I love pancakes, love them. Although I generally tend to be pretty torn between my allegiances to both savoury and sweet I can never resist american style pancakes on a breakfast menu. Fat, fluffy, served with glugs and glugs of maple syrup and a side serving of fruit (to appease my healthy eating side) I can’t resist those round little discs of joy.

Vegan pancakes are hard to come by however, and I’ve missed being able to order them as a weekend treat. A recipe that usually heavily relies on milk, and more importantly eggs, is slightly more tricky to convert than others with less reliance on animal products for their texture. I must admit that when I first tried to vegan-ise these pancakes I ended up with a few rather sludgy looking creations. Although I could make a thick batter, the pancakes would end up heavy and claggy inside – not the light and fluffy interior I was aiming for.

I persevered though and with this recipe the texture issue is solved by using the same ingredients often used help vegan sponge cakes rise: baking powder and vinegar. When added together a chemical reaction occurs which produces carbon dioxide (aka air bubbles), thus giving our cake, or pancakes the rise we are after. I had to Google that by the way, I know it’s basic but GCSE science was a long time ago!

These pancakes are airy and fluffy with a lightly vanilla flavoured batter and juicy blueberries in the centre. The ingredients are really simple, they’re things I tend to have in the cupboard already so you can whip them up without much forethought. You could also use raspberries in the pancakes which would taste great, but I love the classic blueberry pancake combination. I like them pretty much completely drowned in syrup (a stroll round the park after is advisable!) and not much else but you could have them with some non-dairy yogurt or even whipped cream too, along with any other fresh fruits and perhaps a sprinkle of granola… The topping options are endless – I hope you’ll give them a try!

Blueberry Pancake Stack

Serves 2 (or one if you’re alone and really hungry for pancakes…)

Total time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 250ml non-dairy milk (I used almond)
• 1 tbsp cider or white wine vinegar
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp melted vegan butter (or flavourless oil)
• 150g plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 punnet of blueberries
• Maple syrup and/or other toppings

Method:

1. Measure out the almond milk into a jug. Add in the vinegar and vanilla and give it all a stir. Don’t worry if it looks weird and curdled – this is what you want! Put to one side.
2. Into a large mixing bowl add the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder and give it a mix.
3. Add the milk mixture to the bowl and stir to combine. Be careful not to over-mix, a few small lumps are fine. The baking powder will make the batter quite bubbly which is what you’re after.
4. Place a large frying pan onto a medium heat and grease lightly with oil. Place about 2 tablespoons of batter into the hot pan for each pancake. I use an ice-cream scoop to portion out the batter for each one and can just about fit 2 in my largest frying pan. As the pancakes begin to cook scatter some blueberries over the top of each one.
5. Once the pancake is covered with air bubbles and golden brown underneath, usually after about 2-3 minutes, carefully flip it over and cook the other side for a few more minutes.
6. Place the cooked pancakes onto a plate and repeat steps 4-5 with the remaining batter, stacking up the pancakes on top of each other until you have an impressive looking tower (or two slightly smaller towers if you are sharing).
7. Serve immediately with your choice of topping.