The First Pancake Phenomenon

To my husband's dismay, I am a fan of Gilmore Girls. Wholeheartedly a fan, in fact. In the pre-babies lazy days of summer vacation, I watched entire seasons of the show. It's so addicting. Don't you just always want Luke & Lorelai to end up together? And even though you know what happens at at the end, you get so nervous when she marries Chris! Oh, the drama.

Since the babies came along, I've not indulged much in GG. But lately on the weekends I've vowed to take a break, do no chores, and relax. It just so happens this occurs during afternoon nap, which also occurs during Gilmore Girls. Yay!

What does Gilmore Girls have to do with babies and baked goods, you ask? Well, last weekend there was an episode about Rory throwing a baby shower for Lane and something comes up where Rory explains the First Pancake Phenomenon:

Rory: Yes but Mr. Nash, you are forgetting about the first pancake phenomenon.

Lorelai: Eh?

Rory: Yes the first pancake you know? You always throw it out...

Lorelai: Why do you throw out the first pancake?

Rory: Cause the griddles too hot it gets burned.

Lorelai: Oh my God. Next year no excuses. We are make you that audition tape for Top Chef.

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gilmore_Girls/Season_7)

So, I'm evoking the "First Pancake Phenomenon" on these sweet potato pancakes I made yesterday. They don't need to be thrown out, but there was something just not right about them...... I tried to tweak this recipe a bit, and the results are just not what I had in mind. Granted, I'm still hooked on those Pumpkin Pancakes, so maybe that's why I am not in love with these. Anyway, I'm keeping these in mind, and trying again. Isn't the unspoken rule of the First Pancake Phenomenon that you try again with a Second one?

Sweet Potato Pancakes

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoons cinnamon
• Pinch nutmeg
• 2 cups milk
• 4 teaspoons melted butter, plus more for greasing skillet
• 2 whole eggs
• 1 sweet potato, cooked until tender, peeled and pureed

Directions

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Mix together and whisk until smooth. Cook batches in buttered skillet on medium high temperature until bubbles form on the surface, then turn over and cook until dark golden brown. Serve with pecan butter and maple syrup.

In my old age, I can't remember what I did to change the recipe, but I know I halved the it. And I think I added some vanilla and guessed about the amount of sweet potato since I had a tupperware full of mashed taters that I made earlier this week for the babies. Maybe that was my problem.... too much or not enough sweet taters? I used my cookie scoop to make these silver dollar pancakes - perfect size for babies.

They look good. They made a lot (21), but I bet the Second Pancake batch will be better.

 The best news about these pancakes - I plugged the recipe in to Weight Watchers and if you make silver dollar pancakes (about 1.5 T. of batter per pancake), they are only ONE POINT per pancake. Awesome. I hope the second batch turns out better so I can enjoy lots of pancakes. :)

 

 

 

 

 

I shan't ever make regular pancakes again

I'm not going to lie. I'm a big pancake fan. Always have been. We frequently ate them for supper when I was growing up, which was always fine by me. But I've never been that great at making pancakes. Probably because my recipe is the box of Bisquick. So, when I go out to eat for brunch, I do often get pancakes. My favorite ones (especially in 2010 when I was pregnant with the babies) were some delicious buttermilk oatmeal pancakes from The Highland Grill, our favorite neighborhood eatery. I used to say the babies would love pancakes when they were born because I ate so many of them. haha.

Fast forward 11 months (on a side note, I'm in awe that they are 11 months! Where did the past year go?!) and indeed, I have babies who LOVE pancakes. You'll recall the hit that was the cottage cheese pancakes. And the corncakes. Don't forget the corncakes.

We all loved those pancakes. But these. These are beyond. Ben ate 4 of them in one day. That's how good they are. (I also ate 4....). I never thought I liked pumpkin stuff - I loathe pumpkin pie - but when you make it up in the form of a pancake, it turns to heaven on a plate! The recipe is from my friend (and fellow twin mom) Kat. I have no idea where she got it.

Kat's Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice
• 1 cup milk*
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• Oil or oil spray, for frying

Directions:

1. Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt, nutmeg and cloves in a medium bowl.
2. Whisk together the milk, pumpkin, butter and egg in a separate bowl. Fold this mixture into the dry ingredients.
3. Heat oil or spray oil in a skillet over medium heat.
4. Pour 1/4 cup batter for each pancake and cook approximately 2-3 minutes per side.
5. Serve with butter and maple syrup, brown sugar, or honey apple butter.

*If you like big, fluffy pancakes; reduce milk to 3/4 cup.  1 cup milk makes flatter cakes.

 

In my batch, I used brown sugar instead of white sugar, buttermilk instead of regular milk, and skipped the ginger since I didn't have any on hand. They were DELICIOUS and nice and thick (I didn't have a full cup of buttermilk).

