When #1 was old enough to decide that something sweet for breakfast was much superior to baby mush oatmeal, he made it known that cake-cakes were his favorite thing. We began shoveling them down like a fat kid at an all you can eat pancake breakfast... because we are fat kids at an all you can eat pancake breakfast that takes place at my house about 4 mornings a week....
I used to think that pancakes came from a box that required you add water before pouring them on the griddle. Then one day my mother came to visit me here in Smallville and shockingly made pancakes FROM SCRATCH.. from a RECIPE. that I had in a (get this!) COOKBOOK. what?! people actually make pancakes from SCRATCH? who has the time? why bother?!
they were amazing...
This obviously was before I went to FPS and when I still had a godly fear in me about following a recipe. But, it inspired me to start making pancakes from scratch. Over the years I have tweaked the recipe and THIS my friends is the best pancake recipe you will find. Perfectly light and fluffy, slightly caramelized but yet still melt in your mouth..
You will need:
Pastry flour, vegetable oil, milk, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, baking powder, brown sugar, regular sugar and salt (of course)
First, whip your eggs up as light and airy as you can. The kids love this part, so wrangle them over to crack the eggs and get to whipping with a fork.
Mix all your dry ingredients into one bowl (or one measuring cup)
Then add the milk, oil, and vanilla to the egg you whipped up. Add the dry to the wet and mix. Per usual, DON'T OVERMIX!!
it is ok to have some tiny lumps though. We aren't perfect and its better to have some lumps than tough pancakes
Pour about 1/4 cup of the batter into your HOT pan. Please please heat your non-stick pan to the right temp. And butter away!! If you don't heat up your pan in advance, the pancakes will get soggy and will take forever to cook.
You will flip when you get bubbles like this:
Check out this perfect caramelization!
BAM!
Listen, the second side NEVER looks as pretty as the first. It just doesn't. Because it won't cook the same way due to the bubbles. It's a fact of life. Deal with it.
After you flip them out of the pan, put them on a cooling rack- if you are making a TON and are going to eat them that morning, turn the oven on to 200 degrees and just put the pancakes in there as you remove them from the pan. This stops them from getting soggy and also keeps them warm. Duh. But if you are only making one batch or don't intend on eating all of them, just put them on the cooling rack like this:
Or you can stack them up tall, and dig in
Better yet, do what we do. Get out your favorite peanut butter (OR NUTELLA!!!) spread it on the pancake, dust with some powdered sugar, add some syrup (or honey)...
roll it up and take the best bite of your life....
life changing
Here is the recipe:
1 large egg
1 tblsp vanilla
3/4 cup milk
2 tblsp vegetable oil
1 cup Pastry Flour plus 2 tbsp (or cake flour, or all purpose if all else fails)
1 tblsp sugar
1 tblsp brown sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
butter for the pan (or pan spray)
You want buttermilk pancakes? Use 1 cup buttermilk instead of 3/4 cup regular milk. Skim milk= thinner pancakes.
You can also use wheat flour instead. Same amount
**If you use room temperature eggs, or eggs not right out of the fridge- they will whip up better. i.e. fluffier pancakes
I usually whip these up in large batches so I can freeze them and pull them out as needed. Its cheap, its easy and better than frozen store bought ones.
BUT, if you want to be fancy- just put together all the dry ingredients in a plastic container or jar and keep it in your pantry. Just add the liquids to make them up fresh. Add dried fruit, chocolate chips, sliced bananas and nuts...
peanut butter and syrup will rock your world... as will a sprinkle of chopped up bacon.
