.german pancakes with pears.

This recipe was found in a Martha Stewart KIDS magazine I bought years ago. While packing things up for our move, I found my stash upstairs and gleefully went through each issue page by page taking all of the craft and food projects in. I really miss this publication and wish Martha would bring it back! (Perhaps we should start a campaign?)

Today I wanted to make breakfast one last time for my husband before we separate for a couple of weeks. Sounds dire, doesn't it? I thought this would be the perfect thing and man.. it sure was. The original recipe calls for apples, but I bought pears instead because I love the sweetness they give, especially to this type of baked treat.

I imagine these would be a great breakfast for your holiday mornings, either Thanksgiving or Christmas. They don't take horribly long and you can make as many or as few as you want. Throw in some fruit, cottage potatoes and sausage and you've got a breakfast your family will love you for.


Here are your ingredients. I doubled the recipe from the magazine which I will post here. If you want less, just cut the recipe in half.

1 1/2 c. flour, 1/2 c. sugar + more for dusting pan, 3/4 c. milk, 3 Tbsp butter(melted), 5 eggs, 3 Bosc pears (peeled and diced), 3 Tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp salt, 2 Tbsp butter, 1/4 c. honey or brown sugar.


Melt 2 Tbsp butter in a skillet. Dump in the diced pears. Stir to coat and fry for a couple minutes.


Add the lemon juice, cinnamon, and honey. Cook over medium high heat, stirring often until the liquid evaporates and the pears and nice and caramelized.


This is what they should look like. Yummy. You could eat them just like this, but I really suggest you put them in these pancakes. They are SO GOOD!


Brush giant muffin tins with the melted butter.


Sprinkle in teaspoons of sugar and coat each muffin cup. My pancakes stuck a little and so if I were to do this again? I would probably skip this and spray with Pam so they release better.


I got my big helper involved. She loves to cook with me and I appreciate her interest and help.

In a large bowl, dump in the sugar, flour, and salt. Mix together with a whisk.













Using one of those empty bowls, break your eggs. Paige will not let me crack the eggs. She must do them herself. She's so independent!















Mix the eggs with a fork and pour into the dry ingredients. Pour the milk into the bowl as well.

Whisk all the ingredients together then transfer the batter into a bowl with a pourable spout. This will make it easier to fill the muffin tins.












Hmph... look who I caught sneaking some pears? See, I TOLD you these were really good!

You might want to hide them from the family because you might find a thief doing something like this in your home.













Spoon some of the pears into the bottom of each tin. Pour the batter on top of the pears and fill each cup up halfway.

Once the batter is all used up, put the pans in a pre-heated 450* oven. Once you put them in, lower the heat to 400* and bake for 15 minutes.

The last 5 minutes these will puff way up.










When you pull from the oven, see how they are all puffy and pretty? Take a knife and run the blade around the edge of each pancake. Place a tray on top and then flip it over to release the pancakes from the pan.

Plate and then dust lightly with powdered sugar and a dollop of whipped cream. Or you could drizzle with maple syrup like my husband. Enjoy!


Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_121vpgbccc9

.dad's buttermilk pancakes.

My dad is the pancake man! Growing up we always looked forward to the weekends because that meant dad would make us breakfast. This is his go to recipe and the pancakes are so light and fluffy and delicious!



My daughter begged me to make these last weekend and who was I to disappoint her? However, halfway through I realized my griddle broke about a month or so ago so I had to use a pan on the stove. I really recommend using a griddle. You'll be pouring and flipping for a long time. LOL



Feel free to add whatever berries you want to this, if you want berries at all. I had some blueberries in the freezer and used those. Raspberries are really good in this recipe, as are bacon bits, or apples! Yummy!



In a large bowl, put 2 cups flour, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 1 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp salt.



In a small mixing bowl, mix together 2 cups buttermilk and 2 eggs.



Pour the wet into the dry and mix until all the lumps are gone.



If it's too thick, add a litle more buttermilk. You don't want it too thin otherwise your pancakes will be paper thin.



At this point, add berries if you're using them.



Use a measuring cup or ladle to scoop the batter. Put a large scoop on the griddle or pan.



When you see air bubbles breaking all over the pancake, you will know it's time to flip!



Carefully flip the pancake over. Let it cook on the other side. This should take about 3 minutes per side. If your griddle or pan is too hot, you are going to have gooey centers that are YUCKY! So make sure you're not cooking these on too high of heat.



Pull from the griddle when both sides are nice and golden. Hold in a 200* oven until all pancakes are made.



Growing up, we never bought storebought syrup. We always made it. I really can't have it any other way now. It's really easy to make homemade syrup.



Put 2 cups sugar and 1 cup water in a saucepan.

Turn the burner onto medium low. You want to dissolve the sugar.



When the syrup loses it's cloudiness and the sugar crystals have dissolved, you want to add some mapeline, or maple flavoring. About 2 teaspoons.







Mapleine can be found down the spice aisle of your grocery store. A big bottle like this goes a long way.

When the syrup and pancakes are ready, it's time to dig in!

Serve hot with lots of butter. Now you can have delicious, fluffy buttermilk pancakes at home! Treat your kids tomorrow morning. :)

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_78gxm8k7zj

.potato pancakes #1.

I was on Yahoo instant messenger the other night with my girlfriend, Christy. She's my gal pal from Texas. Yeehaw! LOL



She loves to cook and was telling me about these potato pancakes her grandmother used to make. She said they were out of this world and hers just didn't hold up. So I thought I might tackle this challenge.



From the title you can see that this is experiment #1. These potato pancakes are made with grated potatoes. Next time I make them, I'm going to use mashed potatoes and compare the two. But what's not to love? Fried potatoes. Can't hate that!



Begin with peeled potatoes. Use white or yukon gold. Do not use russet or baking potatoes. They are too mealy for this.



Grate the potatoes.



Put all of the grated potatoes on a couple layers of paper towels. We need to squeeze all of the water out of these bad boys.



Squeeze! I needed to do this twice which meant squeezing the first time, opening up the towels and then dumping them onto new towels because this one was saturated with liquid.



Put the potatoes in a bowl. Crack in two eggs.



Add 1 tsp salt



Some pepper.



Add a little tabasco.



And a light dusting of garlic powder.



Add 4 Tbsp of flour.



Use a fork to mix everything together.



Chop one small onion.



Heat a tablespoon of butter in a pan.



Saute until the onion is browned and softened. Remove from pan and put directly into the potato bowl. Mix.



Grab a small handful of the potato mixture and plop carefully into a skillet filled halfway up with hot oil. I use a cast iron skillet for this kind of frying because it retains heat very well and keeps it consistent.



When the one side is nice and golden, flip over. I used two turners to avoid splashing.



You want to be patient when frying these. Don't get your oil too hot because the outside of these will burn and the inside will be raw. EW! Don't turn them too soon. Let them cook as long as you can let them on each side to ensure they get cooked through.



When they're gold on each side, pull from the oil and let rest on paper towels. Reseason with a sprinkle of salt. Serve warm!