Pancake Tuesday 2011

Tonight was one of my favourite nights on the calendar: Pancake Tuesday. AKA Shrove Tuesday, AKA Mardi Gras, AKA Fat Tuesday. As usual, I had a dinner, but this year it was only my dad and me. Because he likes things made with whole grains, I made whole wheat and oatmeal pancake recipe, and because I don't have a griddle or a frying pan of decent size, I turned these into waffles. My dad, as usual, supplied some locally-made sausages & bacon. In this case, they were buffalo English sausages, and the bacon was something a friend of his was experimenting with, but it was way too salty for my taste and it cooked up very strange, causing quick burning & a lot of smoke. There must have been something in the curing solution that made this happen. And of course there was tons of maple syrup!

The recipe for the pancakes/waffles is here, from the February 2008 issue of Gourmet Magazine. and also constitutes my third magazine recipe of the week! I am three for three! I'll be submitting this to Magazine Monday for sure! The recipe turned out great and I'd definitely make them again.

Happy Pancake Tuesday everyone! :)

Haz Waffles!

For Christmas, I asked for and received a lovely new waffle maker! It was a gift from my SIL's parents, C&R, who have always been very kind to me. The new gadget is a Cuisinart, and let me tell you, it makes awesome waffles! Very easy to use, with an alert that tells you when it's heated up, 5 darkness settings, and an alert that tells you when your waffle has been cooked to perfection! And it is truly non-stick. I love this thing so much I have been eating way too many waffles. For the time being, in order to use up stuff in my pantry, I have just been using pancake mixes, but the recipe book that came with the waffle maker contains some seriously amazing-looking stuff that I cannot wait to try!

Magazine Monday #53: Pancakes!

Our MM hostess, Ivonne of Creampuffs in Venice, commented recently that I should be on Canadian Living's payroll, since my MM posts predominantly come from Canadian Living Magazine. And you'll probably see even more CL recipes on here, now that Gourmet is defunct.

So, what's on the menu for today's MM? Well, how about pancakes? I made this recipe from the July 2009 issue of Canadian Living: Lemon Ricotta Pancakes (without the compote included in the recipe - I'd rather have maple syrup, thank you very much). Instead of blueberries, I used some of my locally-foraged huckleberries.

These were delicious - light and airy and cakey. Perfect! The recipe made way more that one lone coyote could eat on her own, so I took the leftovers to my brother, who gladly ate them up.

A recipe for the "keeper" file for sure!

Huckleberry Pikelets

As you might have read, I have an abundance of huckleberries kicking around my freezer and I'm looking for new and interesting things to do with them. I came across a post by Bellini Valli of More Than Burnt Toast, a fellow BC foodblogger, featuring blueberry pikelets, and my interest was piqued. I had all the ingredients on hand, so I went down and made them immediately.

For an explanation on pikelets, you can read Bellini Valli's information about this treat here. I also found an interesting article on pikelets here, baking up Bellini's assertion that there are a lot of contradictions around these things. The Hub UK site has a recipe for pikelets that uses yeast, and this seems far more crumpet-like to me than the recipe I used. I grew up in a pretty British household, but had never heard of pikelets before; I must ask my dad if he remembers them.

The pikelet batter I used, got from Bellini's site here, was very much like a pancake batter, though slightly thicker. Initially, I didn't use rings because I didn' think they would be necessary, but I had a bit of a disaster with my first batch that made me rethink that strategy. I then unpacked my English muffin rings, buttered them well, and had far better results.

These are, essentially, a thick pancake. They were wonderful! Not terribly exciting or exotic, as the name might suggest, but they were certainly yummy. Thanks Bellini Valli!

Full Flickr set here.

Huckleberry Time!

On Saturday, I got to go out into the bush and pick huckleberries. You can read more about that here.

I got 10 cups of huckleberries! So, now what? Well, yesterday morning I made huckleberry pancakes, using Nigella's homemade pancake mix. The pancakes were totally excellent and I still think this recipe makes the best pancakes I've ever had.

So, now what do I do with all these other remaining huckleberries? Yeah, there's muffins and pies...But I want to do something different.

Hucklberries are quite tart in comparison to blueberries. I'm thinking goat's cheese; I'm thinking pork loin; I'm thinking spinach!

Any ideas? Let me know!

