Chai Pancakes: A Reunion.

Oh hellooooooo. Pancakes and I have been taking a little break from one another recently. Not for any particular reason really, but sometimes a break from something you love happens on its own and it turns out to be brilliant in a funny way. You sort of don’t realise that you miss it until it’s back and then you fall in love all over again. That’s what happened here.

I’ve been seeing and lusting after recipes for chai spiced pancakes for a little while now but all have looked fairly inaccessible. Mostly, to be honest, because they’re American recipes and call for ingredients that we just don’t come across.

But I had a stroke of genius. Well not really a stroke, more of a gradual realisation of the answer followed by the inevitable ‘duuuuuh, OBVIOUSLY I will flavour the milk with teabags...fool’.

So here I am, reunited with the Queen of Breakfasts (yes that is an official title...) with just enough fiddle to my original and ultimate pancake recipe to provide all the fabulous fluffyness I require from my pancakes while remaining new and exciting and spiced to high heaven. With Love and Cake.

Chai Pancakes with Cinnamon Butter

A few notes:

• Of course you don’t have to accompany the pancakes with the cinnamon butter, just the regular stuff and a drizzle of maple syrup would be divine.
• The butter will freeze well though, just chop it all into disc and open freeze, then keep them in a bag in the freezer, ready for more pancakes, French toast, you could even pop some in a chilli to make it shiny and delish.
• The more pancakes I make, the more I realise what a difference a good quality pan makes.I have one lovely Le Creuset one and one 'not Le Creuset' one, and I have them both on the go at the same time for time saving purposes...which makes for an excellent comparison. Obviously I'm not suggesting you have to buy a new pan before you make your next batch of pancakes, but if you have a choice go for non-stick and as heavy a base as poss.
• I used a blender to whizz my pancake batter up, but a bowl and whisk would be a.ok.

Makes around 10

You will need

For the butter

1x250g pack butter, at room temperature

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp demerara sugar

greaseproof paper

For the pancakes

300ml milk

3 chai teabags
225g self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
25g caster sugar
1 egg

• The first thing to do, the night before you want pancakes, is to pop the tea bags in the milk and leave them to infuse overnight.
• Then, on 'pancake day', lets do the butter first. All you need to do is mash the cinnamon and sugar into the butter so it's well combined.
• Then, on a nice large rectangle of greaseproof paper blob the butter along one of the long edges of the paper. Roll the paper around it tight and then twist the ends so it looks like a giant sweet.
• Pop it in the fridge to firm up while you get on with the pancakes.
• Remove the tea bags from the milk and add it and all the other ingredients to the blender or bowl and whizz/whisk to a thick, stiff batter.
• Get you pan hot over a medium heat and pour rounds of the batter into it, as big or small as you want your pancakes...up to you really.
• Leave alone until the edges firm up and come away from the pan and bubble form on the uncooked side.
• Flip the pancakes over and cook the second side until golden and firm.
• Eateateat with the butter dripping over or pop into a warm oven while you cook with the rest of the batter. Then eateateat,