Corn and Spring Onion Pancakes

This week's theme at I Heart Cooking Clubs  is "Pattycake, Pattycake...."  Participants were asked to make a Yota Ottolenghi recipe that was a fritter, latke, vegetable pancake, patty, burger, fishcake, etc.  I've already made Turkey & Zucchini Burgers, Sweet Potato Cakes, and Leek Fritters for previous themes.  I ended up searching online and found this recipe for a corn pancake.  It sounded very promising and not too difficult.  I halved the recipe, since I wasn't sure that the kids would like it.  I didn't end up smoking/grilling one of the cobs like the original recipe called for.  I ended up forgetting midway through that I was halving the recipe and ended up putting the one egg into the food processor.  I should have only put the yolk in and then whipped the white separately to fold in later.  I ended up with dense pancakes and unfortunately, I wasn't really impressed with the flavor.  Using the jalapeno didn't make the pancakes too spicy so the kids tried them.  But they too didn't like them very much.  Overall, this just wasn't one of our favorite Ottolenghi recipes.

Corn and Spring Onion Pancakes
recipe adapted from The Guardian, October 12, 2012

Ingredients:
3 corn cobs
3 spring onions, finely chopped
1 jalapeno pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1tsp soft brown sugar
1 egg
Salt and pepper
1 cup flour
butter
1 limes, cut into wedges

Directions:
With a sharp knife, separate the kernels from two corn cobs and put them in the bowl of a food processor. Add half the spring onion, the jalapeno, cumin, sugar, one egg, three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of pepper, blitz for 45 seconds until fairly smooth, then transfer to a bowl. Separate the last egg and add the yolk to the mix, followed by the flour and remaining spring onion.

Heat a large frying pan and add butter to coat. Add 1/4 cup of batter and fry on medium heat for two minutes a side until golden brown. Remove and keep warm while you cook the rest, adding butter as necessary. Serve warm with the lime wedges.

Family Rating: So-so.

SRC Reveal: Strawberry Shortcake Pancakes

It's reveal day for Group A at The Secret Recipe Club.  This month I was assigned the blog Crumb.  Blogger Isabelle proclaims, "I'm a 30-something coffee-chugging, booty-shaking, bargain-shopping, cookbook-collecting, photo-snapping, trucker-swearing, farmers-market-loving self-taught cook with a Boy and two cats to feed."  I looked through Isabelle's recipes and as soon as I saw this one knew it was the one that I was going to make.  We had not had pancakes for dinner in a long time and strawberries were on sale at the grocery store!  But she has so many great looking recipes on her blog that I will be back!  As for these pancakes, the only change to the recipe below that I made was that I only used vanilla extract rather than 1/2 tsp. vanilla and 1/2 tsp. of almond extract.  I never thought of adding strawberries into pancake batter. The kids of course loved these!  Breakfast for dinner is always a hit....but whipped cream too?!! Extra special!  I served these pancakes with sausage and pineapple to complete our dinner!  Super tasty!

Strawberry Shortcake Pancakes
recipe very slightly adapted from Crumb

Ingredients:

Strawberry-Yogurt Pancakes:
1 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
Pinch salt
2 eggs
½ cup plain Greek-style yogurt
⅔ cup milk
2 tbsp melted butter (plus more for the griddle)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup finely diced strawberries

Toppings:
Whipped cream
Chopped strawberries
Maple syrup

Directions:
1.In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

2.In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, yogurt, milk, melted butter and vanilla until combined. Pour into the bowl of dry ingredients, and stir with a whisk until the batter is smooth and lump-free.

3.Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat. Grease lightly with butter. When the butter starts to sizzle, drop in ¼ cup portions of batter.

4.Dot the surface of the pancakes with chopped strawberries. Cook for about 2 minutes or until a few bubbles start to form on the top, then gently flip over and continue cooking until underside is golden brown, about 1-2 minutes longer. Transfer the finished pancakes to a baking tray in a warm oven. Repeat this process until the batter is finished, re-greasing the pan as needed.

5.To serve, stack two or three pancakes onto each plate. Garnish each stack with a spoonful of chopped strawberries and a dollop of whipped cream. For those with a sweet tooth, drizzle with a little maple syrup or dust with icing sugar before digging in.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up.

