Perfect Pancakes

The base recipe is from the Cinnamon Roll Pancakes recipe, which is originally from the Recipe Girl blog.  I've only ever made those pancakes once because, in addition to being delicious, they're kind of a pain in the ass, but I've made the base recipe countless times.  I actually usually mix up the dry ingredients for 6 batches or so, store it in a bag in the pantry, then just scoop some out and add milk, egg, and oil when I want to make pancakes.  It has become the default pancake recipe I make, and we have pancakes most weekends.
 
These pancakes aren't just good, they're perfect.  We're both major pancake lovers and I've experimented with many recipes over the years, but this is The One.  They taste exactly like great pancakes you'd get at a restaurant: soft, fluffy, thick but not too thick, and are just pancakey perfection.  I enjoy making fancier pancakes, too, but this is our standard.  You can add mini chocolate chips or blueberries to the batter, or add a little molasses, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg to make gingerbread pancakes.  I've done all of these and they've been great!

   
Perfect Pancakes
 
1 C flour
2 T sugar
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 C milk
1 egg
1 T vegetable oil
butter to grease the skillet
  
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add milk, egg, and vegetable oil, and whisk until smooth.
  
Tturn your oven to 200 degrees and place an oven safe plate in the oven.  You will put your pancakes in the oven as you make them so they stay warm.  Melt a small amount of butter in a nonstick (this is very important!) skillet or on a griddle set to medium-high.  Spoon on batter to make whatever size pancakes you want.  Cook the pancake until the edges are dry and there are bubbles on the surface.  Carefully flip the pancake using a wide spatula and cook for another 45 seconds or so until set.  Place the cooked pancake on the plate in the oven, and proceed in the same way with the rest of the batter.
  
Yield: 2 generous servings

Cinnamon Apple Pancakes

These Cinnamon Apple Pancakes are a Secret Recipe Club recipe, but not one that I was assigned.  I was checking out recipes that other people made for SRC and came upon this one at the blog Daily Dish.  They looked so good, I had to make them!  My changes were to add salt (it doesn't make them taste salty, remember salt is a flavor enhancer) and to add more milk because the batter was very thick.  The pancakes turned out really nicely.  Lots of apple flavor and the pancakes were very moist and tender, in spite of not having any oil or butter in the batter.  We really liked them.  Next time I want to try experimenting with steaming the grated apples in a covered bowl in the microwave so they will soften up a bit.  The pancakes were definitely good as is, but the grated apple added a bit of texture, which may or may not appeal to some people.  I love tinkering with recipes!  When I try that method, I will update this post.

  

 

Cinnamon Apple Pancakes

 

2 large apples, peeled, cored, and grated

2 C flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 C brown sugar

2 eggs

2 1/3 C milk

 

Preheat griddle.

 

Stir together flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and brown sugar.  In a separate bowl, lightly beat eggs, then stir in milk and grated apples.  Stir apple mixture into flour mixture until well combined.

 

Butter griddle, then ladle on batter to make whatever size pancakes you desire.  Let them cook until bubbles form on the surface and the edges look dry, then carefully flip with a spatula.  Cook on the other side until golden.  Keep cooked pancakes warm on a platter in a 200 degree oven, and repeat process to make the rest of the pancake batter.  

 

Serve with butter and maple syrup.

 

Yield:  About 4-6 servings

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

This recipe is from the blog A Taste of Madness, but slightly tweaked.  It's a great to make if you have cottage cheese that needs to be used up, and is easily doubled.  Leftovers freeze nicely.  Convenience aside, these are good pancakes.  They aren't my default favorite (that honor goes to the basic pancake recipe from Cinnamon Roll Pancakes), but they are definitely tasty.  They're very light and creamy, which may sound odd for a pancake, but it definitely works. 

 

 

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

 

1 C cottage cheese

1/3 C flour

2 Tbsp canola oil

3 eggs

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

 

Place all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix with immersion blender until cottage cheese is pureed and everything is well combined.  Ladle batter onto a greased pan or griddle over medium heat and cook until bubbles form and the surface looks a little dry, then carefully flip and cook on the other side until golden.  Keep cooked pancakes warm on a plate in an oven set to 200.  Serve with syrup, fruit, or other toppings of your choice.

