I’ve had a surprising number of people tell me they have a really hard time making pancakes at home.

Here’s how I make my buttermilk pancakes, which I whipped up for The Angry Chef just the other day.

How to Make Buttermilk Pancakes: Wait, pancakes made with…olive oil?

Yep, yep. My original recipe calls for melted butter. I will admit, though, that I usually use olive oil instead.

It cuts out one step and tastes just great. Just don’t use an oil with any kind of strong flavor. If you’re not crazy about this idea, certainly use melted butter.

Buttermilk Pancakes

1 egg
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. sugar
2 Tbls. olive oil (or melted butter)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt

Makes about 12-14 pancakes.

Crack an egg into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Whisk it until it’s light and frothy.

Add the buttermilk and whisk to combine.

Add the baking soda, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt to the egg/buttermilk mixture.

How to Make Buttermilk Pancakes: A quick note on technique

Now, the more official way to add dry ingredients to wet is to put the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk them together to thoroughly combine (ensuring that you don’t get a lump of baking powder, etc., somewhere).

While I definitely do this for some recipes, I honestly don’t find that it makes a huge difference in this case. Plus, it adds an extra step.

Whisk together to combine until the batter is smooth and free of lumps.

Drizzle in the olive oil. Whisk to incorporate completely.

Your batter should be relatively thick, creamy, and nice and glossy.

Set a non-stick pan on the stove over medium-high heat. I use a double burner griddle. Let the pan heat up for maybe a minute.

Pour or ladle your batter onto the pan in small-ish blobs. It will settle down and flatten out by itself as it cooks.

I like pancakes that are on the smaller size, so I pour out a puddle of batter that’s a little smaller than the palm of my hand.

Lower the heat to medium. Cook for a minute or two. Keep a good eye on them.

If you get down on eye level with your pancakes (don’t burn your snout), you can watch them cook from the bottom up.

After a minute or two, they should look fairly solid on the bottom. You should also notice a few air bubbles form on the surface of the pancakes.

Stick a thin spatula under the edge of one and take a peek. The pancake itself should feel semi-solid and be golden brown underneath. When you see this, it’s time to flip your pancakes.

To flip, slide a thin spatula all the way underneath your pancakes and turn them over. (If you only go halfway, they’re harder to flip.)

Cook them on this side for a minute or two on this side.

You’ll notice when you flip them that they poof up a little.

They’re done when the edges look cooked (i.e. totally solid) and the bottom is golden brown. Don’t overcook them, as they can get tough.

Repeat until you’ve used up all your batter.

If you’re making a bunch of pancakes, preheat your oven to 200 degrees when you start the batter. Keep the cooked pancakes warm in a baking dish until you’re ready to serve.

Enjoy!

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You could toast it and slather it with loads of creamy peanut butter. You could use it for a sandwich that evokes some of the flavors of a classic mexican mole with chicken breast that you’ve sauteed with onion, garlic, and poblano chilis.

You could make French toast for breakfast—or dessert.

This french toast borders on chocolate bread pudding. It gets an extra jolt of creaminess from soaking overnight in a custard-y mixture of eggs, chocolate milk, and heavy cream. I add a tiny bit of Frangelico for a hazelnut accent. If you don’t have it on hand, you could substitute any kind of chocolate liquor, or good, old-fashioned vanilla extract.

To serve, top it with a little butter or whipped cream, drizzle it with chocolate sauce, or crown it with a scoop or two of good vanilla ice cream—or all of the above. (Um, hello…Chocolate French Toast Sundae!)

Assemble it the night before
Assemble your French toast the night before you want to serve it. It takes all of 10 minutes to throw together. This is a fantastic thing to serve a crowd for brunch. Because it’s baked—not fried—you can spend more time chilling out with your guests over coffee or a mimosa, and less time lording over the stove.

A note on the bread
If you don’t have the time or inclination to bake the chocolate bread yourself, you should be able to track some down at a local baker or Whole Foods. You could also try the chocolate sourdough from Zingerman’s. If your bread is a wee bit stale or dry, that’s OK. The custard mixture will take care of that.

Chocolate French Toast

6 thick slices of chocolate bread
4 Tbls. butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups whole chocolate milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 Tbls. Frangelico
pinch of salt
white sugar for sprinkling before baking

The night before
Cut your chocolate bread into slices that are about three-quarters of inch thick.

Lay them out in a 13″ x 9″ baking dish. Depending on the size and shape of your bread, you might need to use a different size pan. The goal is to fit the bread in snugly, even if you have to smoosh it a little. You don’t want too much room between slices.

