Tuesday, October 30, 2007
punkakes
All right you sneaky wieners, I know you’re skulking around the dusty cinderblock remnants of the ruined edifice of the Chucklehut Recipe Corner, wondering when I’m going to make your life worth living again, kitchen-action-wise. Well it’s RIGHT NOW, my friends, so gather ‘round my blazing can of sterno, pull up a roll of discarded carpet, and get comfortable - I’m about to tell you about the newest thing to change my life.
It’s pancakes.
Oh yes, I make pancakes all the time, at least once a week, from scratch and with love and creativity. But those were just regular old breakfast pancakes. They had nothing to do with using up the remaining pumpkin puree left over from Kel’s fabulous Joy of Cooking pumpkin cookies, which I’m so glad she made this past weekend. But she only made a single batch, so we had half a can of sienna goo left over. What to do?
PUMPKIN PANCAKES. That’s right, baby. These ones are different. How can I tell? I made them on Sunday, and when the 30-month-old boy woke up on Monday and then on Tuesday, both days he asked for pumpkin pancakes for breakfast. Luckily we had a few set aside - they’re heavier than my usual version so I couldn’t eat my full share - so we were able to set the boy up as requested. And damn but they were still as good as that first morning, light and spicy and punkinlicious. And you know you like the punkinliciousness. Yes you do. Don’t be saying no when I know your heart says yes.
SO: here’s what I did - I looked up about five pumpkin pancakes recipes on line, came up with a common thread, and then improved on it with my clever ness. Now, these are serious flapjacks for the serious jackflapper, so if you’re not ready to get into it, just go on and surf for some lolcat jive. But if you want the real deal, start by mixing some dry ingredients:
2 cups flour
3 T granulated sugar
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t allspice
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t ground ginger
1/2 t salt
I know it sounds like a lot of spices but it worked out to be very well-balanced. Also, I am not used to baking with baking soda, but it turns out to be an awesome leavener. Yay leavening!
Next, start pulling together wet ingredients, as if I have to ask you twice:
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 T vegetable oil
2 T apple-cider vinegar
2 egg yolks
Mix these up in a bowl. Then pull out a good-sized micro-safe measuring cup and heat up:
1 t dark molasses
until it’s runny; then add
1-1/2 cup milk.
This ensures that the molasses is well-mixed into the milk, and therefore into the batter, so it doesn’t just puddle up in one spot like some kind of blackstrap booger. Add the molassesmilk to the other wet ingredients and mix them again.
You still got those two egg whites left over from the yolking, right? Right? Okay, fish them out of the disposal, then, I’ll wait.
Okay, two egg whites
- whip’em into soft peaks, and who knows those better than me? I started with a beater but moved to a whisk because I couldn’t stand the noise, but do what works best for you. Beating eggs is fun and gratifying! Foamy albumen for everybody!
Set aside the foamy albumen, already, and stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, or vice versa - just, whichever way you go, don’t over-mix. The vinegar in the wet will foam up when it hits the baking soda, and you want to leave the bubbles in place if you can. Then fold in - gently, you cad - the egg whites. This is now a nice fluffy batter.
Fry them up about 1/3 cup at a time on a medium-hot skillet. I think they’d probably be good with some powdered sugar sprinkled on top but that’s just icing on the cake, so to speak. They’re amazingly good just straight with some maple or agave syrup. So when you’re done with your jack-o-lantern, you can turn it into pancakes! Assuming you jack-o-lanterned one of those sugar pumpkins that’s good fer eating, which is pure craziness, but hell, that’s why I love ya, ya punkinhead. Now get out of here and eat some candy already afore the zombies getcha!
