Pancake Time

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Sunday, February 19. 2023

Pancakes are for fun, not nutrition. Little ones like pancakes. So do adults - if with bacon and fried eggs on the side. Bacon just makes everything better.

Pancakes are no more nutritional than bread, but fun with real maple syrup. Fact is, as a kid, we sometimes used molasses instead.

We make them many ways: with a little corn meal and canned corn; with sliced apples, with our stash of frozen cranberries (best), or with blueberries. All good.

The only ones I do not like are the doughy diner ones. I like them thin, with edges dark brown and crispy.

How do our readers like their flapjacks?

Posted by Bird Dog in Food and Drink at 12:19 | Comments (17) | Trackbacks (0)

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I liked mine a light golden brown and fluffy on the inside. No crispy edges please.

But I don't eat 'em anymore. Too many calories, what with all that butter and maple syrup. I don't work hard enough to justify it, and would rather consume other sources of calories.

But they were great when I was younger.

I believe I am getting fatter just looking at that picture.

#1 feeblemind on 2023-02-19 12:21 (Reply)

Here are my best tips for pancakes. I like Pioneer buttermilk pancake mix - the best one I've found. Never use 'just add water' mixes. You want to add the milk and eggs.
- Always use real butter, and use more than the recipe calls for, at your discretion. Melt the butter first, then stir it into the cold (whole) milk. It makes for a bazillion little butter bits to mix throughout the batter, and as we all know, a bazillion butter bits blithely bespeaks better batter.
- Use enough milk to make the batter thin enough for thin, almost crepe-like pancakes.
- Don't over mix the batter. A few dry lumps are fine. Over-mixing makes tough pancakes, and under-mixing makes them delicate.
- Add 2-4 heaping tablespoons of whole-milk cottage cheese to the batter, yes you heard that right. You will not be disappointed.
- Did I mention, don't over-mix?
- Use a flat cast-iron skillet, use butter as your oil, heat until it just starts to smoke. The pancake batter should briskly sizzle when it's ladled onto the skillet. That sizzle means the pancakes will have a very delicate, crispy outer crust and equally soft, delicate and tasty middle. The crust is very subtle, and delightful.
- Add fresh fruit once the batter is on the skillet - blueberries are nice, so are dewberries, raspberries, etc.
- Use the darker, lower grade maple syrup. It has a more robust flavor.

#2 Aggie on 2023-02-19 12:30 (Reply)

With a good quality vanilla ice cream and real maple syrup. I often make that for the grandkids and they love it.

#3 OneGuy on 2023-02-19 13:17 (Reply)

BD I am with you on crispy - but that is why I make waffles instead. Takes no more time.

Pancakes are also flabbier and more floury than muffins or biscuits, which take about the same amount of time.

#4 Ben David on 2023-02-19 14:27 (Reply)

What? Nobody eats french toast? Discard the white flag and it tastes great ... especially with link sausage.

#5 indyjonesouthere on 2023-02-19 15:15 (Reply)

I like mine the way they were in the 1950's! Crisp on the edge and soft in the middle. The taste was somehow different.

#6 Apple Pie on 2023-02-19 15:32 (Reply)

Dad used to make me pancakes with thin slices of frankfurters in 'em, which was great when I was 8. Then he went off the rails and started eating pancakes with gravy--no thanks.

Now I'm with Ben, and confine myself to the occasional waffle. My wife adores muffins, so that's what's big at my house.

#7 Mike Anderson (Link) on 2023-02-19 16:45 (Reply)

Buckwheat cakes, butter and Maple Syrup

#8 RL on 2023-02-19 17:50 (Reply)

My mother was Belgian, so we were serious about pancakes & waffles. (For a long time, she didn't believe that Americans got sweeteners from Maple trees...)

Pancakes -- as thin as possible, with butter & powdered sugar, rolled up or folded over a crisp piece of bacon. Finger food.

Waffles -- much the same, without the folding. Pro tip: remember to put the crisp cooked waffle on a rack (or at least a paper towel) before plating it at the last minute, to keep it from getting soggy. Better cool & crisp than warm and soft.

#9 Karen Myers (Link) on 2023-02-19 18:17 (Reply)

What kinds of syrup do the Belgians use then, if they don't believe in maple syrup?

#9.1 Dave on 2023-02-20 05:13 (Reply)

Powdered sugar & butter are the sweetener. I don't know of a single Belgian recipe that uses syrup of any kind, and my mother thought maple syrup was a joke when she first heard of it.

#9.1.1 Karen Myers (Link) on 2023-02-20 09:34 (Reply)

Cheeseburgers, tacos, and pancakes are the three foods I’ll get a craving for. My workouts are steady, I do intermittent fasting, and I usually watch what I eat, so I never feel guilty when I indulge.

In season we’ll do smashed strawberries in the batter. Yum.

#10 Hoss on 2023-02-19 20:34 (Reply)

My kids have them weekly, but I rarely eat them. Indy is right, French toast is much better.

They should be made with buttermilk, maybe a little fresh nutmeg. I like them eggy and thin like a crepe.

#11 jack walter on 2023-02-20 06:39 (Reply)

The idea that carbohydrates are not nutrition is ignorant nonsense. Calories are nutrition. You die without them.

That pancakes lack vitamins, minerals, fats, and proteins does not gainsay their value as calories. Fruits and vegetables also also are thin on vitamins, minerals, fats, and proteins. Do you exclude them from your diet?

It might be noted that the neolithic revolutions was all about calories--grains, carbohydrates. They neolithic diet lacked vitamins, minerals, fats, protein, and the farmers were stunted.

But they beat the living crap out of the hunter-gatherers by sheer numbers.

#12 bob sykes on 2023-02-20 08:31 (Reply)

The key is not the mix of the batter (any mix that includes an egg and milk will do). The key is to prepare the bacon first and then to pour all the bacon grease into the batter instead of vegetable oil. That makes great pancakes and was the method recommended in the Betty Crocker cookbook in the 1960s. Animal fat rules!

#13 Bacon grease is the answer on 2023-02-20 08:34 (Reply)

If you're concerned about the lack of protein in pancakes, buy a mix with protein added...such as Krusteaz or Kodiak.

..and carbs aren't the devil.

#14 browndog on 2023-02-20 12:47 (Reply)

I quit eating pancakes the same time I quit eating waffles and French toast and syrup. The sugar buzz and bloating show up within a few minutes after eating something like that. YMMV

#15 Pod Hamp on 2023-02-20 19:21 (Reply)

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Sunday, February 19. 2023

Pancake Time