This South African Flapjacks pancakes recipe is for easy to make delicious, light and airy mini pancakes that can be served as a sweet treat or dessert topped with whipped cream, jam or fruit curd.
These mini flapjacks are very different to the British granola type of oat based flapjack bars, that are similar to Crunchies Oat and Coconut cookies that were left out to soften.
Breakfast flapjacks are similar to American buttermilk pancakes, hotcakes or griddle cakes usually served for breakfast, although more delicate in texture. Strangely enough, even though it is the perfect pancake recipe my mother never made these for us as breakfast pancakes.
When I was little, I was the official ‘barakat’ deliverer during Ramadhan, and went every night to our neighbours with a gift of sweet or savoury snacks before iftar.
The first iftar snack that my mother allowed me to make myself was her fluffy Flapjack pancakes recipe. It was the easiest recipe she could teach me while preparing the evening meal and keeping one eye on me.
My mother loved to make her recipe for Flapjacks, and although we mostly served it during Ramadhan, there were occasions when she would make it for unexpected guests as a quick afternoon tea recipe. Even as a teen and adult it was always a very quick recipe that we could whip up whenever we had nothing special to serve with tea.
How to make flapjacks pancakes
- This recipe for Flapjack pancakes is very versatile and can be eaten as sweet with flapjack toppings of caramel and banana or strawberry jam, berries and whipped fresh cream.
- For savory flapjacks we served it with butter and grated cheese.
- The eggs and sugar are whisked together until pale and creamy then added in two batches to the dry ingredients with the milk, melted butter and buttermilk.
- The flapjacks pancakes are cooked on medium high and the most important visual indicator that they are ready to flip are the tens of tiny bubbles that pop up on the surface.
- When serving with jam and cream the flapjacks pancakes do not require a smear of butter before the toppings are added. I do like to add butter though when having it with cheese.
You can also find more pancake recipes below:
- Cape Malay Pancakes with berries
- Almond and Coconut breakfast pancakes
- Cape Malay Banana pancakes
- Sweet corn and polenta fritters
South African Flapjacks
Ingredients
Flapjack batter
- 140 grams cake or fine sponge flour approximately 250 ml or 1 cup
- 7 grams baking powder approximately 7.5 ml or 1 1/2 level teaspoons
- 1.25 ml salt approximately 1/4 teaspoon
- 13 grams fine granulated sugar approximately 15 ml or 3 teaspoons
- 1 extra large egg
- 125 ml buttermilk approximately 1/2 cup
- 60 ml milk approximately 1/4 cup
- 30 grams butter melted (approximately 35 ml or 7 teaspoons melted butter)
Decoration
- 250 ml fresh whipping cream
- 125 ml fruit jam or lemon curd
- 200 grams Fresh raspberries or strawberries
Instructions
- Sift the cake flour, baking powder and salt together in bowl.
- In another bowl, whisk together the egg and sugar until pale and thick.
- Gradually add the buttermilk and milk and whisk until combined.
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add half the egg mixture.
- Next whisk in the cooled melted butter.
- Stir to combine adding the remainder of the egg mixture until the mixture is smooth and there are no lumps.
- Heat a heavy bottom frying non-stick pan or crepe pan to medium hot and drop tablespoon fulls of the batter to make circles approximately 5m in diameter. I used a 20ml ice cream scoop to measure.
- When the bubbles form on the top it is ready to turn. Do not flip over until the bubbles appear as it will not be fully cooked.
- Allow the flapjacks to cool then pipe rosettes of fresh cream and fill the indentation with jam or lemon curd.
- Decorate with fresh berries.
Nutrition
Disclaimer: Nutritional information for the recipe is an approximation and varies according to the ingredients and products used.
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This recipe was originally refined and published for my guest post on the Gheza e Shiriin website, for their annual global Ramadhan round-up in 2016 called Ramadan – An Event to Share 2016
Those look ilke such a lot of fun and very delicious. I would love to get them a taste. We will have to try out making them here.
Thank you for the recipe! These look delicious! I know what I’m having my husband make tomorrow!
The strawberry kept calling out to me. This looks really delicious!
Ooooh! This is such a creative idea compared to ordinary Pancakes!
Omg those flapjacks look very tasty and are adorable. Thank you for sharing.