Full Flickr set from the berry-picking spree is here.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes

I often feel guilty about eating pancakes - except on Pancake Tuesday - because they're such a junky meal. I don't eat them that often as a result. But, when I came across this recipe on a new food blog I discovered called Colleen's Recipes, I was wowed. Guilt-free pancakes! Who'd've thunk it?

The recipe can be found here.

The only substitution I made was an equal amount of maple syrup instead of the honey. I am low on honey and am hoarding it because it's expensive. Otherwise, these were great pancakes. Though a bit crumbly, they still managed to be light and cakey despite the whole grains.

Thanks Colleen!

Pancake Tuesday 2009

OK, so last night was Pancake Tuesday, AKA Shrove Tuesday, AKA Mardi Gras, AKA Fat Tuesday. Traditionally, this day marks the 40-day lead up to Easter and the beginning of Lent on the Christian calendar. Here is a nifty CBC article talking about how Pancake Tuesday came about.

Growing up, we always had a pancake dinner on Pancake Tuesday, courtesy my mother, who made fantastic pancakes in an ancient electric frying pan she got as a wedding present but left in my custody when she moved to the UK over a decade ago (this piece of kitchen equipment got lost in the black hole of my divorce nearly four years ago, but I can tell you that until then, that electric frying pan was still working perfectly and I miss it a lot). Since moving back into the bosom of my family nearly three years ago, I've made a point of trying to keep the Pancake Tuesday tradition alive with my dad, brother and SIL. I make the pancakes and my dad usually provides the sausages. Yesterday was no different.

Did I make lovely, fluffy homemade pancakes as I usually do? No. I have a reason and it has to do with my laundry. My dryer is broken and I needed to use my brother and SIL's laundry facilities today. Shan picked up most of my laundry last night, but I had another load to take over on foot today, plus I didn't want to haul over pancake mix, my jug of milk, eggs, etc., so I took the path of least resistance and caved and used an "add water only" Aunt Jemima mix purchased at the local overpriced grocery store.

In the end no one cared. It was Pancake Tuesday, after all, and the point is PANCAKES. And pancakes we had in abundance. Everyone was happy, especially me. I officially think Pancake Tuesday is a way better celebration than Christmas.

Magazine Monday #27: Dutch Baby

Who can resist a name like this? I have no idea why this oven pancake is called Dutch Baby, and the Canadian Living web site gives no explanation whatsoever. I was intrigued, though, and decided to have this for dinner last night. I used to have a great recipe for Finnish Apple Pancake, which was similar, only used apples and was more fluffy...Alas I didn't get custody of that cookbook when I got divorced...Ah, well.

The recipe for Dutch Baby, which appears in the March 2009 issue of CL, can be found here. Making this was simple and fast, and it turned out great!

As I was making this and watching it bake - a fascinating process, actually - I was struck by how similar this is to Yorkshire Pudding. And, indeed, it actually tasted a lot like Yorkshire Pudding, too.

The serving suggestion involved icing sugar and lemon, but who are we kidding here? Is this a pancake or not? I served this with butter, maple syrup, and bacon!

Pancakes a la Nigella

About a year ago, I reviewed Nigella Express, and one of the gem recipes I keep going back to is her homemade pancake mix. I keep it in a small bucket in my pantry so when I get a pancake craving, as I did the other day, I can just whip up a batch in no time. These are quite honestly the nicest, lightest, fluffiest pancakes I've ever had.

Homemade Instant Pancake Mix by Nigella, p. 93 of Nigella Express

600g flour
3 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
40g sugar or vanilla sugar

Whisk these together and store in an airtight container. When you're ready to make some pancakes proceed as follows:

For each 150g of mix, add and whisk together:
1 egg
250mL/1cup milk
1 tbsp melted butter

Heat a griddle or pan with no oil. Drop by 1 - 2 tablespoonfuls onto the hot griddle and when bubbles appear on the surface, flip them over to make them golden brown on both sides.

Viola!

Now, one of the drawbacks I mentioned in my review was the use of weights in the recipes, so you will need a scale. 150g of pancake mix comes out to just under 1 cup: more than 3/4 cup but less than 1 full cup. But, a scale is best.

To make my pancakes a little more interesting, I add 1/2 tsp instant espresso powder to the batter and you get a nice mocha flavour to your pancakes. I also add vanilla since I don't use the vanilla sugar mentioned above.

Enjoy!