After the eating excess of yesterday’s Feathered and Furred cookery class and demo at White Pepper Cookery school (more about this later), today’s menu was supposed to consist of air sandwiches and spring water. So when Boy Child requested waffles for breakfast we compromised: I turned to some low cal American style pancakes. He didn’t even notice the absence of eggs or sugar.
I don’t normally favour low-cal versions of food - especially when it involves replacing butter, cream or sugar with low-cal substitutes - but I make an exception for these because there’s no compromise on the flavour. As an aside, if you’re interested in making skinny versions of notoriously thigh-expanding dishes, I can highly recommend The Skinny French Kitchen, by Harry Eastwood. This is a lady who knows the value of good butter and cream, but she’s managed to cut the calories in a range of her favourite French dishes in a way that doesn’t leave you wanting. These pancakes aren’t hers but she has lots of similarly caloried-down treats. Her profiteroles are delicieux.
The calories in each of these pancakes obviously depends on how large you make them. I’m never going to eat like a bird, so by my standards this recipe produces 6 generously proportioned, thick and fluffy golden discs. We had them with lemon juice and an abstemious sprinkling of sugar, so my back-of-the-envelope calculation (using a proper online calorie and nutrition calculator) shows that two of these with a sprinkling of sugar and a spritz of lemon juice comes in at under 200 calories. Or about 72 calories per pancake before a topping. Result!
Skinny American Pancakes
- 95g plain four
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- about 100ml skim or semi-skimmed milk
- 2 egg whites
1. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the centre, add half the milk and gradually stir the dry ingredients into the liquid. Keep adding more of the milk until you have a smooth batter with an easy dropping consistency.
2. Beat the egg whites until stiff, but don’t overdo them. If they get to the dry stage you will have trouble folding them into the batter.
3. Using a large metal spoon, take one dollop of the egg whites and beat into the pancake batter. Don’t worry about folding at the point. When everything is combined and the batter smooth, fold in the rest of the egg white, being careful not to knock the air out. I use a large slotted metal spoon for this.
4. Wipe out a non-stick pan with a little flavourless oil, set over a medium-high heat, and when the pan is hot, add large spoonfuls of the batter and gently spread them out to form circles. I used a large serving spoon for this so each pancake ended up the size of a small palm. They should be ready to flip when bubbles start to form in the batter. You only want to flip these once so they stay light and fluffy, so lift up an edge to check if they’re golden. Cook for a minute or so on the other side. Eat immediately, with low or high-cal toppings. The choice is yours.
