Ombré Berry Pancakes
Ombré berry pancakes made the American way: thick, spongey and fluffy! There is no better treat than pancakes on the weekend, take them up a level by using berries to naturally colour them from deepest purple to vibrant pink. This is a super simple recipe that the kids will love getting involved with too!
Ingredients
Pancake Batter
- 135 g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- pinch salt
- 2 tbsp caster sugar
- 130 ml milk
- 1 large egg beaten
- 2 tbsp butter for cooking
Berries to Flavour and Colour
- ½ punnet blackberries
- ½ punnet blueberries
- ½ punnet raspberries
To Serve
- Dollop Greek yoghurt
- Fresh berries
- Leftover berry purée
Instructions
- Begin by making the pancake batter. In a bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar. In a separate jug, lightly beat together the milk and egg.
- Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture and whisk to combine. Keep whisking until there are no lumps. It will feel and look a lot thicker than traditional pancake mix. Leave the batter to stand and thicken while you prepare the puréed fruit.
- Blitz the fruits separately in a blender. First blackberries, then wash the blender and move onto the blueberries and finally the raspberries. Put the puréed fruit into three bowls. You can purée by hand using a masher or a fork if you haven't got a blender.
- Divide the pancake batter into four bowls. You will be keeping one bowl plain to add to the top of the ombré stack.
- Add a tablespoon of the blackberry purée to the first bowl of plain batter and mix. You can add more until you are happy with the colour but don't add too much or the batter will become too wet. If it starts to look runny add half a tablespoon of flour to thicken it and remove any lumps using a fork.
- Repeat the step above using the blueberry purée followed by the raspberry purée.
- Heat a non-stick frying pan over a low to medium heat (see recipe notes). Add a knob of butter to the frying pan and when it's melted drop two tablespoons of pancake mixture into the pan. Shape the pancake by running the back of the spoon over the mixture in a circle.
- When the pancake starts to bubble on the top (20-30 seconds) flip it over and cook on the other side (20-30 seconds) The pancake will rise to around ½ inch thick. Set aside and repeat until all the batter is used up.
- To serve, stack the pancakes in colour order darkest to lightest to achieve the ombré effect. Top with Greek yoghurt, fresh berries, leftover purée and a sprinkling of icing sugar.
Notes
- Avoid putting too much purée into the pancake batter or it will become wet. If you use too much purée add a tablespoon of flour to thicken the mixture.
- The trick to getting ombré pancakes right is to cook them on a lower heat than you would usually cook pancakes. If the heat is too high you risk scorching the pancakes and losing the colour.
- Uneaten pancakes can be wrapped and refrigerated for two days.
- Cooked pancakes can also be frozen for one month.