Cornbread Pancakes

Sometimes I meet old co-worker friends for dinner.  When I do this, my husband drives to a different train station, I drive down with the kids and we do a kid pass-off.  However, even on these nights I am nice enough to make everyone a home-cooked dinner!  In this most recent case it was a breakfast for dinner meal that's easy transportable because I don't think I mentioned that the kids end up eating their dinner in the car.  The drive is about thirty minutes and coincides with "normal" dinner time.  They had these pancakes, sausage links, and an apple (my daughter) or a banana (my son).  Of course, I should have realized what a mess my son would make with syrup in the car......yeah, the syrup ended up all over his jacket and the car seat.  I was wondering why the buckle kept getting stuck! Luckily, it was nothing that some cleaning wipes couldn't take care of!  Back to these pancakes though.....we all loved them.  (I ended up having the leftovers for breakfast!).  The cornmeal and sugar gave these pancakes the flavor of cornbread (which we all love!).   We will definitely be making these again soon! 

Cornbread Pancakes
recipe from allrecipes.com courtesy of CocoBean

Ingredients:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

Directions:
1.Whisk flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk buttermilk, eggs and butter in a separate large bowl. Stir the liquid mixture into the dry mixture until blended and smooth.


2.Heat a lightly oiled griddle or skillet over medium-high heat. For each pancake, pour 1/4 cup batter on griddle and cook until browned, about 1 1/2 minutes. Flip and cook until browned on the other side, about 1 minute. Continue with remaining batter.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up!

Meatless Monday: Ricotta Banana Pancakes

We were due for another breakfast for dinner.  Lately, my go-to has been pancakes.  They're really easy to make and the kids love them.  I had ricotta for another recipe and a frozen, really ripe banana that was perfect for this recipe.  When my daughter found out that I was making "ricotta" pancakes she was quick to tell me that she doesn't like ricotta.  I told her to wait until she tried them before she told me that she didn't like them.  After eating them her response was, "Oh, I do like these!"  I think the ricotta is used to add moistness because you really don't taste it.  This recipe was in an issue of All You Magazine that I subscribe to.  It was listed as a dessert, but if you don't add caramel sauce it definitely works as a breakfast (or in this case dinner!) dish. 

Ricotta Banana Pancakes
recipe from All You, March, 2012

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole-milk ricotta
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 small ripe banana

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 200ºF. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, whisk together ricotta, egg, milk, butter, vanilla and banana. Gently stir flour mixture into ricotta mixture until just blended.

2. Grease a large nonstick skillet over medium heat with cooking spray or melted butter. Drop tablespoonfuls of batter into skillet. Cook pancakes, turning once, until golden brown on both sides, about 4 minutes total. Keep pancakes warm on a plate in oven while cooking remaining pancakes.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up.

Meatless Monday: Macaroni n Cheese Pancakes

Wednesdays in our house are pretty busy.  The kids are at two different camps and then after camp my daughter has gymnastics class.  Last Wednesday there was a special reptile show at the library that I had signed us up to go to at 7 p.m.  I knew that we'd be really crunched for time between coming home from gymnastics and getting ready for the show.  My daughter was home with me last Wednesday so I ended up making these pancakes for us for lunch and then they were already made for dinner for my son.  The kids loved these, but really, how couldn't they?  Pancakes plus mac & cheese?!!  Those are two of their favorite foods!  They ate these up and also had them for breakfast a couple of days too.  While this isn't "gourmet" food, it's nice every once in awhile knowing that I'm making a meal that I know the kids will enjoy!

Mac n Cheese Pancakes
recipe from Every Day With Rachael Ray April, 2012

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon coarse salt
2 1/3 cups buttermilk
2 eggs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 1/2 cups cooked macaroni (1 1/4 cups dried), preferably elbows, drained and cooled
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar
Maple syrup, for serving

Directions:
1.In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

2.In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs and butter. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined (the batter will be a bit lumpy). Using a spoon, fold in the macaroni and cheddar.

3.Preheat a griddle or large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat and lightly grease. Using a 1/4-cup measure and working in batches of 4, scoop the batter onto the griddle to make pancakes. Cook until the undersides are golden-brown and bubbles start to form on the top, about 5 minutes. Flip and cook until the second side is golden-brown, 3 to 4 minutes. repeat with the remaining pancake batter. Serve with maple syrup.

Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.

Pete's Scratch Pancakes with Pineapple

I know that I already posted a Dutch Baby Pancake recipe earlier this week.  However, I had made that recipe a couple of weeks ago and was having problems posting it.  I made these pancakes just this past week.  Plus, my kids are big pancake lovers that they would probably love it if I made them more often! My kids love pineappple....canned, fresh, it doesn't matter to them!  So when I saw this recipe I thought they'd like them.   Unfortunately, the original recipe didn't specify what size can of crushed pineapple to use.  I bought the smaller 8 oz. size can. I thought the 20 oz. because it is supposed to be undrained would be too much liquid.  However, after making these I'm not sure.  There was hardly any pineapple flavor to the pancakes.  You occasionally got a bite of crushed pineapple but there wasn't much.  I may try making these again with the 20 oz. can, just to see.  The kids enjoyed them and they made a ton, so we had plenty of leftovers for other breakfasts.

