Big, Fluffy Pancakes

Mmmm. Pancakes. Soft and fluffy pancakes. Soft and fluffy pancakes drizzled with pure maple syrup on the top. Mmm. Have I made your mouth water yet? No? Well how about soft and fluffy pancakes with a drizzle of pure, rich maple syrup running down the side and pooling all around said pancakes. Don’t forget that nice, tall glass of creamy milk seated right next to those sinfully delicious pancakes.

Yes, this is a pancake post. And yes, it’s from the Harry Potter Cookbook. Just because the movies are over, doesn’t mean July isn’t and I promised a Harry Potter filled July.

I have had the notion of making pancakes for lunch for a very long time and when I saw a recipe for Big, Fluffy Pancakes in the book, I new I had to try them out. I haven’t had pancakes in a long time because every Saturday, my dad would ask for pancakes in the morning. I do love eating pancakes, and yes, I do get up very early for a teen (7am on my own volition), but that doesn’t mean I want to start making pancakes as soon as I get the sleep out of my eyes. That is why I like having breakfast foods for lunch or dinner, I actually have time to prep and I’m not rushing to get breakfast ready. Besides, breakfast for breakfast is overrated; breakfast for lunch is totally in, am I right?

Now, these pancakes definitely live up to their big and fluffy name. I made them slightly less big than intended, but that means I can have more…right? And the fluff factor (yes…don’t look at me that way) was off the charts. When you take a bite, all you taste is cloud, that, and sweetness. I think that has to do with the 2/3 cup of sugar in the recipe. But the sweetness isn’t overtly so, it is there, but not overpowering and I think it’s because of the buttermilk that was added in to offset the amount of sugar.

These really are some of the better pancakes I’ve had in a while! So go ahead and make these pancakes, you wont regret it, seriously.

By the way, it is really hard to photograph pancakes prettily.Like seriously, and anyone that manages to capture the beauty of a pancake has my full respect.

Big, Fluffy Pancakes
slightly adapted from The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook
makes 11 really large pancakes

Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
2 eggs, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
6 tbsp butter, melted
2 ½ cups buttermilk

Directions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Pour the melted butter into the egg and sugar mixture and whisk vigorously. Keep whisking and slowly pour the buttermilk into the liquid mixture.
2. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. Whisk the two mixtures until combined. The batter will look like it has too much liquid in it, but keep whisking. Keep whisking until the batter has come together completely.
3. Spray an 8 inch skillet with cooking spray and place over medium heat. Once the skillet has heated up, pour in half a cup of batter into the center and cook on that side until bubbles start to form and the pancake is golden brown on one side. Flip. Cook on the other side for another minute or so. Don’t forget about the first pancake rule. Your first pancake never turns out all that great (unless you are magical). It took me several tries to get nice golden brown on the top of my pancake. Medium heat may also be a little too much, so if you are having some burning issues, turn the heat down to low/medium-low.
4. Serve pancakes any way you wish, with a pat of butter and some maple syrup, with some confectioners sugar, or plain Jane if that’s the way you like it. I like it plain, but that’s just me.

Fluffy Goodness

I don’t really know how the idea came to me, maybe it was the daily e-mail I get from all-recipes, but I don’t know. All I know is that I wanted to make German Pancakes! I was initially going to make it for breakfast, but then I decided not to. I am not a breakfast for breakfast kind of person. I like my breakfasts to be simple, like oatmeal or cereal. So I decided to hold off and make this for lunch. However, right before lunch I had to go run errands and I didn’t get home until later, and I was starving, but I refused to eat lunch until I made this pancake for my lunch. And I’m glad I did.

I have made German Pancakes once before, for my Catering II class and my group and I had to instruct the class on how to make it, yada, yada, yada. I never got a chance to taste that German Pancake because it was smothered in apples, and I don’t like apples. This time I got to taste it, and I mean really taste it. I ended up eating 2/3 of the pancake. I’m not sure if it was because I was starving or because I was that addicting to eat. Maybe it was a little of both.

German Pancakes (also known as Dutch Baby Pancakes) are usually baked in a cast iron skilled. I has the same concept of an American Pancake, but the flour to milk ratio is always the same and the butter is added to the hot pan instead of the batter. When these pancakes bake, they have a life of their own and fluff up in different spots and after they have been removed from the oven, they fall back down. They are crisp on the outside and yet so soft on the inside. The typical German Pancake is served with powdered sugar and some lemon juice, but I found that powdered sugar and maple syrup made for a better dish.

