They still looked pretty tasty.

Now, if you insist on trying this - I would highly recommend using a beer that is very light on hops, and heavy on the malt.  Perhaps if you have a good belgian beer you wouldn’t mind sacrificing, that would work. (Maybe this was our problem??  We tend to drink our good Belgian beers.)  We used a porter, which I thought would be okay – turns out, it just sort of tasted like we made our pancakes with beer.  The flavor was rather…frat-house on a Sunday morning.  If you really must, though, here is the recipe I used.

Beer Pancakes

Adapted from chubbylittletoro, via Allrecipes.com

• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup beer
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

• Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.  Stir in the egg, beer and butter until well combined.  Head a skillet over medium heat, and drop about 1/4 cup at a time onto the griddle.  Cook on one side until bubbles start to appear on the pancake surface, then flip and cook until golden.  Serve with butter and maple syrup.  Enjoy…?

Pancakes have recently become a favorite meal in our household.  Thankfully we’re only cooking for two, because making pancakes with our medium-sized frying pan on an electric stove-top was a slow process and sometimes disastrous process.  While I loved the idea of an electric griddle, I was concerned about storage space.  My husband was pretty gung-ho about the whole thing, but understood my hesitation.  As Christmas approached and I brainstormed ideas for my husband, I thought of his desire for a griddle and mentioned it to my parents.  They picked one out for him.  Imagine my surprise when I opened a rather large, oblong box on Christmas morning and found an electric griddle inside.  My husband opened his a few hours later when my parents came for dinner.  What can I say, great minds think alike?  Oh, and our griddle goes quite nicely with my husband’s Darth Vadar spatula (a great stocking stuffer!)

Now, we’re happily griddling away and pancakes seem to have become a Sunday night tradition.  We whip up a batch of pancakes and lounge in front of the fireplace for the evening.  Alton Brown’s recipe for “Instant” Pancake Mix makes it easy to throw together a tasty batch of pancakes in no time.   After mixing a large batch of dry ingredients ahead of time (keeps for about 3 months), all you have to do is add butter, eggs and buttermilk and you’re good to do.  The resulting pancakes are far superior and far cheaper than any mix you can buy at the store.

If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, never faear,  you can still make these pancakes by using an easy substitution (details below).  They’re delicious either way, but wow, real buttermilk really takes them to the next level!

Homemade Pancake Mix

6 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp kosher salt
2 tbsp sugar

Combine all of the ingredients in a lidded container. Shake to mix.

Use the mix within 3 months.

Make the Pancakes
Yields 12 pancakes

2 eggs, separated
2 cups buttermilk *
4 tbsp melted butter
2 cups homemade pancake mix, recipe above
1 stick butter, for greasing the pan
2 cups fresh fruit such as blueberries, if desired

1. Heat an electric griddle or frying pan to 350 degrees F.
2.  In a small bowl, whisk together the eggwhites and buttermilk. **
3. In large mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the melted butter.
4. Add the buttermilk mixture to the large bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined.
5. Add pancake mix to the large bowl and mix the batter until just combined. Don’t try to work out all of the lumps.
6. Once the griddle is heated, butter it lightly and wipe off with a paper towel. No butter should be visible.
7. Ladle the batter onto the griddle and sprinkle with fruit, if desired.
8. Flip the pancake once the bubbles around the edges of the pancake begin to set, and the griddle-side of the pancake is golden.
9. Continue to cook until the pancake has set completely.

* Don’t have any buttermilk? Make your own! Add one tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar to one cup of milk and let sit for a few minutes. Mix well and use in any recipe that calls for buttermilk.

** Looking to cut down on dishes? Measure the buttermilk into a liquid measuring cup. Melt the butter in a microwave safe mixing bowl that’s large enough for your dry ingredients. When you crack the eggs, separate them directly into the liquid measuring cup and large mixing bowl.

Between September and January, pumpkin puree does not last long in my house.  Here in New England, we’ve been fortunate enough to miss the canned pumpkin shortage that has plagued parts of the country for the past two baking seasons.  Last year, I was so concerned that we’d encounter a shortage that I bought multiple cans each time I went to the grocery store, resulting in quite a stockpile!  I’m not worried this year, but that hasn’t stopped me from stocking up.

These pumpkin pancakes are an excellent use for any pumpkin you may have lying around.  Fluffy and flavorful, they add a tantalizing taste of fall to your breakfast table.  A generous serving of maple syrup makes them extra heavenly.

The original recipe yields a large amount of pancakes, so I halved it and ended up with a good amount for just my husband and I.   The only complaints I noticed in the original recipe was that the pancakes didn’t cook well.  Since the batter was thick, it didn’t spread as much as pancake batter usually does.  I remedied this problem by gently spreading the batter with a rubber spatula until I reached the desired thickness.  The pancakes cooked up beautifully – light, fluffy and fully-cooked.

Pumpkin Pancakes
Yields 8-10 medium-sized pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1.5 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 egg * (see below)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp vinegar

1.  In a large bowl, mix the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar.
2. Whisk in brown sugar.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt.
4. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just combined. Do not over-mix.
5. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

* Q:  How do I add 1/2 of an egg?  A:  Crack the egg into liquid measuring cup and beat with a fork.  Note the measurement on your measuring cup and add half of that to your recipe.

This recipe was initially tried out of necessity, after I decided to make pancakes one morning – but was fresh out of the boxed mix!  So, I went a-googling and found this recipe for which I happened to have all the ingredients, and decided to give it a whirl.  Talk about easy – made me wonder why we ever relied on having mix on hand in the first place!  In addition, the flavors were so much more vibrant than anything that comes out of a box.  They are particularly wonderful with a few blueberries sprinkled in, and topped with maple syrup.  Add a little pep to your breakfast, and try making pancakes the way they used to! 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• Blueberries, if desired

• Directions:

  Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add the milk, egg, and melted butter.  Stir until ingredients are smooth and well blended.  Preheat a skillet or griddle over medium heat and coat lightly with vegetable oil.  Ladle batter into the skillet.  If using blueberries, sprinkle the desired number of blueberries onto the pancake before it starts to bubble.  Cook until bubbles appear, then flip and cook until the other side is also lightly browned.  Enjoy!