baked pancakes

Puffin Going On Here!

While going through one of the supermarket magazines they give away at the checkout, I found a recipe for a baked delight, that is a cross between a pancake and a muffin, called a “puffin”. As you may know, I am crazy about puffin birds so I couldn’t wait to research a recipe named after these adorable birds.

Knowing that puffin birds are on the menu in some countries, I was very careful in how I went about researching this particular recipe. I made sure to add muffin, pancake and baked pancake to the search. I thought I had done a good job until I skimmed through a recipe with instructions saying to process one cup of puffins before adding them to the batter. Thankfully I remembered that puffins are also a brand of cereal. It was with great relief that I slowly reread the recipe and yes they were talking about adding puffin cereal to the pancake batter!

The recipe below should give you enough batter to make about sixteen 1-scoop puffins or about eight 2-scoop puffins. I chose a combination so I could compare them. The 1-scoop puffins were like puffed pancakes while the 2-scoop puffins were like mini-muffins. They were both delicious and I’d definitely make them again. 🙂

Berry Puffins

Ingredients
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons (30g) unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
fresh berries (I used a combination of raspberries and blackberries)
maple syrup for serving

Instructions
Preheat oven to 200C / 400F.
Generously grease a 12-hole muffin tin (or tins) with oil.
Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl or jug, whisk together the melted butter, milk, egg and vanilla extract until just combined.
Add to the dry ingredients and whisk until the batter is thick and smooth.
Using a mini ice-cream scoop (also called a cookie scoop) dollop one or two spoonfuls of batter into each hole.
Top each puffin with two or three berries.
Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan.
Eat warm with lots of maple syrup.
Refrigerate any leftover puffins and enjoy cold with a slather of butter if desired.