MOB Kitchen’s Perfect Pancakes

Whether you like them thick and fluffy or super-thin and soaked in lemon juice, pancakes are a breakfast staple that you simply cannot avoid. While they’re typically made up of a simple combination of eggs, milk, and butter, pancakes can come in a variety of different shapes and sizes and loaded with a frankly shocking number of different toppings. You can throw halloumi and harissa on a pancake and, hell, you can even make your pancakes out of butternut squash or crispy spring onions.

Various cultures and countries have all got their own take on the pancake and their own strong feelings about what should or should not be served with a fat stack of them. To celebrate Shrove Tuesday (aka Pancake Day), we asked around the MOB Kitchen studio to find out how our crack group of food experts and food eaters like their pancakes. The results were startling, to say the least.

Here’s what each of the MOB team considers to be the perfect pancake:

"My dad used to cook me and my sisters pancakes after school on Pancake Day – all lovely, thin, buttery, and lacy – and that’s still exactly how I like them. Stuffed with sliced banana, a healthy drizzle of golden syrup (none of that posh maple syrup rubbish) and rolled up like a big, fat, sugary cigar. I'm a bit of a baby about it, but isn't that what Pancake Day is about?"

"Not totally sure why we’re even having this conversation. The only topping a pancake needs to be perfect is the classic combo of lemon and sugar, of course. None of that Jif stuff. Straight out of the fruit. In terms of thickness, I’m not totally sure how to describe the ideal depth of a pancake because I think I make them in line with the rest of the UK – a bit thicker than a crêpe. I also cook and prepare my pancakes using traditional methods: make the batter then pour into a hot pan. Try to flip. Fail. Unfold destroyed pancake. Add sugar and lemon. Consume."

"I couldn't possibly pick one, they're all delicious. Having to commit to one stresses me out. Back against the wall, though, maybe a ham and cheese crêpe."

"This is a very easy answer for me… a thin crêpe-like pancake with a generous dusting of sugar and a good squeeze of lemon (preferably folded like a napkin, but will take it rolled up as well). Nothing more, nothing less. Simple, yet effective. I despise the thought of this delectable option being described as ‘too vanilla’. It is not. It is the perfect topping for this style of pancake and I won’t be told otherwise."

"So, for me, it's a little pancake duo. All-American (vegan though – just because we're eating naughty doesn't mean we shouldn't still be doing good!) pancakes – the fluffier the better. One with maple syrup and crunchy peanut butter, because that sweet/savoury mix is incredible, and then one with Vego spread (a vegan Nutella). Straight-up: that spread is so good, I'm obsessed with the Vego chocolate bars. @Vego, you listening? Hit me up!

However, if it's a special occasion and we're pulling out all the stops, then we wanna get fancy as hell. We're talking a smooth Biscoff spread, with a vegan vanilla ice cream quenelle, some sliced strawberries and dusted with a flurry of icing sugar. Yes. Please."

"My perfect pancake is wafer-thin, silky and smooth crêpe, it's filled to the brim with some sort of cream (ideally blended with mascarpone), fresh raspberries and a big drizzle (okay, more like a coating) of dark chocolate. Oh, and lots of sprinkles because I think they are delicious and deserve more credit. The crêpe is mainly there for a vehicle for me to consume cream and chocolate for breakfast."

"In my opinion, the perfect pancake is a simple pancake – you can’t beat a classic, right? I like my pancakes to look like they’re right out of a cartoon, stacked one on top of the other so the syrup runs down the sides. It truly doesn’t get better than a fluffy pancake coated with butter and loaded with so much maple syrup that you have a layer on the plate you can mop up with the last bits of pancake. Maybe it’s just the Canadian in me, but it feels almost wrong to push anything other than a maple syrup-smothered pancake as the perfect pancake."

"The go-to is obviously the thin lemon and sugar pancake – I don't do the fat fluffy stuff, it’s not a burger. BUT if I’m feeling a bit peckish: thin pancake, bananas, white chocolate flakes and bits of Ferrero Rocher chocolates."

"Thin, traditional pancakes absolutely belong in the bin. I won’t hear any other argument. The texture and flavour are both hideous and I’ll fight that to the grave. What you really want is one of those outrageously thicc, fluffy boys. Throw on some crispy streaky bacon and an aggressively generous splash of maple syrup and ding, ding – we have a winner. It’s the perfect savoury-sweet breakfast and the only way pancakes are ever acceptable."

"My perfect pancake isn’t a pancake: it’s a crêpe. A crêpe, so gossamer-thin you can almost see through it, that’s drizzled with a squeeze of lemon and a demure scattering of shitty granulated sugar. The shitty-ness of the sugar is essential for the nostalgia factor – I want to get that sweet, sweet grit to uncomfortably coat my teeth with every bite. Anyone who prefers those horrible, thick American hockey puck pancakes can do one."

"So, I gotta admit, I'm in the THICC pancake gang. I'm all about those fluffy, thick cakes in a big pile, but here's the key: make sure you put a little knob of butter and a drizzle of maple syrup in between each one as the stack gets bigger. This way you can be sure to have a pile of wet ass pancakes. Top the stack off with a few crispy rashers of bacon and then another drizzle of maple syrup. BOOM! Perfect pancakes, son!"

"The best pancake is a fluffy on the inside pancake, with a crispy outside and molten cheese in the middle. Topped with crème fraîche, chillis, crispy parma ham and capers... maybe sometimes black olives... don't @ me, its great! Other than that, thin basic pancakes slathered in lemon and sugar... I like the simple things in life."

"As a near-perfect vegetarian (smoked salmon is my downfall – don’t judge me), I have learnt that topping your dish with a fried egg, a liberal sprinkling of cheese, or a hefty amount of hot sauce is always a good thing. When Pancake Day comes around, I unashamedly do all three. I’m talking a savoury galette topped with fried mushroom, garlic and spinach, crowned with my holy trinity of egg, cheese and hot sauce. I bet you can’t name a better combo."