Blueberry & White Chocolate Pancakes

Hello Everyone! Again apologies for the lack of posts, but I already explained my situation in the last post so I won’t be going through all that again! Anyway, apologies as well as this post was supposed to go up last night but I got so caught up in the kitchen the whole day from morning to afternoon, and night. Basically cooking all day long, firstly because I promised my housemate pancakes, and promised Jialing a baking session to drown her sorrows in, and then an impromptu homemade dinner session with Jialing as well. Recipes will be posted hopefully within the next few days, if I can get them all written up by tonight and just post over the coming days. I was also helping my lover Jialing to prepare her for her interview today, and also helped a fellow housemate with his internship application. The night flew by so quickly that it was way past midnight – I hadn’t written a post, and I needed to go to bed for an early 9am start. But don’t worry, because here it is now for you!

So, I actually promised my housemate Lydia that I’d make pancakes for her for breakfast on Saturday morning, but because I had a pretty rough night on Friday/early morning Saturday, I didn’t end up making pancakes for her. Long story short – it was a friend’s birthday party, things got out of hand, ended up spending my early weekend morning in the hospital until 3:45am. Don’t be alarmed! I was totally fine and sober (even after so many drinks, more than I thought I could handle), it was my friend who was totally out of it and I stayed by her side and made sure she was okay.

Anyway, so yes, pancake making day was pushed to yesterday morning. It was a great success in my opinion – especially since that this was the first time I was trying out this recipe, I mean, I’ve made my fair share of pancakes before, but not particularly with blueberries and white chocolate. So a little back story (because I know a few people out there who enjoy a few creative words on my posts), my housemate Lydia was trying to flip pancakes one night, prepping for breakfast the next day of course, and her pancakes crumbled. She got a few good ones though, but all in all she labelled them as fail pancakes. So the next time she made pancakes again… Well, it was hilarious! Basically we were having lunch together one day or more like our lunch times crossed at one point because I finished eating before her and I went back to my room. To my surprise when I came back down, I saw her in the kitchen and she was flipping pancakes. I asked her how she was going with them, and she replied “not so good. I actually waited for you to go upstairs so you wouldn’t see my fail pancakes!” How cute! So funny!

So basically, I decided to show Lydia how to flip pancakes yesterday. She tried, but still couldn’t flip them – so we made a deal that she will, by the end of the semester, be able to flip pancakes properly and cook me some! She did however participate in the making process – she was in charge of measuring out the dry ingredients while I worked on the wet, flipping of pancakes, presentation, and photography. And before I get on moving with today’s recipe, please check out the original recipe that I followed over on Oh Sweet Basil.

PREP TIME 15 MINS | COOKING TIME 45 MINS | SERVES 3-4

INGREDIENTS

2 cups plain flour
2 cups buttermilk*
2 free range eggs
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 white chocolate chips
2 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

*I didn’t have any buttermilk in the pantry so what I did was for every cup of milk I added a tablespoon of vinegar. Buttermilk has enzymes and lactic acid, which will react with the baking powder to create a light and fluffy texture with lots of little pockets of air for the pancakes. The vinegar in the milk will help to ensure this. Using just regular milk will not give you this result.

METHOD

Preheat oven to 100C. Start by adding all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
Separate the egg whites and egg yolks in two small bowls. Using an electrical mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
In the other bowl whisk the egg yolks until light in colour. Then add in the butter and whisk. Finally add the buttermilk and whisk to combine altogether. Add the egg yolk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon.
Fold in the egg whites gently together with the blueberries and white chocolate chips. Be careful as to not to over mix the batter.
Lightly butter a small fry pan over medium heat and add about half a cup of batter. Allow it to cook until the bottom begins to turn golden and bubbles just start to form on the top. Flip and cook until set on the other side. Repeat with remaining batter – should make about 9 pancakes. Place the cooked pancakes on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and place in the oven to keep warm until all the pancakes have been cooked. Serve immediately.