Smoked Salmon Silver Dollar Pancakes

I am all about having breakfast for dinner whenever possible.  Bacon and egg muffins?  Yes please.  Caramel french toast?  Oh yes.  Bacon Cheddar Bagel Panini?  Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!  So I guess it was only a matter of time before breakfast worked itself into our Friday Night Lights appetizer project we have going around here.  And in this case, it is all about pancakes.

Silver dollar pancakes.  Those little baby guys that you ladle onto the griddle with a tablespoon.  Literally...don't be tempted to use more than a tablespoon of batter per adorable pancake, because you want them nice and perfectly finger food size.  Once you have your pancakes cooked and a little cooled off, the possibilities become endless.  In this case, I opted for a savory topping to the sweet flavor of the pancake.

First I spooned on a little bit of sour cream.  Then just a sliver or two of smoked salmon, and final a sprinkle of scallion.  Chives would have been wonderful too, but scallions are what I had and so scallions are what I used.  That's it...on to the platter they went, and before you could say "breakfast for dinner" they were gone. 

Well, almost gone.  Because the pancakes were so tiny, one batch of batter makes a lot of pancakes, and so after I had made as many of the salmon pancakes as I thought the Southern husband and I could reasonably eat,  I still had a fair amount of pancakes.  

Can you say, breakfast for lunch the next day?  Fresh ricotta, a drizzle of olive oil, a little chopped fresn thyme and some fresh ground pepper.

Next time I'm thinking a little guacamole with some chopped tomato and lime zest.  And then....

Smoked Salmon Silver Dollar Pancakes, from Everyday Food

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 easpoon coarse salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 large egg

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
2. In separate larger bowl, whisk together milk, melted butter and egg. 
3. Add flour mixture to milk mixture and whisk until just moistened...you will still have a few lumps.
4. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, and drop batter by tablespoons (no more!) onto skillet. Cook about 2 minutes until bubbles appear on top and bottom is golden. Flip and cook one minute more.
5. Cool slightly, then top with a spoonful of sour cream and a little smoked salmon.  Sprinkle with chopped scallions.

Print this!

Bacon Pancakes

I have several things to say about this particular recipe. First of all, while it may look from that picture up there that I have simply artfully arranged a piece of bacon on the top of those pancakes, if you look very closely you will see that the bacon has actually been cooked INTO the pancake itself. Yes, while those pancakes were on the griddle I dropped some bacon on top of the batter and let that bacon cook into the center of the pancake. Wrap your mind around that for a minute. Take deep breaths.

The other thing I want to point out is the placemat. I got these a couple of years ago at Williams Sonoma...they are hard placemats with Twelve Days Of Christmas artwork on them, and they make me so, so happy. They have a whole line of Twelve Days stuff now, and last week when I was in the store I had to restrain myself from buying matching napkins. Actually the Southern husband had to restrain me - he literally took them out of my hands and put them back on the shelf. Probably because he was remembering that we already have napkins that each have the name of one of Santa's reindeer on them. (I always save Vixen for myself. Which explains a lot about me that you probably didn't want to know.)

But I digress. The pancakes are as simple as I described them above - you mix up a batch of your favorite pancake batter (I am a faithful Bisquick girl myself), and after you ladle your batter onto the skillet, drop on a piece of cooked bacon. Flip your pancake as usual, and when they are gorgeously brown you will see that the bacon has cooked into the batter.

Now pour on some maple syrup, and ask yourself where this bacon-infused pancake has been all your life.

Bacon Pancakes, adapted from Everyday Food

• 1 batch of pancake batter - your choice.  I like the Bisquick recipe, which is happily right there on the back of the box
• Butter for griddle
• 8-12 slices of bacon, depending on how much pancake batter you are making.
• Warm maple syrup

1. Preheat of to 400.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and lay bacon strips on the foil.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until bacon is cooked but not too crispy.

2.  Heat griddle or large frying pan over medium heat and melt a tablespoon or so of butter on the griddle.  Pour scant 1/4 cups of pancake batter on the griddle.  Carefully lay a slice of cooked bacon on top of each pancake.  Cook until bubbles appear on the top of the pancake and the underside is golden.  Carefully flip and cook for another minute or two until second side is golden.

3. Serve at once with warm maple syrup.

Click here for printable recipe

 

Sour Cream Pancakes

I've been trying to pace myself going through the new cookbook by the Pioneer Woman so as not to make Every Single Recipe In The Book in the first two weeks. Even though my ravenous Southern husband keeps leaving it open to the page with the recipe for ribeye steak with whiskey cream sauce. This fabulous cookbook is like a box of Godiva chocolate...you need to work your way through the wonderfulness with patience, and restraint and...oh, never mind, pass the sour cream pancakes.

Now I am embarrassed to admit this, but when I first read this recipe I thought -- oh no! there is a MISTAKE in this recipe!!! Because it only calls for 7 tablespoons of flour. For the entire batch of pancakes. I mean really, when have you ever seen any recipe call for 7 tablespoons of flour, especially a pancake recipe? I'm used to measuring out the flour (okay, the Bisquick if you are going to get all technical on me) by the cupful, not the tablespoonful. But that's what it said.

Hmm.

The Pioneer Woman has never let me down, not once, not ever. So I measured out those 7 tablespoons along with all the other goodies in this pancake batter, and fired up the griddle. And you know what? These were the lightest, fluffiest, airiest pancakes I have ever had in my life. These are not your garden variety pancakes, folks. They are like little clouds. Okay, they are like large clouds...in pancake form. They were GREAT.

