Pancakes (Crepe, Hot Cake, Griddle Cake, and Flapjack): As one of humankind’s oldest forms of bread, the versatile pancake has hundreds of variations and is served for breakfast, lunch and dinner and as appetizers, entrées and desserts. Pancakes begin as batter that is poured into rounds, either on a griddle or in a skillet, and cooked over high heat. These round cakes vary in thickness from wafer thin French crepe to the much thicker American pancake breakfast.
The ritual of weekend morning pancakes brings me as close to my Spiritual center as an hour on my cushion. To me a day of rest is not about doing nothing (although I like those too), it is about letting the organic flow of the day carry me from place to place. So spending some extra time preparing a plate full of home cooked goodness is a little bit of all right in my book.
Pancakes are amazing when you think about it. They can be simple or complex, fancy or humble and they are an excellent place to practice the "something old in a new way" principle of soul food.
Before you start you’ll need to know a few 'Basic Pancake Best Practices'.
1 Find and claim your Pancake Pan. Go through your collection of skillets and choose a heavy bottom solid pan or griddle. It should be about 8-10 inches in diameter. This will allow enough room for 2-3 silver dollar size cakes at a time. Teflon or some other 'non stick' surface is your choice. I have my opinions about non-stick and I choose to never use them.
Once you've chosen a pan, try it out with a basic batter (formula below). If you're happy with the results claim this as your Pancake pan. You can hold a little inaugural ceremony in the kitchen if you like, but that is up to you. My pancake pan was my great grandmothers. It is now about 113yrs old, cast iron and weighs about 8 pounds. And it is awesome.
You know those things you would save on the way out the door if there were a fire or earthquake? Well my cast irons are that for me. I can't cook without them. And having seen Disney's "Tangled" a number of times now, I see them as my new self defence weapon of choice.
2 Heat + Time = Pancake Heaven. Yep it's that simple. You must have the right amount of heat and the right amount of time to make the perfect pancake. Although heat & time may change a little with batter consistency, ingredients and environmental conditions, the formula is basically the same. Here is my basic sequence for making pancakes… experiment with your pan and favourite basic batter. Find your own rhythm and pace. Then away you go to Pancake Heaven.
· Heat pan over high heat until for about 3-5 minutes (that is how long it takes mine anyway)
· Then turn it down to a medium-high heat (this will be where you cook from)
· While it is heating, make your batter
· Let the batter set up for 3-5 minutes or so
· Test a few drops of batter in the pan
· Wipe it and start dropping pancakes
· Watch the bubbles form around the edges and into the middle of each cake
· Wait for the edges to start to become ‘dry’
· Flip with a thin spatula
· Wait about 3 minutes
· Presto Chango, pancakes!
Batter UP
Mix or scratch is up to you. I do both in my kitchen. Some mornings the mix comes out of the closet. I most often use Bisquick mix. It’s versatile and easy. The cakes themselves are nothing special, but I never just make the mix as is.
I add:
Butter
Butter milk in replace of plain milk
Cinnamon
Maple syrup
Brown sugar
Lemon zest
Oats
Walnuts
Berries
Mashed Banana
Chocolate Chips
All of these will pretty up a basic box mix adding flavour, texture and
There are A LOT of pancake batter recipes out there. Here is my favourite from “The Silver Palate New Basic Cookbook”
1 C Unbleached all purpose flour (I use whole wheat and it works great too)
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp fresh grated nutmeg
¼ tsp salt
¾ C milk, butter milk (or half & half)
6 Tbs milk
3 Tbs light brown sugar lightly packed
2 Tbs unsalted butter melted & cooled
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp lemon zest
Mix dry (except the brown sugar) ingredient in a large bowl & set aside.
Mix melted butter, milk, brown sugar, lemon zest & egg in another bowl (I use a 2 cup measuring cup w/a pour spout)
Slowly pour the liquid into the dry while mixing by hand. Mix until almost smooth, if there are a few lumps this is ok.
Fold in your extras… berries, nuts, oats, choc chips…
Let batter stand loosely covered for up to 20 minutes. Then drop onto prepared & heated skillet and cook as usual.
These are GREAT sprinkled with fresh squeezed lemon juice and confectioner sugar.
The thing I love about pancakes is the flexibility and fun you can have experimenting with different combinations. Here is one of my recent ‘keepers’.
All day belly bomb cakes
Basic Pancake mix (Boxed or scratch)
1-2 tsp cinnamon
1c milk (cow, buttermilk, soy)
2/3 c Rolled Oats (Irish add body & crunch, commercial add weight)
1/3 c Raisins (I've found 'green raisins' not dried in sun so they are juicier)
1 Tbs orange zest
3 Tbs walnuts chopped
Blueberries (frozen or fresh)
Mix everything in the bowl EXCEPT the blueberries. Drop you batter on the hot pan and evenly distribute the berries on top of the cake. Turn carefully and let
AND The very best part about pancakes is sharing them.
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