Also, if you haven't noticed. I did change my blog's name. It is now Cookie Jar Treats instead of Becca's Baked Goods. It just came to me one day and that's when I decided I'd change it. I hope no one is too disappointed in me.

German Pancake
adapted from Smitten Kitchen
makes 3 servings

Ingredients
1 tbsp butter
2 eggs
1 ½ tsp sugar
¼ tsp salt
1/3 cup bread flour
1/3 cup milk
1/3 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. Place cast iron skillet or 9 inch round baking pan in the oven and let it get warm. Once hot, place tbsp of butter into the hot pan to let it melt. Make sure the butter really coats the middle. I had some sticking problems.
2. In a blender, beat the two eggs until light in color. Add in the sugar, salt, break flour, milk and vanilla extract. Hit the liquefy button and let the blender do its thing for about a minute or until the batter is completely smooth.
3. Pour batter into the hot pan coated in melted butter and immediately place in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Then, reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake for another 10 minutes.
4. Serve with the topping of your choice. I found maple syrup and a light dusting of powdered sugar to be especially tasty with this.

Nutrition Facts
serving size: 1/3Calories 151.5 Total Fat 7.6 g Saturated Fat 1.3 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.7 g Monounsaturated Fat 1.3 g Cholesterol 135.5 mg Sodium 257.5 mg Potassium 47.4 mg Total Carbohydrate 13.1 g Dietary Fiber 0.4 g Sugars 3.4 g Protein 6.8 g

Honey Crepes for Breakfast

Yesterday I was really in the mood to make something with maple as the main flavor and when I typed in maple recipes into Google it gave me a recommendation for honey recipes, so I clicked on it, because honey is yummy too. And the first link was a honey website and where better to find honey recipes than a honey site, right? Well I looked all around the recipe categories and I made a mental note of a lot of recipes and then came the honey crepe recipe. I have only made crepes once before in my catering class, but that was with a crepe maker, and lets just say it wasn’t my shining moment. Well I decided to make it anyway because maybe it would be easier with a skillet. Let me just tell you if you are in the mood for crepes, just use your skillet, don’t go blow off $500 for a stupid crepe machine maker thing.


The first one I made was a disaster, I guess I had the temp too high (even though the directions said to do that) and there was smoke and it just wasn’t pretty, so I switched to a different pan and turned the head waaay down and started again. The next couple were decent and every now and then I would have a mishap, but after the 6th crepe I started to get much better, so better that there were hardly any gaps in the crepe, which I think is an accomplishment. These crepes are really good on their own or with some caramel sauce or chocolate or pretty much anything you can dream up. I had this one for breakfast:

I have a few crepe recipes stock piled onto my favorites bar, but I've been too scared to make them, but now I think I can, maybe today will be a crepe day and all I will have is crepes!

Honey Crepes
from Honey
makes 12 crepes (6 servings)

Ingredients
2 cups 2% milk
1 cup all purpose flour
2 egg whites
1 whole egg
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/8 tsp salt

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients into a blender or food processor until smooth
2. Spray and 8 inch skillet with cookies spray and heat over medium heat
3. Measure out 1/4 cup of the batter and pour into hot skillet, twisting and turning it until the batter covers the bottom of the skillet
4. Cook crepe for about 1 to 2 minutes and then gently turn the crepe over (Note: I killed my rubber spatula trying the do this, so start by pulling away the edges with a regular pancake spatula and then use your hands to flip it) Once flipped, cook for an additional 30 seconds to 1 minutes
5. Remove crepe to cool and repeat with the remaining batter. Crepes can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for 1 month

Nutrition Facts
serving size: 2 plain crepes
Calories 155.9 Total Fat 4.8 g Saturated Fat 1.4 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.9 g Monounsaturated Fat 2.2 g Cholesterol 37.3 mg Sodium 63.5 mg Potassium 31.5 mg Total Carbohydrate 21.4 g Dietary Fiber 0.0 g Sugars 6.7 g Protein 7.4 g

Christmas Morning Maple Muffins - and a long story

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, I did! :D I even got two pie plates from my mom and I’ve already decided what pie I’m going to make, so stay tuned for that in the weeks to come.