 

Yield: 2 servings

Secret Recipe Club: Pannukakku

For this month's SRC, I was assigned the blog Cook Lisa Cook.  Lisa lives in New England with her husband and her adorable little girl, Maisie.  Maisie has some food sensitivities that her mom lovingly accommodates, so this is a great blog to check out if you need to do some wheat, egg, and dairy free cooking.

Lisa has lots of tempting recipes.  I'm actually planning to make her Slow Cooker Ranch Mushrooms later this week to go with meatloaf.  My husband really loves oven pancakes, though, so I decided to try her Finnish oven pancake, called Pannukakku.  It has a very high ratio of milk and eggs to flour, so I knew it would turn out differently from our other favorite oven pancakes.  It was very good and the pancake turned out with an almost creamy texture.  My husband and I polished off almost the entire pancake between the two of us, but he took the rest for lunch at work the next day and said it reheated very nicely.  I didn't know that I needed three different oven pancake recipes, but apparently I do, because this is definitely one I'll hold onto and make again many times.  Thanks, Lisa!
 

 
Pannukakku

8 Tbsp butter, divided
4 eggs
4 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
2 C milk
1 scant C flour (halfway between 3/4 C and 1 C)

Put 1/2 of the butter into a 9 by 13 baking dish and place the dish in a cold oven.  Turn oven to 425 and let the butter melt while you prepare the batter.

To make the batter, melt the remaining 4 Tbsp butter in a small bowl in the microwave and set it aside.  Place eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, milk, and flour in a large blender.  Add the melted, microwaved butter.  Blend until batter is smooth.

By now, the butter in the oven should be melted.  Remove the dish from the oven, tilt it a bit so the butter evenly coats the bottom, and pour in the batter.  Bake until puffy (it will rise a lot!), browned, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.  You can cover it with foil if it starts browning too much.

When the pancake has finished cooking, let it cool for a couple of minutes, then serve.  It will deflate while cooling.  Cut pancake into individual pieces and serve with powdered sugar and lemon juice, fruit jam, syrup, or whatever you would like.

An InLinkz Link-up

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

On the weekends I like to make a nice breakfast.  Recently I ran across a recipe for cinnamon roll pancakes and HAD to try them ASAP, so I decided to surprise my husband with them for breakfast this morning because he loves cinnamon rolls just as much as I do.  They are more complicated than regular pancakes and I honestly only recommend you try them if you have experience with making and flipping regular pancakes, but they are so worth it!  I burned the heck out of my pinkie when wiping out the pan between pancakes and I still think they were worth it.  My husband declared them to be the best pancakes he's ever eaten and I must agree.  They are everything wonderful about cinnamon rolls and pancakes, all in one delicious, fluffy package.  I think they would make a superb breakfast on Christmas morning because they're truly special, but quicker and less labor intensive than regular cinnamon rolls.

This recipe is originally from the Recipe Girl blog.  She has great photos to help you out as you make the pancakes!  It's kind of amusing, I first came across the recipe on a different blog.  That blogger had changed the recipe a fair amount and left some important things out (like wiping the pan out between pancakes).  As I went along, there were a few things I needed to tweak, but after I typed up this recipe and found the original on the Recipe Girl blog, I realized that most of my changes mirrored exactly what was in the original, though I did make a few other small ones.

Sorry my pancakes aren't so pretty.  The one you see is the first one I made.  I burned my finger while wiping out the pan after the very first one so it was hard to control the cinnamon swirl on the others and they look even worse!  Still taste great though.

