Yoghurt pancakes with bananas and berries

This was my lunch today. I can assure you that it was a good day in terms of lunchtime decisions! And not only good, but surprisingly guilt-free too. I should say that in terms of food, I don’t think there’s such a thing as ‘bad’ food and ‘good’ food; or at least, I don’t think that chocolate and bread are inherently evil while plain steamed broccoli is somehow saintly. In this house, we eat real butter instead of ‘spread’, bread is consumed on a daily basis, and puddings are a happily-regular occurence. The words ‘low fat’ or ‘diet’ are guaranteed to drive me crazy – I’d rather eat real food thank you very much! On the other hand, it hasn’t been long since Christmas, and my jeans don’t need to be any tighter.

So, this recipe has no sugar or even honey (although if you fancy something sweeter that would be an excellent addition), no butter or oil, and plenty of lovely healthy things like yoghurt, egg and fresh fruit – as much as you like. I have a feeling that these would also be gorgeous with chocolate spread and bananas, or caramelised apples – in which case they might possibly not be as ‘good’, but just as tasty. I plan to experiment!

The pancake batter is ridiculously easy and makes beautifully light, fluffy pancakes.

You need: 170g yoghurt (I use plain live yoghurt but I’m sure you could use whatever you have on hand); 1 egg;  scant 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda; 80g plain flour; pinch of salt; 3 drops of vanilla extract (optional). Makes 7 or 8 pancakes.

Whisk the egg with the yoghurt and vanilla if using, and add the dry ingredients. The bicarb will start reacting instantly so give the mix a good whisk. Because of the quick chemical reaction, you don’t need to make this batter in advance like most (yorkshire puddings and ‘normal’ pancakes are far better if the batter has sat at room temperature for an hour or two before using.) I have a wonderful piece of machinery that’s essentially a crepe maker (it looks like this) that means I can cook pancakes without having to grease a pan, but a flat griddle or heavy-based pan with a bit of butter or oil to grease it would work fine.

Over a medium to low heat (use the first pancake as a tester) put a dessert-spoon sized dollop of batter on the griddle and smooth it out a little. You might have to play around with your own pan to get the temperature right, but once you know the perfect setting it’s so easy! The pancakes need to cook for a minute or so on each side. They’re best eaten warm, but I ate a couple of leftovers later on and they were tasty too.

I layered my pancakes with extra yoghurt, sliced banana and blueberries (heated to a compote since they were frozen and I gave them a blast in the microwave to defrost them!) and for me the fruit was sweet enough that I didn’t need any honey to sweeten them. And they were lovely!

(Incidentally, that picture showing what my crepe machine looks like is apparently from a site suggesting that it’s a pointless one trick pony and that you are better off with an old-fashioned pan. I want to say that if you see anything like it in a shop, buy it! Yes, you can make great pancakes and crepes, but I also use it for things like crumpets and muffins, and most importantly flatbreads of every description, and they are far better than the ones I used to make on my griddle. Just saying!)

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