Infinite Pancakes
After last week and the very lively discussion that erupted on my fb wall when I asked a simple question, I decided to try creating a series of breakfast bread recipes. There will be about ten of them, ranging from sweet, to savory, and they all center around this:
Biscuits =/= Scones
Because, as those who were commenting and reading my thread that day learned, people use the same word for different things. Scones, for instance, are viewed as ranging the gamut from hard, dense things more like shortbread to the light and fluffy progenitors of the southern biscuit, to a version of fry bread in Utah, which may or may not have been adapted by early settlers from the Navajo fry bread.
As the First Reader and I kept watching the debate range on, with contributors from around the world, we discussed our childhood breakfast foods, and what our American culture will serve (or not) at breakfast. We came up with a list, and I'll be checking them off, and posting thoughts and recipes here for the next several weeks. Some of the recipes are ones I've already done, you can find them listed below. Enjoy!
Scones (savoury)
Pancakes
Finished Walnut pancake stack
I rarely use a recipe for pancakes. I'd say that 98% of the time I'm making them, I'm scooping mix out of a box. It might seem like cheating, but really, it's the easiest, and cheapest, way to do it. I've made up my own baking mix in vast quantities, but these days that's too much to store, and besides, a box of the generic stuff is less than $2 if you know where to look. The brand I've got in the pantry now calls for addition of milk, egg, vanilla, and sugar to 2 cups of the dry mix. I omit the sugar, and it tastes fine.
I like to lay out my tools and supplies before I begin
Except... pancakes are almost infinitely variable. Sure, you can just mix up the batter, dollop them on the griddle and serve with maple syrup. Nothing wrong with that. But there are other ways. Keep two things in mind, and then, carry on. If you are adding something moist, like applesauce, to the batter, put it in your measuring cup and add the milk to the desired amount, then you can add milk a splosh at a time until your batter is the desired consistency. If you are adding something dry, like nut meal, or blending flours, keep it to about 1/2 cup in addition to the regular mix until you are comfortable with how it interacts in the recipe (some flours are not rich in gluten, or lack it altogether, and if you have too much of them in proportion, the pancakes will fall to bits). Here's a list of things you can add in no particular order:
chocolate chips
blueberries
any berries, fresh or frozen
applesauce
crushed pineapple
leftover mashed potatoes
shredded cheese
crumbled bacon
chopped chives
trail mix
granola
jam
nut meal
1/2 c pumpkin puree, with 1/4 tsp pie spice
nuts
M&M's (First Reader's contribution)
Getting the idea? Pancakes don't have to be sweet, they don't have to be white, and you don't have to serve them with syrup. You can also reheat them in the toaster for later, something kids love: homemade eggos.
The consistency I like for pancake batter
Now we get into the nitty-gritty. If you've had trouble with getting pancakes to work for you, this might help. When you mix up your batter, you come to a point when it's all clumping on your whisk, and you have to choose one of two paths: thick cakes, or thin ones. My personal preference is somewhere in the middle. Too thick, and they might not cook through evenly. Too thin, and you get crepes which is a whole 'nother thing. Once I get to that giant clump stage I add more milk, very slowly, until I reach the point where the batter's just clinging to the whisk. Don't worry, if you go too far, you can always add a little baking mix (or flour, if you've run out of mix) to coagulate it back up.
Before you even started all this with the whisk, you turned on the heat to your griddle. I'm currently using a ceramic flat griddle, electric, because my cast iron griddle didn't make the move, and I'm not sure it would work on a glass-topped electric stove (I miss my gas range, but you adapt to what you have). You don't want it too hot, and in our house, we're cooking bacon up nice and crispy before we do the pancake batter. With practice, you can take this off, and start putting 'cakes on almost in the same motion. Bacon grease burns at a low heat (340-350 F) so don't let it sit on a heating pan for long.
1/2 cup of batter for a nice size of pancake. You can see the nutmeal in the batter.
I use a 1/2 cup measure to scoop batter for pancakes, which creates evenly sized 'cakes that are a good size for the griddle. When I was little we'd get playful, and do plate-sized pancakes (you can only eat one!) or dollar cakes (you need a thinner batter for those) but now, I'm pretty stodgy about it.
The heavier batter might not always show the little bubbles, but you can see your edges getting done.
When the edges start to get big bubbles, and the center little bubbles, and the edge bubbles pop and leave a crater, it's time to flip. If you haven't got the pan up too high (again, with electric griddle, about 340-350F which is about 170-175degC) then the other side will be a nice golden brown. I like the griddle for pancakes, because a stove element can often heat unevenly, not cool with a pancake.
Poke, poke...
After you've flipped, you no longer have the bubbles to tell you when it's done. But now, you get to poke. Give it a minute or two, and gently press the pad of your finger against the top of the cake. It's not hot enough to burn you, and you're going to pull right back. If it feels resilient and bounces right back to where it was, then it's done. Remove to a stack on a plate. Eat.
What to put on your pancakes that isn't maple syrup? My First Reader grew up having Caro (corn syrup) on his. He also points out that pancakes can be rolled around breakfast sausages.
applesauce
fresh fruit
jam or jelly
chocolate syrup
cheese (for the savory ones!)
Nothing (for the ones you've thrown all sorts of goodies in)
whipped cream
cream
honey
Bacon (First Reader's suggestion)
Butter
cinnamon and powdered sugar
What can you think of?
Gratituitous Bacon Shot