Matilda's Pancakes

Name: Matilda's Pancakes
Yield: 2
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1½ cups flour; 2 tablespoons sugar; 2 teaspoons baking powder; ½ teaspoon salt; 1 egg; 1¼ cups milk; 3 tablespoons melted butter, plus more for the pan; Maple syrup, and a good book

Serve when

Serve them the way four-year-old Matilda does — made entirely by yourself, eaten with a book propped open.

In the movie

Theatrical

~00:03:01 Left home alone as a small child, Matilda takes care of herself — the montage where she cooks her own breakfast, flipping pancakes at a stove she can barely reach, then eats them with a stack of library books.

The pancake montage is Matilda's declaration of independence — a tiny kid calmly feeding herself while her family ignores her, set to 'Send Me on My Way.' It's the film's happiest image of self-reliance: breakfast, made yourself, with a library book waiting.

Ingredients

1½ cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg
1¼ cups milk
3 tablespoons melted butter, plus more for the pan
Maple syrup, and a good book

Method

Whisk the dry ingredients; beat in the egg, milk, and melted butter until just combined (lumps are fine — overmixing is for Wormwoods).
Heat a buttered griddle over medium.
Pour small rounds; flip when bubbles pop and edges set, about 2 minutes a side.
Stack, butter, syrup.
Eat with a book. The book is a required ingredient.