pancakes!

[jazzfish]

Reproduced here so I don't lose it, since it took me a bloody long time to find. Originally from The Joy of Cooking, modifications my own. (revised to account for "1 egg" instead of "1-2 eggs")

1 cup flour
2/3 tsp salt
2 Tbsp (1/8 cup) sugar
1 1/8 tsp baking powder
Cinnamon (1/2 tsp is about right), and perhaps nutmeg and/or cloves and/or ginger

3/4 cup milk, ish
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Mix dry ingredients together. Mix liquid ingredients into dry ingredients. Add more milk if the batter is too thick. Pour scant 1/4 cup batter onto griddle, flip when done. Makes 8ish.

This is the end result of my quest to make pancakes that taste like Bisquick. The vanilla cuts the inexplicable bitter flavor I often get from pancakes.

You'll be happy to know that these pancakes look nothing at all like a basket of fruit.

---

Gingerbread pancakes, via playing_tragic.

For "1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup coffee," I substituted "1 cup tea," because a) I have no coffee in the house and b) tea's not as strong a flavor as coffee. I also substituted slightly more than 1/4 cup lime juice in place of "1/4 cup lemon juice," because that's what I have. And I neglected the 'brush griddle with oil' steps until the last few pancakes, figuring that was unnecessary since I've got a Teflon griddle.

The batter comes out thick. Really thick. No, thicker than that. It doesn't so much pour onto the griddle as drop. There's the possibility that I added too much flour, I suppose; I'll keep a close eye on that next time.

The resulting pancakes are also extremely thick. Some were as thick as my thumb is wide. Perhaps oiling the griddle would have helped that, too.

Verdict: As promised. They taste like gingerbread and are more cake-like than normal pancakes. Delicious.

Comments

gingerbread pancakes

[uilos.livejournal.com]

They put the 'cake' in pancakes.

Re: gingerbread pancakes

[jazzfish]

. . . yes. Exactly. Well put.

[playing-tragic.livejournal.com]

What I like the most about pancakes is they're quite versatile and forgiving if altered. I've substituted orange juice for the lemon juice before. My sister prefers very thin, crepe like pancakes so she adds milk, but I'm not sure how much. The coffee is for color, I believe because my German grandmother would add some coffee when making pumpernickel bread.

These are very cake like. In fact, the English friend who "Americanized" the recipe for me called them Ginger Cakes. I believe American flour has more gluten than European flour does and so I do think they come out even more puffy then meant to. Since I don't care for syrup, I enjoy them thick which a smear of apricot preserves.

I have a bird so I don't own any teflon pans. I use a cast iron skillet instead. I do use the back of the ladle to spread the batter out a bit and make the cake bigger and thinner.

[jazzfish]

I think the lemon/lime/orange juice is there solely to activate the baking soda and doesn't really contribute to the flavor.

I hadn't considered simply _adding_ milk. I may try that next time, maybe half a cup. (Or, more likely, a quarter cup, since the recipe as given made enough for three meals for two people. :)

I'd believe in the coffee (tea) being primarily for color. It's not gingerbread if it doesn't look darker.

(Pause while I get distracted by searching for information on lebkuchen.)

Will definitely have to try squishing them down and out, as well, that would help with the thickness.

Thanks!