Cooking Griddle Pancakes

These small, thick pancakes, known as drop scones, Scotch pancakes or American pancakes, are traditionally served at teatime with butter and caster sugar. For a special breakfast or dessert, serve them with pan-glazed poached fruit, particularly tangy varieties - try pan-glazed apple wedges with Crème Anglaise or Crème Chantilly, sprinkled with ground cinnamon.

1. Grease a hot griddle with clarified butter. Hold a dessertspoonful of batter high above the griddle (so it falls into a neat circle) and drop the batter, holding the spoon vertically.

   

2. Cook the pancakes until the batter is blistered with bursting bubbles and just set, but still slightly moist on top. Then turn and cook the second side until golden.

   

3. To keep the pancakes warm until all the batter has been cooked, place them in a heated dish lined with a warmed tea-towel and cover.

   

4. Cook 225 g cranberries with 4 tbsp port until tender. Stir in 175 g sugar and 2 peeled, cored and diced eating apples. Cook until the apples are tender.

   

5. Carefully top each pancake with cooked cranberry and apples. Serve them dusted with caster sugar or icing sugar.