Kategorie: My Sweet Tooth

I might have been obsessed with American style pancakes ever since my first trip to California back when I was thirteen. It was then and there I had my first original pancakes, all soft and tasty, drenched in maple syrup, most likely with a side of crisp bacon.

For years now I’ve been trying to make the perfect pancakes. I admit that I haven’t been trying the whole time, there’s been phases. I also admit that I have used pancake mixes, partly because there have been enough lazy mornings and partly because some of those mixes are actually really good. I have also had my fair share of disappointments, mornings when the pancakes didn’t turn out even close to perfect, quite the opposite actually. And then there were mornings when they turned out pretty fine, sometimes even exactly how they’re supposed to be. Light, fluffy, amber colored, ready to soak up the syrup I was going to pour over them. Even better with a bit of butter and a large spoonful of sour cream on top of it.

Recently those perfect pancake mornings were pretty common around here. It could be a lucky streak, but I’m optmistic and would rather say that I have finally found the right way to make American pancakes and so I wouldn’t want to keep it from fellow pancake lovers anymore. I’m not sure what exactly the secret is, the long whisking of the eggs, the right amount of baking powder or maybe just the bit of patience you need to let the mixture stand a while before actually making the pancakes. Whatever it is… I can only hope I finally found it.

American Pancakes

1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar
A pinch of salt
250 ml buttermilk
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
120 g flour
1 tablespoon butter

1. Melt the butter in a pan, preferably the pan you want to make the pancakes with, for no other reason than having less dishes to wash afterwards.
2. Mix the egg, sugar and salt in a bowl and whisk until nearly white and very creamy.
3. Add the buttermilk and mix in quickly, then add the baking powder and flour and mix in really quickly as well. If the dough is too runny, add a bit more flour, if it is too firm add some more buttermilk or just regular milk.
4. At last mix in the melted butter.
5. Let the dough stand for about 15 to 30 minutes. I actually don’t know how long it should rest to get the best results since I usually get to impatient, so the dough hardly ever gets to rest longer than 15 minutes in our kitchen.
6. Reheat the pan and fry the pancakes one at a time. Usually a small ladle of dough will be enough for one pancake. Wait until bubbles start to form on the top and the turn the pancake over, bake until golden and then keep warm until all the pancakes are done. I just heat the oven to a very small temperature (about 50°C) and transfer them there right from the pan.
7. Serve warm with maple or pancake syrup, butter and/or sour cream. Personally I love the way how the sweet and slightly sour tastes of the syrup and cream melt together, but Peter prefers his just with butter and syrup. And of course we nearly always have a few strips of bacon as a side, making this glorious Sunday morning breakfast complete.

Serves 2 good pancake eaters.

The German blog Schönes Blog recently featured the amazing Fluffernutter Sandwich. Of course I have made myself some bagels with peanut butter before. And of course I had noticed the tempting jars of semi-liquid marshmallowy stuff. How could I not? Still I never actually had imagined that you could combine peanut butter and marshmallow fluff and two slices of toast and get something so utterly hilarious and tooth-achingly sweet, yet oddly satisfying as the great and unique Fluffernutter sandwich.

It’s sweet, it’s bound to drive your husband or boyfriend – he, who (for all I know) combines jam and cheese, so how dare he judge my tastes! – to a whole new level of insanity¹, it’s made in about 45 seconds.

To make this short: I love it.