Corn, Cheese & Spinach Pancakes
Corn, Cheese & Spinach Pancakes make a tasty weekend breakfast, brunch or even an easy dinner alongside a salad. As well as plenty of flavoursome cheese, there’s chilli heat, sweetcorn, plus spinach for vibrant colour. Try a stack topped with melting cheese and my Spiced Chilli Butter with a Tex-Mex vibe. So good!
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Here in England, we often think of thick, fluffy pancakes as being American style. That’s probably because we love the thin, crepe-like Traditional English Pancakes served simply with a sprinkle of sugar and a squeeze of lemon. However, Britain does also have a tradition of thicker pancakes, sweet and savoury, in the form of Scotch (or Scottish) pancakes, drop (or dropped) scones, and Welsh crempogau.
But my fluffy Corn, Cheese & Spinach Pancakes have a foot on each side of the Atlantic. Because while they’re a variation of my Scotch pancake-like Cheese & Chive Pancakes, I like to think they have a Tex-Mex vibe.
With chilli heat, sweetcorn, plus spinach for vibrant colour, served with Spiced Chilli Butter flavoured with spices you might find in a Tex-Mex chilli, they’re wonderful for breakfast, brunch or even a main meal topped with melting cheese.
EASY CORN, CHEESE & SPINACH PANCAKES
You’ll find a recipe card at the end of the post with full instructions for making these quick and easy pancakes. But I recommend you read on for extra tips and step-by-step images.
MAKE THE BATTER
We start by sifting together the dry ingredients: self-raising flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda, mild chilli powder or red pepper flakes, and black pepper. Although self-raising flour already contains raising agents (the clue is in the name), I add bicarbonate of soda to give the pancakes an extra lift. If you only have plain (all-purpose) flour, then add 2 level teaspoons of baking powder along with the bicarb.
The wet ingredients (milk, 1 egg, and spinach) are whizzed together in a blender. You can use either frozen or fresh spinach. I always keep some in the freezer as it’s so convenient for adding colour and nutrients to all sorts of dishes. Just remember to get rid of excess water after defrosting by giving the spinach a good squeeze.
You then stir the green-flecked liquid into the flour mixture. Follow that by folding in grated cheese and sweetcorn. I use plenty of well-flavoured mature Cheddar supplemented by Parmesan for a good strong flavour. I use tinned sweetcorn (one small, drained tin) but you could use defrosted or even fresh if it’s in season.
The batter will be pretty thick. But don’t worry. It’s supposed to be.
COOKING THE PANCAKES
To cook the Corn, Cheese & Spinach Pancakes, you’ll need either a griddle or large frying pan so you can make several at once. Personally, I wouldn’t be without this brilliant electric table top grill. I can cook five or six large pancakes in one go, the temperature is easy to control, and clean up is quick too. It’s up to you how big you make your pancakes. I use a rounded tablespoon of batter for each one, which gives me 16 pancakes.
The (not-so-secret) secret to cooking pancakes is a correct temperature. If you’re new to making this type of pancake, I recommend you cook a test one first and then adjust as necessary. The heat on my griddle goes up to 5, and I heat it to number 3.
When it’s up to temperature, I brush on a mixture of melted butter and oil. Butter has the best flavour, but the oil prevents it burning. If it sizzles straight away on the griddle or pan, then you know it’s hot enough. If not, leave a little longer.
Drop blobs of batter over the griddle or pan, leaving space for them to spread a little. If you want a neater circle, gently nudge it into a rounder shape. Cook until a few bubbles appear around the edges of each pancake and, if you peek underneath, it’s a deep golden brown. This should take around 2½ – 3 minutes. But if they’re still not at this stage at 3 minutes, you probably need to increase the heat a little.
Now turn over and cook the other sides for another 2 – 2½ minutes or until they’re nicely puffed up.
As you cook each batch, wrap the pancakes in a clean tea towel to keep soft and warm. Continue making more pancakes, lightly greasing the griddle or pan each time, until all the batter is used up.
