Pancakes

Once again, brunch food! This one is all about pancakes. I grew up with Pancake Sundays. Every Sunday my dad would make pancakes out of Bisquick. He used a blender to mix it, and they were thin, light pancakes. I still love Bisquick pancakes and that is usually what I use for pancakes. However, sometimes you want to up the bar on the simple, delicious breakfast food. Here's three great pancakes recipes.



Apple Pancakes

Last year on Brian’s birthday, I made him apple pancakes. I got the recipe from a Williams-Sonoma catalog (See here for original recipe and picture), but the original recipe called for thinly sliced apples (with a mandoline, since they were selling a mandoline on that page) to be cooked into the pancake. I tried this once, and it came out tasting good, but the food stylists in the magazine have skills I don’t have, so mine were really ugly. Here’s my Apple Pancake recipe (I half it for 2 people):

Apple Pancakes

1 egg
1 Cup Pre-sifted all-purpose flour
4 TBSPs Sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground ginger
1 Pinch ground nutmeg (freshly ground if you can swing it; if not, the pre-ground stuff works fine)
1 Very small Pinch cardamom
1 Cup plus 1 TBSP buttermilk
2 TBSP (¼ stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 peeled Granny Smith apple (yes, I keep the same amount of apple if it is a small Granny Smith; it should be roughly 2/3 Cup grated)

In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat eggs on medium until frothy. Add flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, buttermilk, butter, and vanilla. Stir just until smooth. Stir in grated apple.

Heat a griddle over medium heat. Pour 1 TBSP cooking oil on griddle. Spread around with a paper towel.

Pour enough batter to make them the size you want. When they start to bubble in the middle flip them. Cook a couple minutes more.

Dust with powdered sugar and drizzle syrup over pancakes.

Gingerbread Pancakes

Brian likes Gingerbread, so for the past couple of years I've made Gingerbread at Christmas. There were too many sweets on the menu this year, so I didn't make any, but I also didn't want to leave Brian Gingerbreadless. So I made these Gingerbread Pancakes (the recipe comes from the Big Yellow Gourmet Cookbook).

Gingerbread Pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 salt1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
(I add a dash of nutmeg and cardamom)
3 TBSP molasses (not robust or blackstrap)
1 large egg
1 cup sour cream
3 TBSP whole milk
2 TBSP melted butter, plus additional for brushing griddle

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Whisk together flower, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices in a medium bowl. Whisk together molasses, egg, sour cream, milk, and butter in a small bowl, then add to flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Heat a griddle over moderate heat until hot enough to make drops of water scatter over the surface. Brush with butter. Working in batches of 4 to 6 (depending on the size of the griddle), drop 1/4 cup batter per pancake onto griddle and cook until bubbles appear on the surface and undersides are golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip pancakes with a spatula and cook until golden brown and cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer pancakes to a heatproof plate and keep warm in the oven while you cook the remaining batches. Serve with sour cream and maple syrup.

I used non-fat milk instead of whole milk and lite sour cream, and it worked just fine. And I did not serve it with additional sour cream. I just dusted it with powdered sugar, and a drizzle of butter and syrup. They came out really good. Brian said they were best pancakes I've made. I did however slightly burn the first batch, and it is hard to tell because of the dark color of the pancakes. I should have used the trick my father always did, he would make one pancake to test the temperature of the griddle. That usually ended up as my dog's pancake, and the rest of the batches were just right.

Fluffy Pancakes

Brian found this recipe and made these fluffy pancakes. They were really good and it made quite a lot of pancakes.

Hannah's Pancakes (From Epicurious.com)

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups whole milk
4 large eggs, separated
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) or more unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar
Additional melted butter
Pure maple syrup

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in large bowl to blend.

Whisk milk and egg yolks in medium bowl to blend. Whisk milk mixture into dry ingredients.

Add 2 tablespoons melted butter and whisk until batter is smooth.

Beat egg whites in another medium bowl until soft peaks form.

Gradually add sugar, beating until stiff but not dry. Fold whites into batter in 2 additions.

Heat nonstick griddle or large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Brush generously with additional melted butter. For each pancake, fill 1/4 cup measuring cup half full and drop batter onto griddle. Cook pancakes until bottoms are brown, about 3 minutes. Using spatula, turn pancakes over and cook until bottoms are brown and pancakes are cooked through, about 2 minutes.

Transfer to plates. Serve warm with syrup.

NOTE: I think everyone prefers a different syrup based on what they had when they were growing up. For me, it was Mrs. Buttersworth. I have sampled many other high-fructose corn syrup based syrups on the market, and I still find Mrs. Buttersworth has the best flavor overall. Even still, I much prefer the taste of pure maple syrup, but since it has to be stored in the refrigerator and then heated back up, it ends up being super runny, and I don’t like that. So, If you want to do this, heat it up and add a little bit of Arrowroot to it. Just a pinch at first, and keep adding until you get the consistency you want. It will take some experimenting. It still won’t be a thick as the fake stuff, but it won’t sink into your pancakes and waffles and make them soggy.