Wednesday, April 28, 2010

an appeal to stop making pancake-mix pancakes

i implore you (the world) to stop using pancake mixes, especially the ones with sketchy ingredients (like bleached flour, corn syrup solids, defatted soy flour, dextrose, carrageenan...). making pancakes from scratch is actually as easy as from a mix. and tastes better. and it comes with a sense of accomplishment and pride. bonus.


pancakes (even when not made from a "pancake mix") are quite easy to whip up when you are hungry. be it for breakfast, brunch, or that late night snack when you are craving sugar.

another reason not to make pancake-mix pancakes:



... if you make your own pancakes, you won't run the risk of salmonella poisoning either.

but here is a real pancake recipe: (recipe adapted from joy of baking)

1 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
2 T. sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 c. milk
2 T. butter, melted

sift/whisk the dry ingredients together in a medium to large sized bowl. in a separate bowl, whisk the egg, milk and butter together. (if the butter is still warm/hot from melting, beat the egg & milk first so you don't cook the egg at all). pour the wet bowl into the dry bowl and fold/stir it together until just mixed. lumps are okay, but dry flour bits are not. if you are feeling creative, this is when you can mix in chocolate chips or blueberries. let the batter sit a couple minutes while you heat up the pan or griddle to medium or medium-high heat. once hot enough (water will splatter or sizzle), brush the pan with butter. scoop out your pancake batter in 1/4 cup increments onto pan. once the edges are dryish looking (bottom will be brown) and the top is bubbly, flip your pancake over and cook until its golden brown. if your pancake completely falls apart in the flipping process and your flipper is covered in smushed batter, then you know its not ready to be flipped.

serve with whatever you like to eat on pancakes. i like peanut butter and maple syrup. or butter and syrup. what do you like to eat on pancakes? i wish i was more creative with my pancake toppings, but nothing beats a bit of moist, sugary pancake for my palate.





one of my go-to sites for baking recipes is the joy of baking. i haven't tried too many of their recipes, but i always* use their pumpkin pie filling recipe, and i always* use their pancakes recipe. check it out if you get that urge to bake something and you just don't know what...

*99.9% of the time

5 comments:

Heidi {{LaundryGirlPhotog}} said...

i think this is the exact recipe i use too! i love it, it's easy, though my inlaws sometimes give me a hard time because they think i'm trash talking the boxed stuff, but really i just like to know what's really going in my food!

i'm totally right there with you on this one! :)

Heidi

joey armstrong said...

i'm glad you agree with me! i want to know what's going into my food too. i often wonder if people think i'm stuck up because i read the ingredients before i eat something. oh well. :)

and to be fair, there are a few decent pancake mixes out there, like bob's red mill but they are quite expensive and they really don't even save you that much time.

Heidi {{LaundryGirlPhotog}} said...

i do feel like a food snob at times, but at least i'm snobish in a good way! hah!

in complete agreement that mixes don't save much time at all!

Carly said...

Smitten Kitchen has a great pancake recipe. Deb has a big thing against box-mix pancakes, too!

joey armstrong said...

thanks carly, i just checked out smitten kitchen's pancake recipes - she has so many its hard to know which one to try first!