Vanilla Cake Batter Pancakes

Recipe: Vanilla Cake Batter Pancakes
Source: http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/breakfastbrunch/pancakeswaffles/vanilla-cake-batter-pancakes/
If you have never visited tastykitchen.com to look for recipes, I highly recommend it!
Time: 20 minutes
Ease: 1
Taste: 10
Leftover Value: 10
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep in the Strainer!

My days of box mix pancakes are long gone.  I have experimented with all sorts of pancakes and the wide variety in selection and ease has made it clear to me that there is no need for Bisquick to be stocked in my refrigerator any longer.*

*Everyone keeps their pancake mix in the refrigerator, right?  I have a feeling it might be just me.

I did worry at first that these pancakes would be too cake-like for breakfast, but I should have known better than to worry over such a trivial issue.  How could cake-like pancakes possibly be a bad thing?

Let's start with the first mountain of this recipe and turn it into a mole hill: Cake Flour.

There is absolutely no need to purchase a box of over priced, yet very ordinary, flour marked "cake flour".  Cake flour is as simple as this: 1 cup of flour minus two tablespoons of flour, plus two tablespoons of corn starch, sifted again and again.



It is so ridiculously simple and if my rugged explanation was too confusing here is a better, more thoughtful one: How to Make Cake Flour.

After your cake flour is measured and sifted it will look something like this:



The rest of the dry ingredients are mixed in with the flour, while the wet ingredients are mixed in a separate bowl.



I'm pretty much obsessed with the whole owl scene right now.  My little brother got these awesome measuring cups for me for Christmas and I think they are adorable!  I wish I could say that I loved owls before they became so popular, but sadly, it wasn't until they were glaring in my face every which way I turned that I began to love the little guys.  Now giraffes, hippos, and pigs are a different story.  Those animals I have loved forever.



If the separate mixing of the wet and dry ingredients takes double the time it takes to measure some Bisquick, pour some milk, and crack some eggs, I would be surprised.



Mix the wet and dry ingredients together.



Then fry on a greased pan or griddle.



Griddles are so important to making your life easy when making pancakes.  You can easily fry them in a regular frying pan, but a griddle makes the process go by so much faster!



I am almost convinced that these are going to be my go to pancakes from now on.  If you prefer a lighter pancake, these are not for you, but you should have known that from their name.

They have the flavor of breakfast with a whisper of dessert.  I'm ordinarily one who could have several servings of pancakes, emphasis on several, but these I was filled and completely satisfied with two.  They were fantastic reheated, and coming from me, that is the highest compliment to food.

Try these today.  Have them for breakfast, dinner, or even a midnight snack.  They are worth it.  If you have homemade vanilla extract, like I do, it will make them even better.    

Pancakes and Sour Cream?

Recipe: Edna Mae's Sour Cream Pancakes
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 30 minutes total (includes cooking time)
Ease: 2
Taste: 5
Leftover Value: No leftovers
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Down the Drain

It was not until I reached adulthood that I discovered the delight that is sour cream.  Growing up, the only thing I knew about sour cream was that it was an essential ingredient in my mom's chicken paprika.  We never used it for anything else.  However, once I realized it actually had other uses, suddenly quesadillas, nachos, and potato skins all made sense.

Still to this day I cannot understand what it is about sour cream that makes these things suddenly more wonderful than they are on their own.  I would never crave just sour cream (and I truly hope there is not a soul out there who does) but the thought of it spread on my potato skin or mixed with salsa on a meaty cheesy bite of nacho makes my mouth start to salivate.

I have recently learned though that sour cream is not the answer to improving all foods.

Because of my gained attraction to sour cream, the recipe for "sour cream pancakes" stood out.  And since on Monday I was stuck home waiting for Hurricane Sandy to hit, I decided to give them a try.

The fact that sour cream made up about half of the combined ingredients should have been a warning sign.  To be honest, it was but I had already started making the pancakes when I realized just how much sour cream was in them:

On one end of the scale we have: 1 cup of sour cream

On the other: Approximately 9 tablespoons of other ingredients and 2 eggs

The recipe yielded nine pancakes and they were very thin.  The taste was much lighter than your average Bisquick pancake.  The problem was, even though they were clearly cooked through they still had a very wet (not moist, wet) taste about them.

If that's what floats your boat, give them a try.  But for me, I'll stick with my sour cream free box of pancakes until something better comes around.