Apple Cider Pancakes with Sautéed Apples and Toffee Apple Cider Syrup

Today I have apples on apples on apples and maybe just MAYBE it’s slightly the wrong season for this, but I don’t care! Hey, maybe I’m just really prepared for autumn, 4-5 months overly prepared, okay let’s be honest I’m more likely to be half a year late than half a year early but still. Yeah, it’s four and a half months till October, crazy, but I’ll shut up about that now.

Can we focus on this being apple cider rather than anything else because to me, cider is a summer thing. Okay, it’s an all year round kind of thing but summer is definitely a time I crave cider. Ice cold cider on a hot summer’s day is sort of something I’ve grown up with from summers in France drinking 0.2% alcoholic cider as a kid and then bringing bottles of it home on the ferry to being a teenager drinking cider with friends in the sun and having barbeques in the middle of fields.



Maybe this post doesn’t give off a super summery vibe but it would differently suit breakfast in the garden on a sunny Sunday morning just as much as it would suit breakfast in front of the fire; do people do that? Not important.

Probably one of my favourite things about this surprisingly is the mixture of the cooking apples and cider in the pancakes. It makes the pancakes slightly tart, the apples give the pancakes a really nice texture and it pairs so well with the sweetness of the toffee cider sauce and sautéed eating apples. Yeah, when I said apples on apples on apples I went all out and used apples in three forms.



You will need
200g/1⅔ cups self raising flour
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 egg
150ml/⅔ cups milk (I used almond, but any will work)
150ml/⅔ cups apple cider (I used alcoholic, but either will work)
A knob of butter/margarine, melted
2 small-medium cooking apples, grated

For the apples and toffee apple cider syrup
2 eating apples, sliced + a knob of butter
235ml/1 cup of apple cider
100g/½ cup light muscovado sugar
1 tbsp butter/margarine

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Gently beat the egg, milk and cider together, make a well in the centre of the flour and gradually pour the liquid in and whisk to make a smooth batter. Beat in the melted butter then stir in the grated apple.

Brush a pre-heated large non-stick frying pan with butter/margarine and drop a ladle of batter into the pan. Cook on a medium heat until small bubbles appear, then flip and cook until golden brown. Cover the pancake to keep hot and repeat the process until all the batter is gone.

While you’re cooking the pancakes in a saucepan melt a knob of butter and add the sliced apples to the pan to sauté, once the apples have softened set aside and add the cider, sugar and butter to the pan. Bring the mixture to the boil and simmer until thickened (the consistency is entirely up to you whether you want more of a runny syrup or a thicker sauce) then add the sautéed apples back into the apple cider syrup to heat. Spoon/pour the syrup onto the pancakes and enjoy!

Makes 9-10 medium-large pancakes, Serves 4