After a late night out in a robin hood outfit last night and managing to keep my ol' bones in bed until 10am, I yearned for food. And pancakes seemed to feel right this morning. Pancakes are nothing glamorous, nothing hard, but are good, simple and people should not fear the homemade flat cake. I went with a little fall spice today but have varied pancakes through the history of my flapjack career.
I don't remember cooking that many specific things with my parents, but for some reason, I can remember cooking breakfast items back when my shirts were too tight on my stomach.
Ingredients:
1 egg
1/4c apple sauce (this replaces typical oil or butter that's in pancakes, look below, no fat
2 tbl brown sugar
1/2c all purpose unbleached flour (I'm not sure that the unbleached is that much different from bleached, but I don't think I want to eat bleach)
1/2c whole wheat flour
3 tsp baking powder
2-3 shakes cinnamon
1-2 shakes clove
1-2 shakes nutmeg or grind a little fresh stuff which I like better
1-2 shake ground ginger
pint salt
3/4 cup milk, but you'll probably need more to adjust the thickness of the batter
clarified butter, canola oil, or butter, something for the pan when cooking
In a medium bowl, crack and egg and give it a good whisk until it's evenly yellow and a little frothy. Add in the apple sauce and the sugar, whisk until combined.
Add the flours, you can sift them but that's one more thing to wash. Add the baking powder, spices and salt and whisk just a little bit. It will be thick until you start adding the milk. Add the milk and whisk until everything is combined evenly. At this point, you're looking for a thickness because this will affect how the pancake spreads in the pan and rises. If you lift the whisk out of the batter, it shouldn't really stick to the whisk, but some of it should come up with the whisk and then fall. If you mix the batter, it shouldn't seem runny in the bowl either. By the time you make the first pancake, the batter might firm up some so just whisk in another splash of milk.
Put a non-stick pan, at least 10", on med to med-high heat. Once the pan is hot, put a little of the butter or oil in the pan. If you have a good non-stick pan and want to go without the butter/oil, do it.
Pour the batter in the pan at the center of the pancake. If the consistency of the batter is too thick, the batter won't spread in the pan and you'll probably have issues getting the middle of the pancake to cook. Too thin and it'll just spread out quickly and you'll have thin pancakes. Now that the first side is cooking, it's time to share the cooking knowledge learned as a child... look for the bubbles. The baking powder causes the bubbles, giving the fluffyness to the cakes. You want bubbles to be seen popping all over the pancake and then the bubble hole should close back up. If you let it go too long, the bubbles will stay open and the bottom might be too cooked. When you see the right amount of popping bubbles, take a big flat spatula and flip the pancake. The cooking on the second side is usually only about 2/3rd the time of the first side, maybe 2-3 minutes.
If you want to add stuff in the pancakes like nuts or berries, drop them in the cake while the first side is cooking.
Optional cooked apples
1 apple, a sturdy apple, i used 1/2 of a huge (1lber) honeycrisp apple
1tbl butter
1/3c brown sugar, I didn't measure this, just throw a little in the pan
Slice the applies thin, removing any seed or core part. Melt the butter in a pan. Add the apples and stir or flip them several times until they are almost soft. Add the sugar and stir or toss until it melts.
