COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!!
As you may have seen in my last post, I'm a HUGE fan of the University of Arizona Wildcats, so you know I'm already amped for their game against UCLA this afternoon. But what makes today even better is that ESPN College Gameday is in Tucson for their pregame show. I don't get homesick very often anymore, but I do get a little nostalgic seeing footage of my hometown.
Go Wildcats!!!
Today also happens to be National Pancake Day. Earlier in the week when I mentioned this to a few people, they asked if IHOP would be giving away pancakes today. So I did some research, and no. IHOP doesn't give away pancakes on September 26. IHOP celebrates Free Pancake Day in March on what is known as Shrove Tuesday - AKA Fat Tuesday - AKA Get All Your Kicks In Before Lent Day. So even though the official pancake day is today, there will apparently be no free pancakes.
Which means I need to cook.....bake? What does one actually do to pancakes?
I will be completely honest with you here....I am terrible at making pancakes. I don't know what it is, but I've never successfully made pancakes. Either the recipe is terrible, they're too flour-y, they don't rise, they're hard as rocks - I don't know what it is, but I'm not normally a wake up and make pancakes on Saturday kind of gal.
But today I'm going to change that. TODAY I will make awesome pancakes.
Under the supervision of Chef Dog, of course.
So with a little help from AllRecipes.com, here's the recipe:
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups milk - room temperature
1 egg - room temperature
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
Directions:
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Double sift just to be sure everything is mixed nicely and there's nothing to clump up your batter needlessly.
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| Yes, that's my coffee in the background, not part of the recipe, but I can't function without it |
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. In a separate cup, mix together the milk and egg. Once your butter has cooled slightly, slowly temper it into the milk-egg mix...and by temper, I mean to add a little bit of butter to the milk-egg, stir, add a little more, stir, then continue to add the rest. You don't want to add warm butter to eggs or you'll have the makings of scrambled eggs, which does your pancake batter no good at all.
Make a well in the center and pour the milk-egg-better mixture in. Now here comes the tricky part - you want to mix everything together, but you don't want to over stir or your pancakes will be hockey pucks. For this particular batch, I used a fork and sort of scooped from the bottom as I stirred. Between the flour well and the fork, the batter was able to come together in a shorter amount of time with less stirring.
Let the batter rest while you heat a non-stick griddle or frying pan to medium high heat. When water droplets sizzle in the pan, scoop the batter onto the griddle. Some people have those awesome pancake batter dispensers; I just use a ladle - it dishes out just the right amount.
When bubbles start to form on the top of the pancake, carefully lift the edge to look underneath and make sure it's golden brown. You don't want to flip too soon.
Make a well in the center and pour the milk-egg-better mixture in. Now here comes the tricky part - you want to mix everything together, but you don't want to over stir or your pancakes will be hockey pucks. For this particular batch, I used a fork and sort of scooped from the bottom as I stirred. Between the flour well and the fork, the batter was able to come together in a shorter amount of time with less stirring.
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| Still just a little lumpy |
Let the batter rest while you heat a non-stick griddle or frying pan to medium high heat. When water droplets sizzle in the pan, scoop the batter onto the griddle. Some people have those awesome pancake batter dispensers; I just use a ladle - it dishes out just the right amount.
When bubbles start to form on the top of the pancake, carefully lift the edge to look underneath and make sure it's golden brown. You don't want to flip too soon.
Once flipped, let the other side brown up (again, feel free to peek if need be)
And voila!
One shortstack of pancakes. I like to add a little butter and syrup
Isn't this the cutest little syrup boat ever?
Slightly crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside....I did it. I actually made decent pancakes today!!!
Chef Dog concurs.
So there you have it...easy pancakes to celebrate National Pancake Day with. So now that we're all fueled up and ready to go, it's time to get ready for some football. Go Cats! Bear Down!!
I love Saturdays!
