Pancakes and Waffles

From the book The Basic Gourmet by Diane Morgan, Dan Taggart, Kathleen Taggart, and Georgia Vareldzis

Introduction

It is our hope that the present generation of children will grow up experiencing something better than boxed pancake mix. There is a difference! Real pancakes and waffles, with pure maple syrup, are just wonderful. Adding fresh berries to the batter, or sliced fruit on top, just adds to the pleasure. Sometimes, instead of having pancakes for Sunday breakfast, we have them for dinner. Why not? Finish a lazy Sunday with a supper of fresh grapefruit, pancakes, and bacon or sausage. Young ones love the idea and the cook has time to prepare the meal before children are restless and starved!

Ingredients

Steps

1. Sift flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder into a large bowl and set aside. Separate eggs, putting yolks in a medium bowl and whites in another medium bowl. Add milk to the yolks, stir to combine thoroughly, then add to flour mixture. Stir just until the flour disappears—little lumps are OK. Now gently stir in the melted butter. Using a whisk, egg beaters, or electric mixer, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. With a rubber spatula, gently fold egg whites into pancake batter. Set batter aside to rest 15 minutes.

Pancakes

1. Place a heavy 12-inch frying pan (preferably cast iron) over low heat for 5 minutes. Preheating the pan is one of the tricks to making picture-perfect pancakes. Turn heat up to medium, brush in just enough oil to glaze the bottom of the pan, then ladle in the pancake batter. (About ½ of a standard soup ladle or 1 large serving spoon of batter makes a 4-inch pancake.) Don’t crowd the pan—it is hard to flip pancakes that have run together. When little holes form on top of the pancakes, lift up just a little of the side to check for browning; then, if nicely browned, flip the pancakes and cook the other side until nicely browned. (Do not flip your pancakes more than once—it toughens them.) Remove to a warmed plate.
2. To make a second batch, you normally do not need to add more oil, but if the pan seems dry, add some. Adjust the heat of your burner higher or lower depending on how the first batch came out.

Waffles

1. Preheat your waffle iron for 5 minutes. If your iron has a nonstick finish, then there is no need to oil the surface. Otherwise, use a brush or folded piece of paper towel to coat the surface lightly with oil. Add batter sparingly. If you add too much, it will ooze out all over the sides when you close the lid. Adjust the amounts according to the size of your waffle iron. Typically, when the “steaming” stops your waffle is done. Lift the top just a little to check. Practice will make perfect here.

Notes

• A griddle works best for making pancakes because it has no sides to get in the way of flipping the pancakes, but that is an extra piece of equipment for the beginning cook.
• Make your own pancake “mix” by premeasuring and mixing the dry ingredients. Place in a zippered plastic bag, label, and store. Now combining the mix with eggs, milk, and butter will be a snap.
• If you have forgotten to have eggs at room temperature, place the eggs, still in their shells, in a bowl of very warm water for 5 minutes or so.
• Substitute 1/2 cup whole wheat flour for 1/2 cup of all-purpose to make whole wheat pancakes.
• Add a sprinkling of fresh or partially frozen blueberries to the pancakes once you have ladled the batter onto the frying pan. Adding berries to the batter in the bowl tends to turn the batter blue, and the berries sink to the bottom of the bowl, which forces you to overmix the batter.
• Add 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest or 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans to the batter.

This content is from the book The Basic Gourmet by Diane Morgan, Dan Taggart, Kathleen Taggart, and Georgia Vareldzis.