So I got the notion in my head that I would make everyone a Christmas breakfast for when we were done opening presents and the decision came down to two things: Maple Oat Muffins and Cinnamon Rolls, and as you can see from the title of this blog I chose the muffins, but here’s why. I took a poll in my family on who wanted what; I wanted the muffins, my dad wanted both and my mom and sister wanted the cinnamon rolls so I decided to make the cinnamon rolls for breakfast, BUT I would make the maple oat muffins for the Christmas lunch because I love to get things my way sometimes. :) Well I got up at 6am and got all of the ingredients together and read the directions carefully and adaptations because I didn’t have a bread maker I had to improvise off of other’s comments. By around 6:30 I got started, making sure not to wake anyone. Right off the bat I knew something was wrong because the yeast wasn’t dissolving, but I continued on anyways. After 45 minutes of waiting the dough never rose and I got impatient and my dad was up and it was only a matter of time before my mom and sister, Emily would be too. I got out the ingredients for the maple oat muffins and got to work. Needless to say they were ready by the time our presents were opened and we were all ready for breakfast. These were the most amazing things ever. I wish I could taste a little more of the maple flavor but in the end I loved them! I had two for breakfast and I think Emily had about 5, haha. I will definitely be making these again soon!

These muffins went so quickly! I was amazed since nothing

 goes that quickly.

 Mom gave me the idea to put a bow in them, as if they were

Christmas presents. :)

 These were the Cinnamon Rolls i tried to make. It took 2 hours for the

dough to get 1/4 bigger and then another hour after they

were cut to hardly rise at all...

They werent even that good, maybe about a C. Maybe I'll try the

recipe again...but not anytime soon.

Mape Oat Muffins

slightly adapted from recipe.com

makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

1 cup quick-cooking or regular rolled oats

1/2 cup milk

1 cup all-purpose flour (used unbleached)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup chopped pecans (omtied)

Directions

1. Grease twelve 2-1/2-inch muffin cups or line with paper bake cups; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine oats and milk; let stand for 5 minutes. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.
2. Stir maple syrup, melted butter and egg into oats mixture. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold half of the pecans into the batter.
3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each two-thirds full. Sprinkle with remaining nuts. Bake in a 400 degree F oven for 15 to 18 minutes or until tops are golden and a wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from muffin cups; serve warm. Makes 12 muffins.

Nutrition Facts
serving size: 1 muffin
with/without pecans: Calories 154.4 120.2 Total Fat 4.7 g 1.1 g Saturated Fat 0.6 g 0.3 g Polyunsaturated Fat 1.3 g 0.2 g Monounsaturated Fat 2.4 g 0.4 g Cholesterol 18.5 mg 18.5 mg Sodium 140.4 mg 140.4 mg Potassium 39.1 mg 18.8 mg Total Carbohydrate 26.5 g 25.9 mg Dietary Fiber 1.5 g 1.0 g Sugars 14.4 g 14.2 g Protein 9.1 g 8.7 g

Breakfast for Dinner - Pumpkin Pancakes

I am definitely getting into the Fall spirit. I am getting more into pumpkin too. There is a pumpkin patch on 287 in Colorado called Rock Creek Pumpkins and you get to pick your own pumpkins from the vine and it is so much fun. Well while I was standing in line with my mom to pay for the pumpkins I spotted their pumpkin pancake mix and it looked really, really good. So I asked my mom if I could get it and she said yes. (By the way this place, Rock Creek Farm, has the BEST pumpkin bread ever. I seriously wait all year for this bread!) Well I looked on the instructions after I got it and it said that I needed pumpkin butter and after looking like a moron in my local grocery store looking for the pumpkin butter I finally found it by the jelly, haha.


Well a week went by and I still hadn’t made the pumpkin pancakes and this week is kind of make your own dinner night because my mom has been coming home late and I took this to be the perfect opportunity to make my pumpkin pancakes!

I know this might be kind of weird because the ingredients aren’t really local for people unless you live in Colorado and happen to go to Rock Creek Farm, but I haven’t blogged in a while and I just wanted to share my enthusiasm for these amazing pancakes! :)

bubbles popping :P, also the house smalled amazing after this!

 first pancake always burns, oh well

 adding the chocolate chips! mmm

 stack of pancakes! :P for once it made the number that it was supposed to

 pumpkin pancake mix

 the best pumpkin bread I've ever eaten!

For this I used the egg whites and it turned out really nice. I also added some mini chocolate chips to a couple of the pancakes and it made it even better! :)

Ingredients
makes eight 4" pancakes
1 egg (or 2 egg whites)
2/3 cup of milk
1/4 cup pumpkin butter or pumkin pie mix
1 cup of Rock Creek Farm pumpkin pancake mix

Directions

1. preheat your griddle to 400 degrees F
2. Beat egg and milk together. Once its mixed together add the pumpkin butter (or pie mix) and beat until fully incorporated. Then add in the 1 cup of pancake mix and whisk together until combined.
3. Lightly grease your griddle (I used a regular pan) and put 1/4 cup of mix into it. Once bubbles start to pop flip over once.