Blueberry pancakes and spiced orange syrup

"Early on in the year I had to confront the strange fact of never having made a decent pancake in my life – sometimes it's the simplest things that can elude you. After a month of anguish testing many recipes, I finally arrived at this delicious result." Poh Ling Yeow, Poh & Co.

• serves

  4-5

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  20 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

Syrup

• zest of 2 oranges or limes
• 1 cup (250 ml) orange juice or 180 ml lime juice
• ¾ cup (175 g) caster sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
• 2 star anise

Batter

• 1½ cups (375 ml) milk
• ¼ cup (60 ml) white vinegar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp natural vanilla extract (3 tsp ground cinnamon if using bananas)
• 3 tbsp melted butter
• 2 cups (300 g) plain flour, sifted
• 3 tsp baking powder, sifted
• 4 tbsp caster sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 x 4 cm cube of unsalted butter
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries or 1 large banana, peeled and thinly sliced

Crème fraîche Anglaise

• ½ cup (125 ml) crème fraîche
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1 tbsp icing sugar, sifted

Instructions

To make the syrup, combine all the syrup ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Cover, remove from the heat and set aside to infuse further.

To make the batter, mix the milk and vinegar in a jug. Add the eggs, vanilla and melted butter, then mix to combine. In a medium mixing bowl combine all the dry ingredients and the wet mixture, then whisk until smooth.

Heat a non-stick frypan over medium heat, stab halfway into the cube of butter with a fork and grease by whizzing it over the surface of the hot frypan. Ladle about ½ cup of batter into the frypan then drop about a dozen blueberries or banana slices evenly over the surface. When the pancake is ready to be turned over, it should have risen about 1 cm, the edges cooked and the surface pitted like a crumpet. Flip and cook on the other side until golden.

To make your crème fraîche Anglaise, beat the crème fraiche, vanilla and sugar - whether it's to soft or stiff peaks is really up to you.

Serve hot pancakes with a drizzle of the syrup and a dollop of the crème fraîche Anglaise on top.

Notes

• If you prefer plain pancakes like me, simply omit the fruit and serve with maple syrup.

• Whenever using citrus, try to cook it as little as possible. Gentle heat is excellent for infusion and a fresh vibrant flavour will be retained. Aggressive heat will create a murky marmaladey flavour. 

This recipe is from Poh & Co. Airs 8pm Thursdays on SBS ONE.

Photograph by Randy Larcombe Photography.

Reproduced with permission from the book Same Same But Different by Poh Ling Yeow, published by ABC Books/HarperCollins Publishers Australia, 2014.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.