These flapjacks look so pretty and would make the perfect accompaniment for afternoon tea.
What a pretty treat. This would be great for when we have guests.
And it’s so quick and easy to make it will be done in no time at all.
Wow, these look amazing!! I am going to have to try these!!!
I have never had flapjacks but these look very tempting. I am surely trying this out this weekend.
This looks nice and simple to put together but so delicious ! Perfect for a weekend treat!
Oh my gosh these look so so yummy. I will have to make them for my family ASAP.
These look heavenly. I have never heard of this dish before.
Wow…these look so yummy! I’ll have to try to make these!
This looks so tasty and delicious. I just wish to have a taste.
This South African goodies really looks good. I love the presentation and I’m sure it taste great too.
I LOVE mini pancakes. I bet my kids would love it I made these.
These flapjacks are so cute. I really loved the presentation. Looks so yummy and indulging
What a delicious recipe! I am used to the British flapjacks, which look nothing like these. I like that yours are so soft and look similar to pancakes. Love the toppings as well. 🙂
I realised when I walked into a station convenience store in Guildford one day that the British flapjacks are a soft version of our South African Crunchies. I felt I needed to include the South African bit in the title to differentiate it somehow 🙂
These mini pancakes are adorable! I would love to try this recipe for the kids, they would get a kick out of the mini pancake with the yummy toppings!
They look sumer delicious and easy to make. I’ll try them next week on my birthday.
I drooled a little reading your post! I want this now please. I will try to make it in the next few days, ahhh i can’t wait.
Thanks for that, you made my day!
Oh my, these look heavenly. I’m so used to only having pancakes for breakfast, but I can see having these at a ladies tea or even for an evening dessert! Can’t wait to try these.
My mum often did that, or roped me in to do it, when we had unexpected guests and nothing special to serve with tea. A little bit of fancy goes a long way in this case 🙂
Oh I love food inspiration from other countries! Love flapjacks but this version looks so delicious! Will try it out this weekend
This is like perfect to have with tea. Its simple, elegant, yum and family would love to eat this. I am adding this in my this weeks recipe list.
You can make up a batch in no time at all… or take a leaf out of my mum’s book and get one of the children to mix it 🙂
This recipe sounds amazing! I’ve never heard of South African Flapjacks, and I cannot wait to try this recipe. Thanks for sharing!
They are totally different from the British flapjacks 🙂
These look so good! I’m going to have to give them a try.
They are so simple to make too 🙂
I love flapjacks, but I must admit your version sounds much more delicious! I will give these a try
I remember the first time I saw something called Flapjacks in the UK in 1999. It was nothing like the ones I knew and were more like a squishy oatmeal bar. I prefer our flapjacks 🙂
These sound delicious. Love trying the flavours of the world!!
I love how there are so many variations of similar ideas all over the world 🙂
Much lighter than the flapjacks we have here, I like your South African flapjacks, they look simply delicious
Thanks Bintu. Simple to make but quite delicious 🙂
O these sound and look fantastic!
Thank you Rebecca, you are too kind 🙂
So nice to learn about new foods from around the world. Looking forward to trying these lovely treats.
They are so easy to make that even baking phobics will adore them ?
I have never heard of these before, but I am loving all kinds of desserts at the moment.
My Aunt used to say, a meal is incomplete without dessert, and one should actually have dessert first 🙂
I love learning about food from different countries. These flapjacks look delicious and are so versatile!
Thanks Andrea 🙂 They are lovely when you want something sweet or savoury without overindulging 🙂
They sound very delicious and look amazing.
Thank you for the kind words 🙂
These are so pretty. Are they similar to pancake? What’s the difference?
I have always known these as flapjacks but from what I can tell from American pancake recipes, the flapjack texture is much lighter and less dense and sweet than pancakes. It’s also much more delicate.
I love that since I’ve joined the FBC group, I’m getting the chance to visit your blog and learn more about South African food! This is going on my list of things to do definitely – flapjacks that look like pancakes! Awesome!
Thus far I must admit, I’ve started with the easier items. There is so much more than appetisers, fritters and cakes in South African cuisine. I feel like I have barely scratched the surface but will start with the more time consuming dishes soon in shaa ALLAH 🙂
Love it
Thank you 🙂