Stack of Joy
May 26th, 2019Disks of Decadence
I don’t know if this is good news or not, but I have finally come up with a recipe for perfect pancakes.
Today I looked in the fridge, and I realized I was missing one of the ingredients for a healthy breakfast. I’ve been eating a kibbutz-style breakfast for a while: raw vegetables, pita, hummus, and so on. I used to eat homemade vegetable stew, but I got tired of making it.
One of my vegetables was nowhere to be found, so I figured I had a good excuse to make pancakes.
First, a word about syrup. I will eat two types of syrup: pure maple syrup and syrups that don’t pretend to be maple syrup. I will eat syrup made from blueberries, sugar, and starch, but I won’t eat Aunt Jemima or Log Cabin fake syrup.
I like a strong maple flavor. There are some very weak maple syrups out there, and I don’t think they’re worth the money. Good syrup costs as much as decent wine, so you might as well get something you can taste.
I have been a fan of grade B syrup for years. Grade B is darker than Grade A, and it has a stronger flavor. Supposedly, it’s intended for baking, but I put it on pancakes and waffles.
Back when I was checking out different brands of grade B, I came across Anderson’s syrup, from Wisconsin. As I recall, it was cheaper than Vermont syrup, and I figured it had to be about the same, so I tried it. It turned out to be a top-notch product.
A few weeks back, I saw I was running low on Anderson’s, so I went to Amazon and looked for it. I saw a Vermont brand–Butternut Farms–at a lower price. I thought I should give it a try. MISTAKE! It ruined my waffles. It was watery and bland. It gets great reviews on Amazon, but it’s worthless.
Even though I still had most of a jug of it, I bought more Anderson’s. Now I use the Butternut syrup for things like oatmeal, just to get rid of it.
On a whim, I tried a “dark” maple syrup I found at the local grocery. It was better than Butternut Farms, but not good enough for me. I’m sticking with Anderson’s, which I refrigerate to discourage mold.
That’s the syrup story.
As for pancakes, I had tried a bunch of recipes, and some were okay, but on the whole, they were not nearly as good as my waffles, which were absolutely perfect. Today I realized the obvious: I needed to make pancakes with waffle batter. Duh.
The pancakes were fluffy and delicious. No leathery texture. No heaviness. I might as well give you the recipe. You can decide whether you want to make pancakes or waffles. It makes 3 pancakes or two big waffles.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup biscuit flour (not self-rising)
3/4 cup milk (maybe buttermilk?)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons fat
1 egg
For fat, I like to use two tablespoons of melted bacon grease and one tablespoon of melted butter.
Melt the fat and add the milk. Warm the milk so the fat stays melted. Not too hot, because you’re going to add an egg yolk.
Separate the egg. Beat the white until it’s stiff. Add the yolk to the milk and beat until foamy.
Combine the dry ingredients. Mix the wet ingredients in. Adjust the consistency by adding milk or flour, if needed.
That’s all there is to it.
I like to put the syrup in a Pyrex cup with butter and nuke it so it’s hot when it hits the food.
I cook my pancakes on medium-low heat, on a cast iron griddle. Turn them after they fill up with bubbles in the middle and the edges start to look dry.
I put my plate under a heat lamp while I cook. I put the pancakes on the plate as they come off the stove, and they don’t get cold.
Making this recipe is not much harder than dumping mix into a bowl and adding eggs and milk, so you don’t have a good excuse for buying a big box of chemicals instead of cooking from scratch.
If you try it, let me know how it works out.
May 26th, 2019 at 3:03 PM
I thought southerners used cane syrup.
They did when I lived there.
May 26th, 2019 at 9:58 PM
Never going to escape the cooking anointing, eh? Love it. Not quite “eat what you want and die like a man,” but I’m always on the lookout for the perfect pancake recipe.
Of course, Bisquick is always a sure-fire backup.
May 27th, 2019 at 1:25 PM
Ed, people from Kentucky will not eat molasses. We eat sorghum, which is better. Maybe that’s what you mean. I have a jug of it, but it’s too heavy for pancakes. I tried it on waffles.
May 27th, 2019 at 7:18 PM
Do you mean White Lily flour? One of these days I have to see if I can order it on Amazon and give it a try. We don’t have soft wheat flours up here in the frozen North.
May 27th, 2019 at 8:46 PM
No, Ed means cane syrup made from boiling then cooking down sugar cane. Ed, I think most southerners now eat the same store bought crap everyone else uses.
Steve, what raw vegetables have you been eating.
May 28th, 2019 at 1:33 PM
Laura, is White Lily what I should be using? We have it here.
Juan, I’ve been eating tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and bell peppers.
Trying to make pita again. The store stuff is not great.
May 28th, 2019 at 4:06 PM
Honestly, I don’t know, Steve. I am ignorant on this subject. It’s just the name I most associate with ‘biscuit flour’ from the Southerners whose blogs I follow. What brand are you currently using?
May 28th, 2019 at 4:26 PM
I have a pretty darn good pita recipe. Uses a sourdough starter.
I don’t keep a bubbling urn full of sourdough starter on my kitchen counter like some people do. I just have a little ball jar in the fridge with maybe 3 tablespoons of starter culture in it. Whenever I feel like making bread I take it out of the fridge, add water and flour enough to grow it for the next recipe, then save out another 3 tablespoons in the jar and throw it in the fridge. This jar sits in the back of the fridge,frequently for months between uses and it always works just fine when I get around to waking it up again.
I found this recipe online and it makes decent sourdough pita:
500g bread flour
280g water (unchlorinated)
9g sea or kosher salt
20g sourdough culture, 100% hydration (equal weight of water and flour)
15g good quality (sharp tasting green) olive oil
Mix all ingredients 5 minutes or so, until dough is smooth. Rest covered in an oiled bowl or plastic bag for 24 hours at a cool room temp, or several hours on the counter and then 2-3 days in the fridge (long cool fermentation gives the best flavor).
Divide into 6 or 8 balls, depending on the size of pita you want, and let rest for 10 minutes. Preheat oven with baking stone to 500-550 degrees or so.
Roll out one of your balls to a disk about 1/8″ and throw it on the hot stone. Let it puff, then take it out after 3 or 4 minutes. Repeat, keeping fresh hot pita on a plate under a tea towel until they are all done.
May 28th, 2019 at 4:43 PM
I don’t even know what it is. Probably Pillsbury or Gold Medal. I like King Arthur for bread.
Nearly anything works for Sicilian pizza.
May 28th, 2019 at 5:30 PM
What is biscuit flour then? Just all-purpose wheat flour?
May 28th, 2019 at 8:16 PM
I mean all-purpose flour not intended for bread. Lower in protein.
I looked to see what I used for biscuits last time, and it was 3/4 flour and 1/4 starch.
May 28th, 2019 at 8:21 PM
Today while shopping, I found White Lily flour on the shelf. They had it in self-rising and unleavened. I may try it. Someone tested White Lily on the web, and the biscuits were a lot higher than two other brands.
I also found Southern Living’s “best ever” biscuit recipe. Got a couple of tips from that.
May 28th, 2019 at 8:45 PM
Ah, got it, thanks. There is a lot of confusion in my mind about the various flours. I make good sourdough, but biscuits and cakes are mysterious to me.