancakes,, Chocolate berry pancakes 2

Chocolate berry pancakes with minted yogurt

Serves 4

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Standing time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Pancakes
100 g (4 oz) plain flour
15 g (1/2 oz) cocoa
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vegetable oil plus extra for frying
250 ml (8 fl oz) semi skimmed milk

Filling

170g carton fat free Greek yogurt
142 g (41/2 oz) small carton ready made longlife custard
4 teaspoons fresh chopped mint
175 g (6 oz) raspberries
225g (8 oz) strawberries, sliced
50g (2 oz) dark chocolate, optional

Method

To make the pancakes, sift the flour and cocoa into a bowl, add the egg and egg yolk, 1 tablespoon of the oil then gradually whisk in the milk until smooth. Leave to stand for 15 minutes.
For the filling, mix the yogurt, custard and chopped mint together. Mix the berries together in a separate bowl. Melt the chocolate if using to decorate, in a bowl set over a small saucepan of gently simmering water.
To cook the pancakes, heat a little oil in the base of an 18 cm (7 inch), pour the excess out of the pan into a bowl then add 2-3 tablespoons of the pancake batter to the pan, tilt pan to swirl the batter over the base in a thin layer then cook until browned on the underside. Turn the pancake over and cook the second side then slide out of pan and keep hot on a plate while you cook the remaining mixture until you have 8 pancakes.
Fold the pancakes into quarters, spoon in the yogurt mix and berries, arrange in pairs on serving plates and drizzle with melted chocolate, if using. Serve immediately.

Recipe and image thanks to Seasonal Berries.

5. The Boozy One

Pancake BSK, Pancake Recipes, Pancakes, gluten free pancakes, vegan pancakes,

 Tawny Port Pancakes

Pancake ingredients
112g ricotta
85ml milk
2 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
70g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 pinch of salt

Honeycomb ingredients

30 cls (3/4 glugs) of Graham’s 10 Year Old Tawny Port
195g sugar
48g honey
75g liquid glucose
36g water
10g bicarbonate of soda
1 block of butter
Maple syrup (to serve)
Glass of Graham’s 10 Year Old Tawny Port

For the pancakes

Mix the ricotta, milk and egg yolks together.
In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients – flour, baking powder and salt.
Slowly add the wet mix into the dry until just combined.
Whisk egg whites to stiff peaks and then fold into the batter mixture in two batches.
Heat a frying pan to medium and melt some butter until it gently foams.
Add pancake batter in rounds and cook on both sides for 2-3 minutes.

For the honeycomb

Boil the sugar, honey, glucose and water together until you make golden caramel.
Add the Graham’s 10 Year Tawny Port toward the end of the boil – so as to retain the complex nutty flavours, creating a rich and deep amber colour.
Turn off the heat, add the bicarb and stand back as the mixture foams.
Pour out onto a lined baking tray and allow to cool.
Once honeycomb is cooled, break into small bits.
Add the honeycomb to the block of butter and pulse in a food processor until combined.
Roll the honeycomb butter into a log, cover with clingfilm and chill in the fridge until needed.
To serve, allow two pancakes per person, topped with a disc of honeycomb butter on each and drizzled with maple syrup.

Recipe and images thanks to Bread Street Kitchen.

And one for luck….

6. The Paleo One

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Ingredients:

2 large bananas, (mash 3⁄4 of the bananas, keep the 1⁄4 for garnish)

2 large eggs, beaten

1 tsp chia seeds

2-4 tsp coconut oil

2 pinches salt

1⁄2 tsp baking powder

garnish

banana blueberries

agave nectar

2 handfuls pecans

Method: 

Mash 3⁄4 of the bananas until smooth, then add the egg and beat well.

Stir in the chia seeds, baking powder and salt and leave to rest for 5 minutes.

Heat a non-stick frying pan on a high heat and place a touch of coconut oil to both the pan and a spatula (coating the spatula will help when turning over the pancakes).

Turn the heat down to medium, pour a circle of the batter into the pan. I use about 60ml of the mixture per pancake.

Cook until golden brown on the underside (approx. 1 minute), then flip over and cook until golden brown on the other side (about 30 seconds).

Once you’ve cooked all 6 pancakes, stack them back on each other to warm through in the hot pan, but take the pan off the heat.

Serve warm with remaining 1⁄4 of the banana sliced, blueberries, crushed pecans and agave nectar.

Recipe and image thanks to myrelationshipwithfood.com

#7 The Egg White One

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Serves 4 Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

100g plain flour

Pinch of salt

100ml Two Chicks free-range liquid egg white

250ml skimmed milk

Cooking spray or 2-3 tsp vegetable oil

1 lemon, sliced into wedges

Caster sugar, honey or golden syrup, to serve

Method

1 Sift the flour and salt into a large jug or mixing bowl.

2 Add the Two Chicks egg white and milk and beat with a wire whisk to make a smooth batter.

3 Heat a non-stick pancake pan or medium-sized frying pan and spray with cooking spray or add a few drops of vegetable oil. Pour in a quarter of the batter, tilting the pan so that it flows evenly across the surface. Cook over a medium heat until the surface has set, then flip the pancake over to cook the other side.

4 Make 4 pancakes in total, adding a little cooking spray or vegetable oil each time. Serve with lemon wedges and sprinkle with caster sugar, or drizzle with honey or golden syrup.

Recipe and image thanks to Two Chicks