Pancakes

I am a man who likes variety and improvisation, but breakfast seems to be one place where I crave constancy. While I eat cereal most mornings, Sundays are Pancake Days. Improvisation is a good thing for a cook, but when you are dealing with leavened things, consistent results require a recipe. Many years of Sundays took me through flat, rubbery pancakes to tall pancakes that were goopy in the middle. I had vapid ones from just white flour to corny ones that were more like johnny cakes instead. My quest to find the perfect pancake took me right through my tendency to just throw things together to come up with a measured recipe that is both toothy and fluffy at the same time. I know pancakes are very humble, and are pretty easy to make, but I've messed them up more than I want to admit, and I want to have some excuse to talk about subtle things that go on to make them great.

Ingredients-

• Dry
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup quick oats
  • 1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
  • 1/4 cup flax seed meal
  • 1 Tbsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
• Wet
  
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups Milk (Cow and/or Soy)

I listed the dry and wet ingredients separately because you should assemble them separately. I'll tell you about that in a minute. I want to talk a little about the ingredients. My measurement/experimentation led me to just a few guidelines to guide any improvising.

The dry:
I like heft that the whole wheat flour gives the pancake. The oatmeal seems to add some fluffiness. Much more cornmeal and you are getting into cornbread territory. The flax is there for nutrition. I found that a ratio of 1teaspoon of baking powder to one cup of flour type substance seems to yield the best results. Any more than that and you start tasting something bitter. Much less and your cakes won't rise very well. The salt is optional but enhances the flavor.
The wet:
I like to beat my eggs and oil together, then add the milk. It's not that this is important, but it mixes together easier in this order. Add your vanilla whenever you want.
Cooking:
I like to use a well-seasoned cast iron skillet for cooking my pancakes. You just need to spray a little oil at the beginning, and you are set for rest of the cooking process. I turn the fire to just a smidge past medium and wait for the pan to heat up. Some people throw a couple of drops of water on the pan to see if it's hot enough. I put my hand over it and see if it's uncomfortable after a couple of seconds, that is if I'm patient enough to wait that long.
When the pan is ready, mix your dry and wet together. As with all quick breads, the less you handle the batter, the better. Just mix until all the dry seems incorporated into the wet. The lumps are going to contribute to the fluffiness of the pancakes. Also, the more you stir, the more the glutens will get tangled and make your pancakes tough. I wait until now to mix the wet and dry because as soon as you bring them together, the baking powder starts releasing CO₂. That is what makes the pancakes rise, and I want to put as much of that energy to use as possible.
I ladle the batter into the pan with a 1/3 cup measuring cup as a compromise between my memory of a pancake's size and my wife's. I see lots of instructions that say to flip when the leavening bubbles pop and leave holes instead of being filled back in by wet batter. I don't seem to get a lot of bubbles making through, so I watch for the outer edge of the batter. When it looks to have a discernibly different consistency from the inside, then I flip it over. This should take about a minute and a half. Another couple of minutes on the backside and you have yourself a nice fluffy, golden pancake. Repeat this about nine more times, and you'll have a tall stack you can feed your family with.

Because I can't leave well enough alone when it comes to cooking, I'll tell you some of the ways I improvise. A mashed banana is good to mix in with the wet stuff, but reduce the milk and oil a little. With peanut butter, just reduce the oil. Chocolate chips are house favorites as are chopped nuts. I recently chopped an apple and added some cinnamon to the mix, and it got rave reviews from my family. I'm sure you can come up with more variations.

This may be more than you wanted to know about my pancakes, but they are one of my favorite comfort foods. If you have made it this far, I hope you enjoy them as much as my family and I do.

Getting Crunchy

I decided that it was finally time to start a food blog. The hubby and I have been talking about it for years. It only makes sense that a former chef and a domestic diva would want to share their culinary experiences with the world!

Fair warning: We're kinda crunchy. As the stereotype goes, we have a backyard garden, shop locally when we have the time, carry-in our own bags at the supermarket when we don't, and we cook with lots of fruits and vegetables (we do use a fair amount of animal products too).

In keeping with this image, this morning, I made my own granola. It was yummy and quicker than I remembered. As we were sitting down to a bowl of crunchy goodness, Blue asked me, "So, who taught you to make granola?" Silly man. "I did!"

I remember when I was working at the Thomas Family Winery, a couple of friends who ran a local B&B commented that they had been on a homemade granola-making marathon the previous night. I thought. . . humm. . . maybe that's something I should learn to do.

I looked it up that night. Turns out, it's more of a method than a recipe. You need certain things to do granola well: grains, fats, binders, and flavor-enhancers all in proportion. Grains are primarily oats but could also include wheat germ or flax. Fats typically come from vegetable oil, but you can use butter if you want a chewier texture or certain specialty oils which change the flavor. Binders would be things like honey, maple syrup, molasses, etc. Flavor-enhancers include nuts, coconut, dried fruits, vanilla, or spices.

Here's a very basic recipe which evolved in my kitchen over the years:
3 c. Quick Oats
1 c. Wheat Germ
1 c. Coconut
1 c. Chopped Pecans
1/3 c. Canola Oil
1/3 c. Honey
1/3 c. Real Maple Syrup
1 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Heat the last 4 ingredients in a small sauce pan just until they begin to meld (you don't want it hot). Combine the wet and dry ingredients and stir to coat. Place in a 9x12 baking pan. Cook at 300F for 60-90 minutes, stopping to stir every 15 minutes. When the granola is golden brown, take it out, and DO NOT stir it this time. You want it to clump up, so let it cool. As an extra tip: You don't need to grease the pan itself, but it does help to use spray oil on the top of the granola while it's cooling. It just binds it all together. Once it's cooled, break it up with a spoon or spatula, and serve with milk or yogurt and fruit. Store in an air-tight container or Ziploc bag.

I used to do this ALL THE TIME, but I gave it up because it was too expensive. What I didn't realize at the time is that granola is pretty cost-effective when you just make a simple recipe like this. Once you start getting into "Tropical Paradise" with dried pineapple and coconut oil, and "Triple Berry Macademia Nut Surprise," it gets a little pricey. If you buy your nuts in bulk and stick to the basics, it's not bad at all. It also freezes well, so if you want to do a big cooking session like my friends, that works well.