Pete's Scratch Pancakes with Pineapple
from Fantastical Sharing of Recipes

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 3/4 cups milk
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 eggs, beat them separately before adding to mixture
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
can crushed pineapple, undrained (original recipe didn't specify, but I used 8 oz.)

Directions:
Combine dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.

Then combine eggs and butter to the milk and slowly add in flour mixture.

Fold in pineapple.

Let sit for 10 minutes.

Cook. Flip when bubbles appear and then done when sides are browned.

Family Rating: 1 thumb up.

Meatless Monday: Dutch Baby Pancake with Sauteed Peaches

Breakfast for dinner is always a hit at our house.  I hadn't made pancakes, particularly, a Dutch Baby Pancake, in awhile.  With peaches being on sale this past week, I thought this sounded like a great meal.  It was super quick and easy to make. I served it with breakfast sausage and yogurt. The kids LOVED it and would have eaten more if I let them (they already had seconds but I had to save some for daddy!). 

Dutch Baby Pancake with Sauteed Peaches
from Every Day with Rachael Ray, August 2010

Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole milk
3 eggs, at room temperature
4 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
A pinch of salt
1/2 cup flour
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
2 large peaches – peeled, pitted and sliced
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions:
1. Place a 9- or 10-inch cast iron skillet in the bottom third of the oven and pre-heat to 425°F.

2. In a small glass measuring cup, heat the milk in the mircowave for 30 seconds at full power. Using a blender, mix the milk, eggs, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar and the salt briefly at low speed until combined. Add the flour and blend until just incorporated.

3. Add 2 tablespoons butter to the hot skillet to melt, then pour in the batter. Return the skillet to the oven and bake until the pancake is puffed and golden, about 20 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, in a medium size skillet, combine the remaining 2 tablespoons each granulated sugar and butter, the peaches and lemon juice and cook over medium-high heat until the juices are syrupy, about 5 minutes; remove from the heat. Dust the hot pancake immediately with the confectioners' sugar, cut into four wedges and serve with the warm peaches.

Family Rating:  2 thumbs up!

Smores Stacks

My kids love pancakes.  Unfortunately, I consider homemade pancakes weekend breakfast food and normally I'm sleeping in on the weekend while my husband gets breakfast ready for the kids.  Pancakes are normally not on his breakfast menu.  So, when I make breakfast for dinner I often make pancakes or waffles. In EveryDay with Rachel Ray she has a column called To Three Cooks where three chefs create variations on a basic recipe.  Normally, I do a quick glance at the column but normally don't make anything.  All of the substitutions/swaps from the basic recipe always seemed a little annoying to me.  I'm sure I'll leave something out.  But when I saw the pancake theme in the December issue I ripped it out.  This recipe was created by one of the Senior Test Kitchen Associates.  I knew the kids would love it...I mean, who doesn't love smores?!  Of course they gobbled it down having seconds.  Honestly though, for me it was almost too sweet.  And I didn't put the chocolate sauce on that the original recipe called for!  Really, it is almost a dessert.  Yes, I gave my kids marshmallows and chocolate chips for dinner.  There was no dessert after this meal though....the meal was the dessert! 

Smores Stacks
Recipe adapted from EveryDay with Rachael Ray, December 2011

Yield:  4 servings
Prep:  10 minutes
Cook:  15 minutes

Ingredients:
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
3 tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups milk
2 eggs, separated
1 cup mini marshmallows
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
1.In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, graham cracker crumbs, sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, egg yolks and melted butter. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir in the mini marshmallows and chocolate chips until just combined.

2.Preheat a griddle or large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Gently fold the whites into the batter.

3.Grease the griddle and ladle on 1/4-cup portions of batter. Cook on 1 side until bubbles form and the pancakes are cooked around the edges, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Flip and cook through, 1 minute more. Top the finished pancakes with more marshmallows.
 
Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.

IHOP National Pancake Day: Puffy Pancake with Nutty Banana Butterscotch

Since 2006 IHOP has been celebrating National Pancake Day.  In exchange for a free short stack of Buttermilk pancakes guests are encouraged to make a monetary donation to designated local charities.  Unfortunately, the nearest IHOP is over thirty minutes away.  So, in honor of National Pancake Day I am featuring the recipe for this Puffy Pancake that I recently made.

