Blueberry Pancakes

The fluffy pancake recipe with a 405 flour experiment, one pan on a lazy Sunday, one flip disaster and one clean recovery

· 14 minutes start to finish · experimental breakfast

The pancake recipe with one experiment, 405 flour, and the usual blueberries folded in. The batter takes about a quarter of an hour; after that it is roughly four minutes a side, and the clock chips stop there since the pace was leisurely with fruit cut between flips

Everything on the scale

One bowl on the scale for the dry, a glass one waiting for the wet, and the whole cast lined up behind

start Bowl on the scale with milk, butter, egg, vanilla, flour and sugar lined up behind

The dry bowl

Flour first, 290 g, and this is the experiment: Type 405, the finest German flour, to see what it does. Sugar on top, tared between each

+1 min Flour poured into the bowl, just under 290 g on the scale +2 min Sugar tipped in, 59 g on the scale

Baking powder, baking soda and salt follow, then everything gets whisked so the leavening is even through the flour

+3 min Baking powder sprinkled from the sachet +3 min Baking soda tipped in from the tin +4 min Salt poured in, 3.3 g on the scale
+4 min Dry ingredients whisked together

The wet bowl

Milk into the glass bowl, butter cut in on the knife, vanilla ground over from the mill and the egg cracked in last. The bowl goes into the microwave just long enough to soften the butter. Melted is not needed, and too long starts cooking the egg

+5 min Milk poured into the glass bowl on the scale +6 min Butter added to the milk on the knife
+7 min Vanilla ground over the bowl from the mill +7 min Egg cracked into the milk and butter +8 min The bowl in the microwave to soften the butter

Batter

The pan goes on low early so it heats while the batter comes together. Wet whisked smooth, then wet into dry and mixed just until it stops being floury

+9 min A knob of butter in the pan on low heat +11 min Wet ingredients whisked, melted butter through the milk +11 min Wet and dry combined into a batter

Then the blueberries, a whole colander of them, folded in gently so they stay intact

+13 min Blueberries poured into the batter

First one in

Butter melted and swirled, then a ladle of batter. Heat started at 4 and nudged to 5 once the first one showed how slowly it was going

+13 min Butter melted and spread around the pan +14 min First pancake poured, blueberries showing through

What ready looks like

Bubbles first, and the pancake is not ready. It is ready when the surface has gone matte and set, the bubbles have popped and stayed open, and the edges look dry. About four minutes a side at 5 out of 9. The first one sat closer to ten while the fruit got cut, and paid for it

Bubbles forming but the surface still wet, not ready Surface matte and set with open bubbles, ready to flip

The fruit interlude

Pancakes leave time between flips. Bananas sliced, mango peeled and cubed

Bananas and the knife on the board Banana sliced on the plate
Mango peeled in hand Mango cheeks cut off at the stone Banana and mango cubed on the plate

The flip that wasn’t

Two things went wrong at once. The 405 batter runs thinner and more fragile than the usual flour, and this pan has high sides, which had been forgotten: the spatula has to come in at an angle, and there is no clean way down. The first pancake did not survive the attempt

The first pancake pale and stuck ahead of the flip The failed flip, pancake in pieces in the pan

Browned butter restart

Pan scraped out, fresh butter in, and this time it was left a little longer until the milk solids browned and it smelled nutty

Fresh butter in the cleaned pan The butter foaming and browning

Doing it right

Same batter, better process. Pour, wait the four minutes until the surface goes matte, then the flip: a wide spatula all the way under, wait until the pancake slides a little in the pan so nothing is stuck, and commit in one clean motion. High sides stop mattering when it is done in one shot

Next pancake poured into the browned butter Still pale and wet on top, not ready yet
Matte surface and set edges, time to flip Flipped clean, deep golden with blueberries

The production line

Butter between every pancake, finished ones resting on the mat. The blueberries burst into the underside and caramelise where they touch the pan

Butter going in for the next one, finished pancake resting Finished blueberry pancake on the bamboo mat
The stack piled on the blue plate

Breakfast table with blueberry pancakes, banana, mango and maple syrup

Commentary, extra notes