Raise your hands if you like pancakes!!! How about blueberry pancake bites?
We adore pancakes in this house and blueberry pancake bites have to be one of our favorites! They take me back to my childhood.
About mid-August, my mother would give each of us children an ice cream bucket and send us off foraging for the wild blueberries that grew in abundance in the fields behind my parent’s Nova Scotia home.
It was hard work, and the days would be hot, but we always returned to the house at the end of the day with plenty for my mother to bake into muffins, pies, berry cakes, and at least one blueberry pancake recipe to die for: blueberry pancake bites!
There would also be enough for her to put aside and freeze for the Winter months ahead. There is nothing like a taste of summer in midwinter to put a smile on the face!
Of course, at this time of year, we won’t be picking fresh wild blueberries. If we are lucky, we may have some in the deep freezer, and, if you are like me, you might even have a bag of dried wild blueberries in your larder.
I always have a bag of them ready to use for baking or just eating out of hand. I love stirring them into my breakfast oatmeal. Blueberries are very good for you and full of antioxidants!
What Are Blueberry Pancake Bites?
Taking simple pancakes one step further, today I am sharing with you a recipe for Blueberry Pancake Bites. Small bite-sized pancakes filled with lots of dried blueberries and served with a thick and rich Creamy Lemon Butter Syrup.
These are incredibly delicious as well as being quick and easy to make. A simple pancake batter is created and then baked into individual bite-sized servings in a large mini muffin tin! Easy peasy lemon squeezy!
Regular pancakes are very easy to make. Simple ingredients combined together to create something puffy and delicious. This is not a yeast-raised pancake and doesn’t call for anything out of the ordinary, with the exception of the dried blueberries. Flour, baking powder, salt, melted butter, milk, vanilla, corn syrup, and a whole free-range egg.
I always use free-range eggs in my cooking. It’s a personal preference of mine. You don’t need to use free-range eggs, but I feel more comfortable using them than I do use caged hen eggs.
If I can get them, I also choose RSPCA approved free-range eggs. It just feels better and I, personally, think they taste better. Of course, it is your choice.
How to Make Blueberry Pancake Bites Step by Step
As with any pancake recipe, you will need to combine the dry ingredients together first. Measure them into a bowl large enough to hold all of your pancake ingredients, and give the flour, baking powder, and salt a good whisk together to combine, then stir in the dry blueberries.
Stirring the berries into the dry ingredients rather than the wet helps to prevent them from all sinking to the bottom of your bake.
Check out Marie’s cheesy apple breakfast loaf for more breakfast inspiration!
You then need to whisk together all of the wet ingredients. The butter is melted. You could of course use the equivalent in canola oil, but I like the flavor of butter best.
Once it has melted, let it cool a bit before you mix it together with the milk, egg, corn syrup, and vanilla. There is no sugar in these pancakes. Instead, they are sweetened with a bit of corn syrup. You could also use maple syrup if you wanted to.
The wet ingredients go after the dry ingredients all at once. Stir them together with a spoon just to combine. It’s okay if there are a few lumps and, in fact, it is best if they are. This makes for a much more tender pancake bite!
You will need either one (24-cup) mini muffin tin for this recipe, or two (12-cup) mini muffin tins. I spray them well with some low-fat non-stick cooking spray and then divide the batter as equally as I can between the muffin cups. It’s okay if they seem quite full. Not to worry, they will not overflow in the oven.
The oven needs to be preheated to 350*F and it will take approximately 10 to 12 minutes for them to bake. While they are baking you can get on with making that gorgeous Creamy Lemon Butter Dip!
How to Make the Creamy Lemon Butter Dip to Go With Your Blueberry Pancake Bites
Once again, only simple ingredients are necessary: sugar, evaporated milk, butter, lemon juice, and zest, and a small amount of yellow food coloring. You don’t need the yellow coloring, but a few drops give the syrup a nice lemony yellow color. Not too vibrant. Just right.
To make the dip, you will need to first melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Then add the evaporated milk and sugar. Make sure you use evaporated milk and not sweetened condensed milk. They are two completely different things.
Evaporated milk is regular milk that has been treated to remove about half of the liquid. Sweetened condensed milk has sugar added and is reduced even further to give you a very thick, very sweet mixture. Using sweetened condensed milk would make it far too sweet and you don’t want that.
Already thinking about dinner? Do try Marie’s Beef Tips with Mushroom Gravy!