Let me tell you how quick and easy this recipe is.  And, when I made it for dinner, it was like we were eating dessert. Unfortunately, I don't have a 9-inch square pan, so I used my 8-inch one.  I think I needed to just use a 9x13 inch pan and double the recipe because this was gone in minutes.  My husband and I could have totally gone for seconds, but there were none! We had plenty of leftover sauce that we used to dip strawberries in and to help make a Supper Club bread pudding more "kid-friendly."

Puffy Pancake with Nutty Banana Butterscotch
Every Day with Rachael Ray, May 2008

Ingredients:

1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
5 large eggs
1/3 cup milk
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
Pinch salt
1/2 cup sour cream
2 bananas, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup chopped, toasted walnuts

Directions:
1.Preheat the oven to 425 degrees . Add 1/2 stick butter to a 9-inch square baking dish and melt in the oven, about 5 minutes.

2.In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and granulated sugar, then whisk in the egg-milk mixture.

3.Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish; bake until the pancake begins to rise, 15 to 20 minutes.

4.Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, cook the brown sugar, salt and 2 tablespoons water over medium heat, stirring, until bubbling, about 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining 1/2 stick butter, the sour cream and bananas and heat through.

5.Drizzle the pancake with half of the butterscotch sauce and sprinkle with walnuts. Slice and serve with the remaining sauce on the side.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up!

I shared this recipe with:

Buttermilk Pancakes II

I don't know if I've mentioned this previously, but I rarely if ever have made the same recipe twice.  Looking at the piles of recipes that I have waiting to be tried, it just doesn't make sense to me to keep making the same things over.  Call me crazy, I know.  Well, this is one recipe that I have made a couple of times.  I'm not a big breakfast eater and honestly, I'd rather sleep in on the weekend than eat a big breakfast. I usually save homemade breakfast fare, like pancakes, waffles, and egg casseroles for quick weeknight dinners.  I wanted to use up the buttermilk that I had opened to make the pound cakes, so the Monday after New Year's my husband had off and I made these for breakfast for us.  I didn't think I had 3 cups of buttermilk left, so I ended up halving the recipe. I only ended up using one egg (how do you halve an egg?!) and I thought these came out well.  Even with half a recipe we had a couple pancakes left over that we froze so the kids could have them for breakfast again during the week.

Buttermilk Pancakes II
allrecipes.com - by BURYGOLD

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons white sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1/3 cup butter, melted

Directions:
1.In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together buttermilk, milk, eggs and melted butter. Keep the two mixtures separate until you are ready to cook.

2.Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. You can flick water across the surface and if it beads up and sizzles, it's ready!

3.Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, using a wooden spoon or fork to blend. Stir until it's just blended together. Do not over stir! Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/2 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

 Family Rating: 2 thumbs up.

Carrot Cake Pancakes

I think that I've mentioned before that my kids love Breakfast For Dinner.  I needed one carrot for the peanut noodles that I made last week and was looking to make something to use up some of the other carrots.  I found this recipe and definitely had to give it a try.  I'm a big fan of carrot cake!  Although it's not my favorite dessert, it's definitely high up on the list.  Of course, I thought I had a bar of cream cheese in the fridge, so I didn't buy one.  Only when I went to make the "icing" did I realize that I didn't.  I did have a tub of strawberry cream cheese though, so I ended up using that and slathering it on top of the pancakes.  It actually wasn't too bad, but I would have liked to see how the pancakes would have tasted with the maple cream cheese filling.  I ended up doubling the recipe, which left enough to have some for breakfast over the weekend.

Carrot Cake Pancakes
From foodblog:  closetcooking.com

Ingredients:
1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup milk (or buttermilk)
1 egg
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup carrot (grated)
4 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
3 tablespoons maple syrup
powdered sugar to taste

Directions:
1. Mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and in a large bowl.

2. Mix the milk, egg, sugar and carrot in another bowl.

3. Mix the wet and dry ingredients making sure to not over mix.

4. Heat a pan and melt a touch of butter in it.

5. Pour 1/4 cup of the mixture into the pan and heat until the surface starts to bubble and the bottom is golden brown, about 2-3 minutes.

6. Flip the pancake and cook the other side until the bottom is golden brown, about 1-2 minutes.

7. Mix the cream cheese and maple syrup and add some powdered sugar to get it as sweet as you like.

8. Spread the cream cheese onto the pancakes.

Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up! A great way to "sneak" in some veggies.