Pikelet Recipe

This pikelet recipe is super quick and easy to make, delicious hot or cold, and enjoyed by all. Come and learn how to make pikelets in no time at all to satisfy your hungry crew.

Pikelets – sometimes called mini pancakes, griddle cakes, or drop scones – originated in Wales, but were popularized in Australia and New Zealand. The word ‘pikelet’ is believed to come from the Welsh term ‘bara pyglyd’, meaning ‘pitchy bread’. Also known as ‘poor man’s crumpets’ because the batter is dropped into a pan without the use of an “expensive” ring to keep the batter from spreading.

Pikelets require a very similar batter recipe to our Canadian pancakes, but the mixture is a little thicker – in part to help prevent them spreading in the pan.

Hints & Tips

If your mixture is not thick enough, add a little extra flour until you get the consistency you want. You really want to be able to pick up tablespoonful without too much running over the edge.

Add the milk to the pikelet mix last. Only add as much milk as required to get the pikelet mix to the nice, thick consistency that you want. If that means not putting all the milk called for in the ingredients that is just fine.

Pikelets are much smaller than their pancake cousins, and so lend themselves more easily to snacks – my kids pick them up and carry them around (when my husband’s not looking!!).

This pikelet recipe calls for plain flour (also called all purpose flour). If you want to use self raising flour, that is just fine, you won’t need to use baking soda or baking powder.

There zillions of ways to adjust the recipe to suit your own needs, so take a look at my ‘Variations’ below – many of them come from showing my kids how to make pikelets.

Ingredients

For most of us, the ingredients to make pikelets are probably things we already have in the refrigerator and pantry – they’re fairly basic ingredients. Take a look:

• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup plain flour.
  • You can make these as plain flour pikelets. I like to mix about half and half wholewheat flour with plain flour. Use what you have available, these pikelets with plain flour will be perfect.
  • You can make these pikelets with self raising flour, all you need to do is omit the baking powder and baking soda below as the self raising flour already contains them in correct proportions.
• ¾ cup milk
  • Personally I view this quantity of milk as a suggestion. I add the milk to the pikelet mix last, and let the consistency of the mix determine when I have enough milk.
• ¼ cup sugar
  • Brown sugar if you have it for the extra flavour, but white sugar will work just fine.
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• butter, for greasing frypan

These ingredients will yield about a dozen pikelets. If you want more, just double or triple the recipe.

Banana Pikelets

To turn these into banana pikelets you can either add 1 mashed banana to the mixture, or top with fresh sliced banana after the pikelet is cooked. My kids love fresh banana pikelets drizzled with honey!

Variations

As I said, there are loads of ways that you could personalize my pikelet recipe – so many that there’s no way I could list them all there. However, here are a few of my favorites:

• Add chocolate chips to the batter for a real treat (or if you’re serving them to chocoholics like me!).
• Try adding roughly chopped frozen or dried fruit to the batter (sultanas, dried apricots, cranberries, etc). I often add half a dozen frozen blueberries to the pikelet batter as soon as I’ve dropped it in the pan.
• Reduce the sugar content by 50% to make savory pikelets. Savory pikelets can be spread with peanut butter, avocado, or topped with ham and cheese.
• Use savory pikelets instead of bread for sandwiches.
• Dollop pikelets with whipped cream and jam for a delicate afternoon sweet treat.

See the photos below for some alternate serving suggestions.

I would love to hear your suggestions for how to personalize my pikelet recipe. Please leave a note in the comments section below.

Questions (FAQ)

I hope you all enjoyed learning how to make pikelets as much as my crew enjoyed eating them…
Love & tasty afternoon treats, Bella X