A bit of advice for the novice Sour Cream Pancake maker: this batter is much lighter and more delicate than your regular pancake, and they seem to cook a little faster. When you flip them, the top of the pancake will still be very liquid, so it helps if you make them on the small side, and flip 'em fast. And keep the griddle a little bit lower than your normal pancake heat. These pancakes are sensitive and delicate. And I mean that in the best possible way.

Okay! THE PIONEER WOMAN COOKS! Go buy it for yourself for the holidays, or at the very least leave major hints around the house. And in the meantime...sour cream pancakes, and I solemnly swear I will never doubt the Pioneer Woman again.

SOUR CREAM PANCAKES, from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

• 1 cup sour cream
• 7 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• Butter
• Maple syrup

1. Place griddle or frying pan over medium low heat to get hot.
2. Put sour cream, flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Stir very gently until just combined
3. Whisk eggs in separate bowl and add vanilla.
4. Pour egg mixture into sour cream mixture and stir gently.
5. Melt a tablespoon of butter on skillet.
6. Pour the batter onto skillet 1/8 cup at a time.
7. Cook for 1/2 minutes, then carefully flip and cook for another 45 seconds. Remove to plate and serve with butter and maple syrup.

Click here for printable recipe

Mini Pancake Muffins

Do you ever find yourself with something in your fridge that you just can't seem to use up, even though you are pretty sure you have used it in about 17 different things?

That happened to me this week with a quart of buttermilk. The Powers That Be don't sell small containers of buttermilk, and so I had to buy a full quart to use in whatever I was making recently. Maybe it was the crumb cake? Who can remember. Anyway, whatever it was did not call for an entire quart of buttermilk, and so there it was lurking away in my fridge, taking up valuable space that could be used for butter, or bacon, or one my other major food groups.

So when I was browsing through my mile-long list of Things I Want To Make Someday and I saw these cute little pancake muffins, they catapulted right to the head of the line when I saw they called for...you know what. Even better, they come together in about 10 minutes of mixing, they bake for about 12 minutes, and 5 minutes later there you are, eating chocolate chip muffins for brunch because they have the word "pancake" in the title and therefore count as an entree. (Right?)

I found these on the always wonderful Bakerella website (go visit! she is AWESOME!) and followed her recipe pretty closely. I did bake mine a little bit longer than hers, and I used the mini chocolate chips instead of regular. They are sweet and tiny and simply adorable. I followed her advice and loosened them by running a toothpick around the edge while I let them cool - I also flipped them around a bit in the muffin tin...

I didn't let them cool TOO long because the ravenous Southern husband was circling. I'd say about after 5 minutes of cooling, they were on the plate. I served us up about 5 each...

AND...get ready, this is the very best part...I put out little bowls of melted butter and warm syrup to dunk them into for the full pancake-tasting experience. Can you STAND it???

We, um, had seconds. And maybe thirds. And as we speak, the teenager is polishing them off as a before-dinner appetizer.

Okay, go make them. And don't forget to visit www.bakerella.com.

MINI PANCAKE MUFFINS, adapted from Bakerella

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Extra melted butter and maple syrup for dipping

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Sift together with a wire whisk.
3. In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter until just combined.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until combined.
5. Stir in chocolate chips. Reserve a few chips to sprinkle on the tops.
6. Divide batter into well-greased mini muffin tin
   
7. Bake for 12 minutes.
8. Cool in tin for 5-10 minutes. You may want to loosen around the edges with a toothpick to help them pop out.
9. Serve with melted butter and syrup for heavenly dunking.

Click here for printable recipe.

Cinnamon Oat Pancakes

Every once in a while I get a pancake craving, and interestingly it is usually at dinnertime. I am not a big breakfast eater (although I will never ever turn down poached eggs with corned beef hash at the local diner), but the whole concept of breakfast for dinner is appeals to the simple comfort food way that my brain is wired. I don't go for the whole "stuff in your pancakes" approach -- no blueberries or bananas or chocolate chips for me, thank you very much. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I know my dear friend Lynne enjoys a good blueberry pancake for lunch every now and again. But I do like experimenting with the basic pancake itself, and so I have recipes for sourdough pancakes, buckwheat pancakes, and of course there is the good old Bisquick variety. (ah, Bisquick. I heart you.) So when I saw this recipe in a recent edition of EVERYDAY FOOD I knew I had to give it a shot.

First of all, it features two of my favorite taste sensations: cinnamon and oatmeal. Good and good for you. Second, it calls for making the pancakes in nice little rounds - only 2-3 tablespoons of batter per pancake, which is SO much easier to deal with on the griddle and nicer on the plate as well. So we broke out the griddle and
gave it a try.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Is all I have to say.

Except for this: pancakes must always be anointed with Vermont maple syrup. None of this Canadian stuff, please. Vermont. If you happen to be running low on it, which never happens to me thanks to the fact that my Vermont relatives keep us happily supplied, here is a place you can get it.

Maple Syrup from Middletown Springs, Vermont

If I catch you with Mrs. Butterworth on your table...well, don't let me catch you. Anyway, here's how you make some great pancakes, and don't skimp on the maple syrup:

CINNAMON OAT PANCAKES

Makes 20 pancakes

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
• 2 cups milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

1. In a food processor, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ONE cup of the oats. Pulse to coarsely grind oats.

2. In a large bowl, combine milk, eggs and oil. Add flour mixture and remaining oats and whisk until moistened.

3. Heat nonstick skillet or griddle over medium. Oil skillet. Using 2-3 tablespoons batter per pancake, ladle batter onto skillet and cook 1-2 minutes. Flip and cook an additional 1-2 minutes until golden.

4. Serve with butter and Vermont maple syrup. From Vermont. The Green Mountain State.