A few tips for better pancakes
Some of you know that we are obsessed with cooking shows around here. We
tape various programs during the week and watch them on Saturdays or
Sundays, our kids’ tv time being confined to the weekends. Well, last
night we watched Iron Chef America and back-to-back episodes of Throwdown
with Bobby Flay (our boys really LOVE Bobby Flay!). In the first show, he
challenged the owners of Clinton Street Baking Company to a blueberry
pancake throwdown. Surprisingly, he won. I say surprisingly because he
rarely wins, at least the episodes we’ve seen. So, (unsurprisingly), Tate
asks me to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast this morning. Of course,
right? Well, I decided to incorporate a few tips I’d picked up watching
the show and the results were nothing short of amazing.
It is a little known fact that I do not actually make pancakes. Paul, my
husband, always does and he is quite famous for them… at least in our
immediate family. But he was injured in a biking accident yesterday and
standing at the stove was not a good idea (FYI, he’s mostly ok, just road
rash and major bruising). So I pulled out the Krusteaz blueberry pancake
mix and decided to make a few improvements ‘a la’ Bobby Flay. The first
thing I did was beat two eggs whites into stiff peaks (gotta love a
KitchenAid stand mixer!). Then, I carefully folded the egg whites into the
batter (which had only been mixed with water). Next, I melted some butter
in a frying pan. According to Bobby, this helps give the pancakes the
crisp edges he craves. I think Paul normally uses vegetable oil but I
can’t be sure because he cooks on our non-stick griddle and I never watch
him make them. I hunted around for some frozen blueberries (since we
didn’t have any fresh) but was unsuccessful. One thing that Bobby did
(which his opponent is decidedly against) was put the blueberries directly
into the batter. Krusteaz has dried blueberries in the mix so that was
that.
The pancakes were eaten too fast for me to whip out my camera (which I now
keep on the kitchen counter in order to document recipes for
dirtandsunshine.com). They were absolutely lovely to look at: golden
brown, with crisp edges and dark spots of blueberries. They were light and
fluffy, too (the egg whites really made a difference).
So there you have it: tv show to plate in about 12 hours. If you try this
at home, please leave me a comment to let me know if you had similar
results!
Here is a link to Bobby Flay’s winning version of blueberry pancakes:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/lemon-blueberry-ricotta-butterm…
Voila!
Wow, we haven’t made pancakes in forever… next time we do I’ll have to try the butter trick. I don’t know if we’ve done blueberries yet, but we’ve added other things to our pancakes, like pecans and banana slices, and I usually just add right to the mix and that’s worked out pretty well. =)
Sorry to hear of Paul’s accident – hope he’s healing quickly. I love making pancakes and have got to try the whipped egg whites next time (sometimes gluten free pancakes come out kind of dense so your tip should really help!). I like to use melted coconut oil in the batter and then make the pancakes on a non-stick griddle w/o any added grease. I usually get that crispy kind of texture and it’s tasty too!thanks for starting up such a fun blog
Annual soccer game for the non-American Football family with adults, kids of all ages, and dogs underfoot. Then home to finish off all our cooking and dinner with family and in laws all together.