Once you get the milk and sugar in the saucepan, cook the mixture, whisking it constantly, over moderate heat until the sugar has dissolved and the butter, sugar, and milk have thoroughly amalgamated into a smooth mass.
Allow it to come to the boil and continue to cook on a slow boil for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly. At the end of that time, remove it from the heat and stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and food coloring, if using.
I always use a fine holed micro-plane grater to zest my lemon. I find it gives the best consistency. You can taste and adjust the amount of lemon zest you use. Obviously if you use the full 2 teaspoons you will get a stronger lemon flavor. The mixture should be nicely thickened, and it will thicken even more upon standing.
If now you feel like cooking with lemons, check out one of my personal favorite lemony dishes of all times: the Creamy rice pudding with lemon and almonds. Now, that one is an easy dessert recipe if I ever made one!
Putting the Pancake Bites and Dip Together
At this point, the pancake bites should be finished and ready to take out of the oven. Test one with a toothpick to make sure they are cooked through. If done, the toothpick should come out clean. They will look quite unremarkable on the surface, but once you take them out of the tin and flip them over, they will look gorgeously golden brown.
Pour that gorgeous lemony dip into a little jug, pile those beautiful pancake bites onto a serving platter and call everyone to the table!
Don’t those look gorgeous? The pancake bites are all light and fluffy and filled with blueberries, and that Creamy Lemon Butter Dip looks incredibly rich and delicious.
You can let everyone help themselves, but I find it is a lot more fun to divide the hot pancake bites onto heated serving plates and give everyone a little bowl of their own syrup for dipping. Children especially love having their own syrup to dip the pancake bites in!
These are incredibly delicious and make a wonderful change to ordinary pancakes. Kids just love having bite-sized things that they can eat with their hands, and you will love how very easy they are to make. Everyone’s a winner!
Blueberry Pancake Bites: Serving Alternatives
These also make great after school snacks for the kiddos and, I confess, they are even delicious served cold with that scrumptious dip. You can very easily re-heat any leftovers for a few seconds in the microwave.
The blueberry pancake bites themselves, also freeze very easily. Just pop them onto a baking sheet and freeze solid. Once frozen you can transfer them to a zip lock baggie, zip it shut and pop them back into the freezer, ready to help yourselves whenever the mood hits.
These would also be great simply dipped into maple syrup. One thing is certain whether you serve these for breakfast, snack time or brunch, these are bound to be warmly welcomed by one and all!
BLUEBERRY PANCAKE BITES With a Creamy Lemon Butter Dip
These bite-sized pancakes are fun to make and to eat. The Creamy Lemon Butter Dip is delicious.
Ingredients
- 1 large free-range egg
- 2/3 cup of milk
- ¼ cup butter, melted
- 2 TBS corn syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup dried blueberries
For the Creamy Lemon Butter Dip:
- ½ cup butter
- ½ (12 ounce) can evaporated milk (6 fluid ounces)
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 TBS fresh lemon juice
- 1 – 2 tsp lemon zest
- Few drops yellow food coloring (optional)
- Pinch salt
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350*F. Spray a 24-cup mini muffin tin well with cooking spray. Set aside.
Whisk together the milk, butter, egg, corn syrup and vanilla in a bowl. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in another bowl. Stir in the dried blueberries. Add the wet ingredients all at once and mix to just combine. Divide the batter amongst the prepared muffin cups.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean and they are well risen. Keep warm.
For the dip, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugar and evaporated milk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Let cook for 4 to 5 minutes, continuing to stir. Remove from the heat and add the lemon zest. Whisk in the lemon juice and food coloring if using. Let sit for a few minutes before using it as it will be quite hot. It should thicken up a bit as it cools.
Serve the pancake bites, divided onto individual plates with a small container of the lemon sauce for dipping.
Note – you can make the Lemon Butter Dip ahead of time if you wish. Gently reheat it until it is warm in either the microwave or a small saucepan.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
24Amount Per Serving: Calories: 170
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Marie Rayner is a retired Chef, freelance writer, recipe developer, food blogger, and Cookbook author. She makes her home in Chester, UK, where she lives with her husband, Todd, and their much beloved English Cocker, Mitzie. Her motto is “Life is far too short to eat bad food,” and her goal is to share delicious and easy recipes which anyone can enjoy and cook in the comfort of their own home.
Classic Beef Tips with Mushroom Gravy Dinner-Saving Recipe
These are amazing, we loved them. Thank you for the great recipe.