Here -- by popular demand -- is the recipe
I use
for pancakes. People have always liked my pancakes, but the reviews
since I switched to this recipe have been raving enthusiasm. I make
pancakes on
many Saturday mornings for my wife Pam, our beautiful
daughter Paloma, and anybody else who might be in the vicinity. I even
take them on the road sometimes, packing up the wet and dry ingredients
before setting off to a friend's Vermont cabin or a breakfast meeting
here in town.
Paloma used to insist on Mickey Mouse
pancakes - one
medium circle with two small circles for the ears. All dads should
master
this technique - a large turner is helpful.
This is
not much harder than using Jiffy, and the results are so much better
that you will never turn back!
This recipe
actually represents an important turning point in my life -- the
deepening of my slow food
journey. In 1997, my sister-in-law was visiting us in our new home. I
had planned to make pancakes, but was out of Jiffy. When I
mentioned this, my beloved sister-in-law actually laughed at me. She
knew we liked to cook, and could not believe we would need packaged mix
to make pancakes. She said, "There must be a pancake recipe in this
house." She was correct, and we had all the ingredients for the basic
recipe. Over the years, we have ensured that we almost always have
ingredients on hand to make a healthy meal, and in fact we usually plan
our week's meals each Sunday, to avoid resorting to "box food."
What you need:
(This feeds 3-4 adults; you may need to
double or triple for a bigger crowd. See variations below for a
healthier and more earth-friendly ingredient list.)
|
EQUIPMENT
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Large bowl
Medium bowl
Whisk (maybe two)
Wooden spoon
Rubber spatula (scraper)
Your indispensible, well-seasoned, cast-iron griddle or skillet (other
pans will do, but I
cannot guarantee the results)
Gas stove preferred; electric stove if that is all that is available;
I'm sure a camp fire would work, too.
|
DRY
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
|
WET
2 eggs
3 tablespoons melted butter (or light oil if you must)
1-1/2 cups buttermilk*
1 teaspoon vanilla (vanilla extract if you are in a pinch)
Plus, butter for cooking
|
* If buttermilk is not available, stir 1-1/2 teaspoon
vinegar into 1-1/2 cups milk, and let stand for 10 minutes while you
prepare the other ingredients.
Preheat oven to about 175 degrees. A bit hotter is OK.
Put a platter (or all the serving plates) into the oven.
In a large bowl, measure dry ingredients carefully, and whisk
together.
(To measure flour, fluff it, spoon it into measuring cups, and scrape
off
excess.)
In a small bowl, beat eggs, then blend in the other wet
ingredients.
Using a spoon and spatula (rubber
scraper), stir wet ingredients into the larger bowl of dry
ingredients, mixing enough to combine, but not to remove all lumps.
Optional enhancement: Gently fold in 1/2 cup to 1 cup
berries or
chopped apples.
Heat the skillet or griddle, then add butter (perhaps with a little
canola oil) and melt it. The griddle is hot enough when drops of water
will dance
on
it, but it is too hot if the butter or oil start to smoke. I usually
find it necessary to reduce the flame after each round of pancakes, to
maintain the optimal temperature.
Use a ladle or large spoon to drop 1/4 to 1/3 cup of batter on to
hot griddle.
When bubbles cover the top of the pancakes, turn gently. Remove when
set,
just about 30 seconds. Place pancakes into oven as they are completed.
Serve with real butter and warm pure maple syrup. If you use
berries, consider
whipping some heavy cream (whisk just a bit of sugar and vanilla into
cream in
a chilled bowl until stiff) as a topping.
Variations
The original recipe describe above is a bit decadent. Any or all of the
following
substitutions can be made to improve the nutritional balance of the
pancakes, by reducing the simple carbs and fat while increasing the
complex carbs and protein. The results are just as flavorful, probably
more so. All substitutions are based on a single recipe. If you are
doubling or tripling the recipe, don't forget to double or triple all of the ingredients.
- Sugar: In place of sugar,
I use an equal amount of honey or agave nectar. By the way, in most
baking recipes, you can make a similar substitution or reduce the sugar
by half without harming flavor. Sometimes flavor is actually enhanced
this way.
- Oil: You can substitute
canola oil or another light vegetable oil for the butter (both on the
griddle and in the wet mix). As much as I love olive oil, I do not
recommend it for this recipe. See notes for flax seed and applesauce
below.
- Flour: I often use whole-wheat flour for 1/2 cup of the
1-1/2
cups required. Any more would result in a heavier pancake, and probably
would
require adjusting some of the other ingredients.
- Oats: I sometimes add 1/4 cup of rolled oats, or a packet
of
instant oats.
- Flax seed: You can add a
two tablespoons of flax seed, in place of the butter. This greatly
increases the fiber and enhances the texture.
- Applesauce: I often replace the melted butter in the
pancakes
with 1/4 cup of pure (no added sugar) applesauce. This is a baking
trick
I learned long ago, and it can be applied to many cake recipes.
- Yogurt: I usually place about 3/4 cup fat-free, organic
yogurt in the measuring
cup, and fill the rest of the way (to 1-1/2 cups) with low-fat or
fat-free, organic milk. I think
this actually improves the texture of the pancakes.
- Eggs: I used to replace one of the eggs with "fake" eggs,
to
lower the fat and cholesterol content, but I've decided that a few
really good local, cage-free, organic eggs each week are better than a
lot of processed fake eggs. For some people, however, medical
conditions will warrant the substitution.
Buying local: As fossil fuels
become more expensive and climate change becomes a greater concern, it
is important to support local and regional agriculture, to help develop
sources for food closer to home. In New England, this can include King
Arthur flour, Stonyfield yogurt, Garelick milk, honey from a local farm
stand, and Cabot butter. It can also include any number of pure maple
syrups or fruit preserves for toppings. These toppings are healthier
than mass-market "syrups" and jellies that rely for their sweetness on
high-fructose corn syrup, which is provided by oil-dependent
agribusiness and which contributes to diabetes and other health
problems.
Beverages
A tall glass of cool orange juice goes well with pancakes. Of course, coffee is almost essential. I
highly recommend any fair-trade, organic Central American arabica coffee (especially
Nicaraguan), roasted to Full City (instead of a very dark roast such as
French) to get the smooth, rich flavors that go well with pancakes.
Learn more
Feel free to browse the rest of my environmental
geography pages, especially the I-Can-Do
page. You may also be interested in my chicken
crepe recipe, though at the moment (March 2007) it does not really
address the healthy alternatives, or my general page on food.
