Lemon Pancakes
Lemon pancakes with cherry sauce. These are fluffy, light pancakes with a lemon zing topped off with a rich, gorgeous cherry sauce.
Pancakes are a big favourite in my household. Large ones stuffed with a generous dollop of creamy vanilla ice cream and extravagantly drizzled with oodles of maple syrup are a dessert favourite.
However, pancakes for breakfast on a Sunday morning have, in recent months, moved up from occasional treat to regular treat to a weekly obsession. Until recently, we have pretty much had them plain with syrup or with blueberries as per my Blueberry and Maple Syrup Pancake recipe.
This week, though, given that the clocks turned back an hour this week and I had extra time to play with ingredients, I decided to ramp up the pancake offering, and these Lemon Pancakes with Cherry Sauce were born.
The pancakes are light and fluffy, with a definite hit of lemon throughout, and the cherry sauce is rich, sweet and syrupy and truly out of this world.
If you give them a go, I do hope you like them as much as we do 😋.
Ingredients
See recipe card for quantities.
- Lemons
- Cherries
- Plain flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Caster (superfine) sugar
- Unsalted butter
- Whole milk
- Egg
- Honey
- Golden syrup
- Vanilla extract
Instructions
Cherry Sauce
Place your cherries into a small saucepan along with your honey, golden syrup and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down to a medium setting.
Simmer for up to 10 minutes. Keep agitating the pan, or stirring with a spoon, to ensure it doesn't stick. The cherry syrup is ready once it is syrupy but not thick like jam.
Lemon Pancakes
Rub your lemon zest into your caster (superfine) sugar.
Sift over your flour, baking powder and salt and mix together with your lemon zest-infused sugar.
Add your room temperature egg and beat on a low setting until incorporated.
Mix together your melted butter, lemon juice, vanilla extract and room temperature whole milk.
Leaving your mixer running on a low setting, gradually drizzle in your milk mixture. Turn your mixer up to medium and beat until smooth and no lumps remain.
Take a large frying pan and coat in a layer of butter, then heat it until the butter just begins to bubble and sizzle. Reduce the heat to medium and add spoonfuls of batter, letting it drop from a large spoon. Flip over after about 30 seconds to cook the underside. Remove to a warmed plate and drizzle over your cherry syrup. Serve immediately.
Substitutions
Don't have all of the ingredients for these Lemon Pancakes with Cherry Syrup, don't worry, here are a few substitutions you can use:
- Flour - you can use self-raising flour for these lemon pancakes, if so only add 2 teaspoons of baking powder rather than a tablespoon.
- Cherries - as noted in Top Tips below, you can use fresh cherries in the sauce if you prefer. Or you can create a blueberry sauce, as in my Blueberry and Maple Syrup Pancakes
- Honey - you can omit the honey if you prefer and replace it with more golden syrup.
Storage
You can reheat pancakes, no problem. Simply pop them on a microwavable plate, cover and heat them for 20-30 seconds until they are hot enough.
The cherry sauce can also be reheated and will keep refrigerated for 3 days.
Top tips
Cherry Syrup top tips
- I use frozen cherries when I make my cherry syrup, but you can use fresh cherries instead. Add a couple of tablespoons of water to your syrup to compensate for the water that comes out of the frozen cherries.
- Your cherry sauce should be syrupy but not watery. It should coat a spoon nicely and slide off gloopy style. If it is a bit watery, simply add a little cornflour (cornstarch), mix in and heat again until just simmering, then remove from the heat.
- If your cherry syrup is too thick, simply add a little water to thin it out.
- The cherry sauce can be made in advance and warmed up when needed.
Lemon Pancakes top tips
- Ensure your frying pan is nice and hot before you add your lemon pancake batter. When ready, the butter will just be starting to bubble in places.
- Wait at least 20 seconds before flipping your pancake over; it should be browned on the underside first, and little bubbles should be forming in the batter on the topside.
- I find it easier to use a large palette knife to flip the pancakes over.
- If you want your pancakes to be nice and round, use a palette knife or butter knife to gently ease the batter around the edges of the pancake back into a circle while they are cooking.
FAQ
Usually about 60-90 seconds on the first side and another 60 seconds on the underside. The pancakes should be nicely golden brown on each side when ready. Ensure you keep the heat at a medium setting to be sure that the inside of the pancake cooks through, too hot and the outside will burn, whilst the inside will be undercooked.
📖 Recipe
Lemon Pancakes (with Cherry Sauce)
Here's what you'll need...
- Small saucepan
- Lemon juicer
- Large heavy base frying pan
- Large palette knife or butter knife
Ingredients you'll need...
Cherry Syrup
- 150 g Frozen cherries (or fresh) (2 Cups)
- 65 g Runny honey
- 4 tablespoon Golden syrup
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Lemon Pancakes
- 1 teaspoon Lemon zest
- 30 g Caster (super fine) sugar (2 tablespoons)
- 150 g Plain (all-purpose) flour (1 Cup + 2 tablespoons)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Fine salt
- 1 Large egg
- 180 ml Whole milk (¾ Cup)
- 2 tablespoon Unsalted butter - melted plus extra for frying
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon Fresh lemon juice
Here's what we do...
Cherry Syrup
- Add your golden syrup, honey, lemon juice and your cherries to your small saucepan, stir together and bring to a boil.
- Turn the heat down to a medium setting and simmer, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes or until the mixture becomes syrupy and will easily coat a spoon (as noted in Top Tips if your syrup is too thin add cornflour (cornstarch) to thicken).
- Set aside to cool a little whilst you make your lemon pancakes.
Pancakes
- Mix your lemon zest into your sugar, this releases more lemon oils and adds flavour.
- Sift together your flour, baking powder and salt over your sugar and lemon zest and mix together.
- Mix your melted butter, lemon juice and vanilla extract into your room temperature milk. Don't worry if it looks a little curdled.
- Add an egg to your dry mixture and beat in on a low setting.
- Setting your mixer at a low setting gradually pour in your milk mixture, beating continuously. Once it has all been added turn your mixer up to medium and beat until you have a smooth and lump-free batter.
- Wipe your frying pan with a generous coating of butter and then heat on a medium-high setting until the butter starts to just bubble and sizzle a little.
- Turn the heat down to medium and, using a large spoon, drop a spoonful of batter into the pan ensuring enough space is left between each pancake to allow them to spread out as they cook.
- Cook until the base is golden brown - this will only take about 1 ½ minutes. Bubbles will form in the batter on the topside of the pancake as it cooks. Check the base is nice and golden (use a palette knife or butter knife to gently lift it up) before gently flipping it over and cooking the underside, this will take up to a minute.
- Remove and set aside on a warmed plate.
- Add more butter and then begin cooking the next batch of lemon pancakes.
- Stack and serve with cherry syrup drizzled over the top.
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