Pancakes

I make pancakes nearly every Sunday. I'm not much of a baker, and pancakes seem a bit bakerish in that they use dry, powdery ingredients and recipes expect you to be fussy about measurements. Fortunately, they are more cookish and forgiving than I expected.

I started with the basic recipe from Joy and tweaked it. I added another egg, a bit more baking powder, apples, soaked oats. Sometimes corn meal. Often whole wheat flour. I'm not strict about measuring. We're now in prime apple season, so definitely time to head back to the market and stock up, but over the summer I'd reverted to the much thinner & quicker plain, whole wheat pancakes:

mix together dry ingredients
1 1/2 C wholewheat flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
3 T Sugar

mix together wet ingredients
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 C milk (warmed is best, you don't want the butter solidfying; and I just use my yellow mug to measure and heat the milk -- I have no idea how much milk it is, 1.5 C is close enough I think)
3 T butter, melted (just guess, don't bother measuring, or use at least 45g if you've got a kitchen scale)
1 t vanilla

fold the egg mix into the dry ingredients, don't overmix (although hard to avoid if kids are "helping")

cook pancakes on hot buttered skillet
yes, add more butter before each round of batter goes into the pan, this is no time to get shy (it's ok, we all love butter)

The recipe can be adjusted to make them as thin & eggy or thick and fluffy as you like. To the above, throw some dry rolled rolled oats into the dry ingredients before folding in the egg mixture, or add ground pecans or other nuts.


Now, for the full Apple Pancakes treatment, I have dialed in the following

mix together dry ingredients
1 1/2 C plain white, unbleached flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
3 T Sugar

mix together wet ingredients
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 C milk, warmed
3 T/45g butter, melted
1 t vanilla

soak oats
put 1 C dry rolled oats into large, heatproof bowl, and
add a litre or so of boiling (or close enough) water
let stand 3-4 minutes (too short is better than too long)
drain/strain and rinse in cold water
make sure thoroughly drained and not hot -- oats should still
be have some texture to them

grate or shred + finely chop apples
Bramleys are by far the best. I use 2 ginormous ones or 3 merely very large ones. If Bramleys aren't available, go with something really flavorful rather than sweet. Use more than seems reasonable. I think I regularly put well over a pound of apple into this. I shred them on the big metal grater then chop the shredded mound of autumn goodness much more finely with the big knife on the big cutting board.

add egg mix to dry ingredients and combine gently
(don't overmix)

fold in soaked oats and grated apples
(both at same time) -- it will be a very thick mix now

cook on hot buttered skillet or griddle
seriously, go crazy with the butter, anyone who drops pancake batter onto a dry skillet deserves what they get

serve with maple syrup & butter
I prefer the darker grade B syrup but that's impossible to get in the UK. There's good canadian pure maple syrup available at just about every major grocery store here though. Alternatively: honey, sugar+cinammon, and/or jam.