 

I am never making regular pancakes again. They were moist and fluffy and just the right amount of spice. YUM YUM. In fact, they were so good I didn't even snap a picture of them before we gobbled them up. And I would make another batch, but I'm out of flour! Too much bakin'!

 

 

What We're Eating Wednesday: Brunch

What constitutes brunch? Does it need to replace both breakfast and lunch? Or does it just need to be breakfast-y foods served for lunch? Hmmm.... At any rate, these babies (and this momma) love breakfast foods, so that's what was served up for lunch today. Thus, I'm deeming it "brunch."

On their plate: Pumpkin Pancakes (more on those tomorrow), scrambled egg, cottage cheese, and a banana. I ate the same thing, but my pancakes had 100% pure maple syrup on them. Oh YUM.

It was a delicious brunch, but we didn't get the time to savor it like we should have. Naturally, I started cooking the pancakes at 11:15 - and we have Babies and Me class (ECFE) on Wednesdays at noon. It was a "shovel-it-int-we-gotta-go" sort of lunch. But of course, I stopped to take a photo. :)

Momma don't eat all my corncakes!

Oh heavens. I'm in danger. Have I mentioned my pretty lofty goal? I want to lose about 10 lbs AND run a 5K by the babies' first birthday on Dec. 5. So far, I've lost 1 lb. I blame the baked goods! But I feel like I'm committed - tracking on Weight Watchers, hitting the Y several times a week, and following a Couch to 5K program. (Which, honestly, kind of depresses me that I have to do a C25K program - two years ago I ran the Twin Cities 10 mile in about an hour and 40 minutes. Boo to exercise stamina diminishing pretty quickly!)

But. I'm in danger with these little cakes!

They are like corn muffin pancakes. So delicious plain. So delicious warm. SO SO delicious with a glob of butter and a big drizzle of honey. Babies better watch out - I'm going to steal all your corncakes!

I found this recipe yesterday while I was wasting the afternoon away browsing food blogs. I found Veronica's Cornucopia, which is a lovely blog full of hearty comfort foods. I can't wait to try more of her recipes, but first was the corncakes. I even woke up extra early today to make them fresh for the babies!


Cornmeal Griddle Cakes from Veronica's Cornucopia

1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk


Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in medium bowl. Bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil. Place cornmeal in a large metal or glass bowl. Stirring continuously, slowly pour the boiling water over the cornmeal. Keep stirring until the mixture has cooled to lukewarm, almost room temperature. Add the brown sugar and stir until combined. Whisk eggs until pale yellow in separate bowl. Add buttermilk and whisk until blended. Add flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk mixture, to the cornmeal in three parts (beginning and ending with the flour mixture), stirring after each addition until just combined. Heat a skillet or griddle pan over medium-low heat. Spray with cooking spray and drop batter in 1/4 cup batches onto skillet. Cook until medium-brown, about 3 minutes, and the tops are bubbly, then flip the griddle cakes over and cook the other side for about 2 minutes and serve immediately. Serve with butter, pecans and maple syrup.

Admittedly, I did not follow this recipe to a T. I didn't do the boiling water part. I just dumped everything together and fried them up. They turned out delicious... but perhaps why I only got 12 cakes out of the recipe and not the 20 she says the recipe makes. Whoops! 

These corncakes might be the demise of my diet!

 I will have you know, I calculated the Points Plus values for these corncakes (not using the boiling water method), and they came out to 3 points per cake. If you are a better recipe follower than I am, and you get 20 corncakes per recipe, they are only 2 points per cake. Hmmm, incentive to follow the recipe, I think!


 

Cottage Cheese in ... Pancakes?

I admit, at first I was wary. And I like cottage cheese. But in pancakes? Really? That can't be right. But I have been following Weelicious for a while now and after reading through the 110 (mostly) positive reviews to this recipe, I decided to give it a try. Lo and behold, it was a hit!

Weelicious' Cottage Cheese Pancakes
3 Eggs
1 Cup Cottage Cheese
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Tbsp Honey or Agave
1/2 Cup Flour
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Salt
Butter, Oil or Oil Spray

1. Place the first 4 ingredients in a bowl and whisk.
2. In a separate bowl whisk the dry ingredients.
3. Pour the dry mixture into the wet mixture and stir until just combined.
4. Heat a large sauté pan or griddle over medium heat, lightly coat with oil or butter and pour about 1 tbsp of the mixture onto the griddle for each pancake.
5. Cook for 2 minutes on each side or until pancakes are set and golden.
6. Serve.
*To Freeze: Let pancakes come to room temperature, place in a ziploc bag, label and freeze up to 3 months.

For mine, I omitted the honey (not safe for babies) and agave (didn't have any) and just used plain sugar. I also ended up adding about 1/3 cup more flour. The batter was REALLY runny.

And, yes, they were a hit! Here's how the babies at theirs:

Open mouth, insert pancake.

Nom nom nom

And how Momma ate hers:

Slightly warmed with Rhubarb Strawberry Jam and a cup of coffee. YUM!