Caramelized Crunchy Mini Pancake Cereal (no eggs!)

Miniature sized foods have been a trend these last few months, with entire channels dedicated to tiny foods, today I'm sharing with you a little pancake recipe that has been very popular on TikTok: mini pancakes, and they can be eaten  in a bowl with milk, as in pancake cereal!

In this recipe I won't be using eggs, since many of my family members have been asking for eggless recipes, so I hope they like this one. Of course, this eggless pancake recipe works for normal-sized pancakes too, so if you have any family member with allergies, or any other dietary restrictions (for vegans, substitute regular milk with any plant-based milk and butter with vegan margarine)

Click here for the video-recipe on YouTube

Let's get started!

Ingredients:

For the pancakes:

- 200 ml milk [3/4 cups]

- 150 gr self-rising flour [1 cup + 2 tbsp] / or the same amount of all-purpose flour + 1 tsp of baking powder

- 2 tbsp granulated sugar

- 1/4 tsp baking soda

- A pinch of salt

- 1 tbsp melted unsalted butter

For the caramel:

- 3 tbsp granulated sugar

- 3 tbsp water

- 1 tsp butter

- 2 tbsp milk

Procedure:

1. In a large measuring cup, mix the milk with the flour, whisking lightly, without overmixing, lumps are totally okay.

2. Add in the granulated sugar, the baking soda, and the salt and mix.

3. Add the melted unsalted butter, and finish mixing. The batter should be slightly lumpy, and quite thick.

4. Pour the batter into a squeeze bottle with a nozzle (the kind in which ketchup and mustard come) or a piping bag (it's much easier to control the batter with a squeeze bottle, but use what you have at home)

5. Preheat a non-stick pan or griddle on the stove on medium-low heat, you can lightly grease it with butter, but it's not necessary if you have a good quality non-stick pan (also, the less grease, the more evenly the pancakes will brown)

6. Form little circles with the batter, squeezing the bottle as you go, and making sure to make them as evenly sized as possible.

7. Once large bubbles appear on the pancakes, you can check if they're ready by flipping one, if it's golden they're all ready to flip.

8. After flipping all pancakes, let them cook for a few seconds on the other side before removing them onto a plate. 

7. Depending on the size of your pan or griddle, you may need to make several batches.

8. To make the caramel, heat sugar and water in a pan, on low heat. Don't mix anything yet, leave the mixture alone, keeping a good eye on it.

9. The sugar will dissolve and the mixture will start bubbling, once it starts to turn golden at the edges, add in the butter.

10. Wait for the butter to melt and add milk. At this point you can start mixing, making sure that the caramel doesn't burn, it will start browning quite quickly, if it doesn't you may turn up the heat to medium and keep mixing, until the caramel becomes golden brown.

11. Turn ofg the heat, you have your caramel ready to pour over your pancakes, or you can dip each pancake (with a toothpick) into the caramel to coat them evenly and to get the best crunchy bites.

Do not stir the pancakes into the caramel, as this will cause them to lump together and it will be impossible to separate them. Trust me, I tried! It works for caramel bread popcorn, but the mini-pancakes are too soft and will break once you try separating them. 

Just line up your pancakes on a sheet of parchment paper, and drizzle the caramel over them if you want little bits of crunchy caramel in every bite; or use my preferred and more time-consuming method of individually dipping the pancakes in the caramel, so every little pancake is deliciously crunchy and evenly coated.

Do give this recipe a try! I thought the mini pancake cereal were too soft to really be called cereal, so I just had to add this crunchy twist, hope you like it!