Beer, bacon & blueberry pancakes

This year most of the beer is going into the pancakes – not because we’re clumsy, but because substituting the boring milk for beer is absolutely delicious.

By Jonny Garrett

Ah Pancake Day, or National 'Cleaning the Ceiling' Day as it’s known in our house; it’s true we’ve been a little overzealous in the past. I blame the booze.

Well, this year is going to be different. This time most of the beer is going into the pancakes – not because we’re clumsy, but because substituting the boring milk for beer is absolutely delicious.

It was a mad idea I had on one of my many hungover mornings. I had been er… researching heavily the night before and woke up with a hankering for pancakes. Unfortunately, as is usually the case in a house of four “young professionals”, there was no milk. Casting around the kitchen for it, my eyes fell upon an unopened Partizan Saison – a Belgian-style beer with the bittersweetness of a dubbel and the lightness of a tripel, but a bit of zesty spice too.

It’s often said that man will always survive because he is ingenious. That’s how I felt as I whipped up Jamie’s one-cup pancakes with a spicy, fizzy little number instead of boring milk. The result was astonishing. Light, fluffy pancakes with just a little tang from the yeast and a zing of spice and fruit from the depth of the beer.

Admittedly, the blueberries came later to bring out the sweetness, but the bacon and maple syrup was there from the start, and it’s a revelation. You could make it with any saison, from Saison Dupont (the landmark of this style) to something from the more modern craft breweries. I’m pretty sure Ilkley’s Rhubarb saison would be something special, and anything by Burning Sky – a new brewery from the original brewer of Darkstar.

So this year, instead of beers in the belly and pancakes on the ceiling, let’s just get beer everywhere. We’ve got loads more recipes, just click here.