If you want to make in advance, leave the pancakes to cool then pop in the fridge or freezer.
SERVING CORN, CHEESE & SPINACH PANCAKES
Just like my original Cheese & Chive Pancakes, I think these are best served in a generous stack, topped with extra cheese and a pat of butter. But I hope you’ll take the extra few minutes to make my simple Spiced Chilli Butter which really is the perfect accompaniment.
You’ll find the spicy butter recipe here, but all you do is mix chopped garlic and red chilli (or chilli flakes) into soft butter plus some Tex-Mex style seasonings: paprika (I like smoked), ground cumin and dried oregano. I add fresh chopped coriander and black pepper too. Roll into a log and pop it in the fridge, ready for you to cut off as many slices as you like.
To reheat the pancakes, I think a microwave is best at bringing back their irresistible fluffiness. Just ping the whole stack until hot, adding grated cheese and Spiced Chilli Butter for the final few seconds until they’re both temptingly melting.
I most often eat these easy, delicious pancakes for a lazy weekend breakfast or brunch. But serve them alongside a big salad and you’ve a fantastic, tasty dinner.
If you’ve made Cheese & Chive Pancakes with Spiced Chilli Butter, please leave a comment and rating to let me know how it went.
Corn, Cheese & Spinach Pancakes
As well as plenty of flavoursome cheese, there's chilli heat, sweetcorn, plus spinach for vibrant colour in these easy, fluffy pancakes. Top a stack with melting cheese and a tasty Spiced Chilli Butter inspired by Tex-Mex flavours for a special weekend breakfast, brunch or even an easy dinner alongside a salad.
It's recommended that you read the accompanying blog post before beginning the recipe.
Ingredients
- 200 g self-raising flour (or plain flour + 2 level tsp baking powder)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp mild chilli powder/red pepper flakes
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 250 ml milk
- 1 egg
- 100 g spinach (fresh or defrosted frozen)
- 100 g mature Cheddar cheese (grated)
- 30 g Parmesan cheese (finely grated)
- 160 g sweetcorn (fresh, tinned or defrosted frozen)
For cooking the pancakes
- 10 g butter
- 1 tsp oil
To serve
- grated cheese
- 1 batch Spiced Chilli Butter (see Recipe Notes)
Instructions
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Sift the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda, chilli powder or red pepper flakes, and black pepper into a mixing bowl.
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Put the milk, egg, and spinach in a blender (squeeze defrosted spinach to remove excess water first) and whizz until combined.
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Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture, pour in the contents of the blender, and stir to combine.
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Fold in the cheeses and sweetcorn.
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Put the butter and oil for cooking the pancakes in microwave safe container and ping for a few seconds to melt the butter (or use a small saucepan on top of the stove).
Heat either a griddle or large frying pan to medium hot.
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Brush the griddle or pan with a light coating of the butter and oil: it will sizzle immediately if hot enough.
Add 1 tablespoon of batter per pancake, as many as will fit without crowding. If liked, gently nudge into a neater circle.
Cook until a few bubbles appear around the edges of each pancake and the underside is golden brown (approx. 2½ minutes: cook another 30 seconds if necessary) then turn over and cook the other side until golden brown and puffed up (2 - 2½ min).
Tip: if the pancake isn't ready to turn after 3 minutes, you may need to increase the heat a little.
Wrap the cooked pancakes in a clean tea towel to keep warm while you use up the rest of the batter to make more, lightly greasing the griddle or pan each time.
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Serve warm, stacked and topped with extra cheese and pats of Spiced Chilli Butter. Tip: ping the stack with the cheese and butter in the microwave for a few seconds to melt them.
Can be stored in the fridge for 2-3 days or frozen.
Reheat in a microwave to retain the fluffy texture, adding the extra cheese and spiced butter for the final few seconds.
Recipe Notes
Quick and easy Spiced Chilli Butter is perfect with these pancakes, but it has loads of other uses too. Try it on steak, baked potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, steamed veg, or in garlic bread.
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