I love a good pancake, but sometimes it’s nice to change them up a little. These lemon poppy seed pancakes are light, fresh and just sweet enough, with lots of lemon zest and poppy seeds throughout.

I made mine as mini pancakes, which was especially fun because they almost eat like little pancake bites. They’re delicious on their own, but we piled them up with a fresh blueberry sauce and drizzled the whole thing with an icing syrup.

The icing syrup might actually be my favourite part. It’s somewhere between a glaze and a pancake syrup: thin enough to pour, but with that buttery vanilla flavour of a simple icing. With the lemon pancakes and berries, it works really well.

You certainly don’t have to make them mini. Regular pancakes work just as well.

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Which Flour Should You Use?

My All-Purpose Baking Flour is my first choice for these. It gives you a soft, light pancake while still using whole, stone-ground grains.

They’re also a great recipe for spelt or einkorn flour. Both work beautifully with lemon and make a tender pancake. Red Fife will work too if that’s what you have.

Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes

Ingredients

• 450 g flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup poppy seeds
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Milk, as needed to bring the lemon juice, vanilla and milk to 2 1/2 cups total
• 2 eggs

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, poppy seeds, baking powder and salt.
2. Zest the entire lemon directly into the dry ingredients and mix everything together.
3. Juice the lemon into a large measuring cup. Add the vanilla, then add enough milk to bring the total liquid to 2 1/2 cups.
4. Add the eggs to the milk mixture and whisk together.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix just until combined.
6. Let the batter rest for a few minutes while your pan or griddle heats.
7. Cook on a lightly buttered or greased griddle over medium heat. Cook until bubbles begin to form and the edges look set, then flip and cook the second side until golden.
8. Serve warm with fresh fruit, fruit sauce and icing syrup.

Making Mini Pancakes

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You can absolutely make these as regular full-sized pancakes, but the mini version is a lot of fun, especially with kids.

I used this mini pancake maker, and it cooked them really nicely. You do need a little pair of tongs to flip each pancake, and there’s a bit of trial and error involved in getting your flipping technique down, but overall it worked really well. The kids enjoyed them a lot.

I also used this batter mixer and dispenser. It works really well for pouring the batter neatly into all of those little pancake wells.

This recipe makes a little too much batter to comfortably mix the whole batch right in the dispenser, though. You can either make a half batch if you want to mix directly in it, or mix the full recipe in a bowl first and then pour the finished batter into the dispenser. I actually found the second option easier anyway.

Icing Syrup

This is thinner than a regular icing or glaze. You want it to pour easily over the pancakes, almost like a creamy syrup.

Ingredients

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp very soft butter
• 1/4 cup syrup
• 2 tbsp milk, plus more as needed

Instructions

1. Mix the icing sugar, salt, vanilla and very soft butter together.
2. Add the syrup and 2 tablespoons of milk and mix until smooth.
3. If needed, add additional milk 1 tablespoon at a time until the icing is thin and easily pourable. You want it to have the consistency of a thick syrup rather than a traditional glaze.
4. Drizzle generously over warm pancakes and serve.

Serving Ideas

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Fresh blueberries are excellent with these, but really any summer fruit works. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries or peaches would all be good. A quick berry sauce or compote is especially nice with the lemon and sweet icing syrup.

They’re also yummy enough to eat completely on their own. The lemon, vanilla and poppy seeds give the pancakes plenty of flavour even before you add anything on top.

And if you have kids around, try the minis. They turn a pretty basic pancake recipe into something just a little more fun.

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