Update: I've since made these pancakes without the cinnamon swirl and they're perfect!  Thick, fluffy, and yummy. This is now my default pancake recipe, and that's saying a lot because I've tried many pancake recipes.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

For Cinnamon Swirl:
4 T butter
6 T brown sugar
1/2 T cinnamon

For Pancake Batter:
1 C flour
2 T sugar
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 C milk
1 egg
1 T vegetable oil
butter to grease the skillet

For Icing:
2 oz cream cheese
4 T butter
1 t vanilla extract
about 3/4 C powdered sugar

Make the cinnamon swirl first.  Melt the butter and stir in the brown sugar and cinnamon until smooth.  Spoon into a plastic Ziploc bag and set aside to cool.  You want the cinnamon swirl to be fairly thick and can run the bag under cold water to help cool it down faster.  Cut the very tip off one of the corners of the bag.  Line a bowl with a paper towel and cut the very tip off one of the corners of the bag of cinnamon swirl, then place it, cut tip up, in the bowl so it won't leak.

Make the batter next.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add milk, egg, and vegetable oil, and whisk until smooth.

To make the pancakes, turn your oven to 200 degrees and place an oven safe plate in the oven.  You will put your pancakes in the oven as you make them so they stay warm.  Melt a small amount of butter in a nonstick (this is very important!!) 6 inch skillet over medium heat.  Spoon in 1/3 C batter, then grab your bag of cinnamon swirl and pipe it on in a spiral, starting in the center.  Cook the pancake until the edges are dry and there are bubbles on the surface.  Carefully flip the pancake using a wide spatula and cook for another 45 seconds or so until set.  The pancake will not feel as firm as a regular pancake, but the second side never needs as much time!  Don't over cook or the sugar will burn.  To get the pancake out of the pan, I suggest pulling the oven rack out with a pot holder and flipping the pan upside down right over the plate so you don't get cinnamon sugar goo all over the spatula.  After you've removed the pancake, wipe the pan out with a folded paper towel, and for the love of all that is holy, be CAREFUL because molten cinnamon sugar is extremely painful!  Make sure to get all the sugar mixture or it will burn onto the next pancake.  Proceed in the same way with all the other pancakes.

Once all the pancakes have been made, make the icing.  Place the cream cheese and butter in a microwave safe bowl and microwave until butter has melted.  Whisk until smooth, then whisk in the vanilla extract.  Whisk in the powdered sugar a little at a time until it's as thick as you would like.  Drizzle the icing over the pancakes to serve.

Yield: Six 5 inch pancakes

Yummy Vegan Pancakes

There are some foods that I've tried many recipes for, trying to find exactly one that's exactly what I want. Pancakes is one of those foods. Over the years I've probably tried at least 10 recipes before I finally made up my own! I figured out that my issues with most pancake recipes are 1) they're too eggy and 2) they don't have enough salt. So the recipe I made up is eggless and has enough salt to give them a nice flavor all on their own. The recipe can also easily be made vegan by using juice instead of milk. I've had success with basically every fruit juice you can imagine and you should probably know that raspberry juice equals purple pancakes! You can also adjust the amount of liquid for how thick or thin you like your pancakes. My dude likes them on the thinner side so I use 1 1/4 cup of milk, but about a cup and 2 tablespoons will give you normal thickness pancakes.

I'd also like to note that I have a very thin spatula that is perfect for flipping pancakes. A lot of spatulas are quite thick and could mangle your innocent little pancake. Here's the one that I have, I love it to bits because it's the perfect spatula for everything! I'm a little confused because it has some terrible reviews that say it melts really easily but I've had my red one for 5 years and it still looks new even though it's the only spatula I own.

Enjoy!

Update:  These are no longer our favorite pancakes.  They're still good, and we make them if we're out of eggs, but our favorite by far is the basic pancake recipe from Cinnamon Roll Pancakes.


Vegan Pancakes

1 C flour
1 T sugar
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 cup plus 2-4 tablespoons juice (can use almond milk, or cow milk but it won't be vegan)

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Whisk in enough milk so that the batter is as thick as you'd like. Keep in mind it will thicken slightly as it sits. Heat a skillet over medium heat (or turn on your griddle) and spray with no stick spray or swipe on a little bit of butter. Pour some batter into the pan and make a pancake in whatever size you desire. When bubbles appear on the pancake and the edges are dry, give it a flip! Cook for another minute or so on the other side, until the bottom is lightly browned. Remove to a plate and keep warm in a 200 degree oven while you make the rest of the pancakes.

Yield: 6 good sized pancakes, enough for 2-3 people