Melt the butter. I do this in the microwave, to keep prep as easy and fast as I can. (Mine isn’t super powerful, and takes maybe 45 seconds on high power.) You could also melt it on top of the stove.

Drizzle the butter over the bread. Don’t agonize over spreading it precisely. Just get some butter on each piece.

In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs til they’re light and frothy.

Add the chocolate milk to the eggs.

Pour in the heavy cream.

Add the salt and Frangelico (or other liquor). Whisk together til well combined.

Pour this custard mixture over the buttered chocolate bread.

Pick each piece of bread up and roll it around in the custard mixture to coat all sides.

Smoosh the slices down a little to get them to soak up more of the mixture.

Wrap it up well with plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge overnight.

The next day
The Chocolate French Toast takes about 25 minutes to bake. Take the bread mixture out of the fridge and toss the plastic wrap. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and set aside.

Pick each piece of bread up and flip it around to coat all sides again.

Roll the slices around to get the edges, too.

When they’re all coated, line the slices up on your prepared sheet pan.

Sprinkle the tops and edges of the bread generously with white sugar.

Pop the pan in the oven and bake at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes.

They’re done when the tops are crisp and the edges start to brown.

Serve immediately with any combination of butter, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, or vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

***
Copyright 2008 The Hungry Mouse™/Jessica B. Konopa. All rights reserved.

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The Angry Chef and I both like ours slathered with thin slices of cold butter and dripping with good, local maple syrup. If there are any leftover, I like to reheat them in the toaster oven and melt a little cheese over them.

A note on ingredients & equipment
I have an older VillaWare waffle maker that makes 2 waffles at a time.

My favorite—and a kind of ridiculous—thing about it is that it makes a happy, chirping “Waffle Tone” when it’s hot enough to add the batter.

When it comes to actually cooking the waffles, follow the instructions that came with your particular maker. Each brand will be a little different.

If you have buttermilk on hand, you can use that instead of the milk + lemon juice combination.

Old-Timey Sunday Waffles

2 jumbo eggs
2 cups of whole milk
juice from 1 medium-sized lemon
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
6 Tbls. butter, melted
spray oil

Makes about 10 four-inch waffles.

Plug your waffle maker in, turn it on, and let it heat up while you make the batter.

Make the sour milk and melt the butter

Cut your butter up into hunks. Put it in a microwave-safe bowl and nuke it for a little less than a minute on high to melt it. Set it aside.

I like to melt the butter before I add it to the batter. Now, a lot of recipes I’ve seen call for butter that’s softened—not melted—but I haven’t seen any difference doing it this way. And it makes it really easy to mix in.

Add the lemon juice to the milk to sour it.

Start the batter

Crack two jumbo eggs into a large mixing bowl.

Beat them well with a whisk until they’re light and fluffy.

Add the soured milk to the beaten eggs.

Whisk well to combine and beat some air into the mixture.

Add the dry ingredients

Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Stir to combine. Beat out any big lumps with a whisk or the back of a wooden spoon.

Pour in the melted butter. Stir to combine well.

The finished batter will be fairly thin. That’s OK. It’s just how you want it. You might have little pieces of butter in the batter. That’s OK, too. They’ll melt right into the waffles when they cook.

Your batter should just coat the back of a spoon, like this:

Cook the waffles

At this point, your waffle maker should be nice and hot. Mine is non-stick, but I still hit it with a little spray oil right before I pour in the batter.

Ladle in the batter, being careful not to overfill the maker. Generally, you want to pour in enough batter so that it just spreads to fill the grid.

Close the waffle maker and cook the waffles according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

For my waffle maker, I set it on almost the highest heat setting. After a few minutes, my waffles have started to develop a nice crust and brown slightly, like this:

I cook them a few minutes longer, to ensure that the inside is cooked through and the outside is nice and crispy. Yank them out of the waffle maker when they look about like this:

Repeat these steps until you’ve used all your batter. If you leave your waffle maker open for a long time, it will lose a little heat and the next batch might take longer to cook.

Keeping them warm

If you’re not serving them right away (or want to wait til the whole batch is cooked to bring them all out at once), keep the waffles warm in the oven.

Heat your oven to 200 degrees. Set a wire rack over a sheet pan and put it in the oven. As the waffles cook, stick them on the rack to stay warm and crisp.

Serve and enjoy

I like my waffles the old-fashioned way: with butter and good local maple syrup.

The finished waffles are crunchy on the outside, and soft and moist on the inside.

Enjoy!

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This French toast is hearty and filling and is an easy way to serve a crowd. And since you put it together the night before and bake—not fry—it, it’s an almost effortless thing to cook the day after a big night.

For a richer, eggier french toast, you can make this with a good challah bread. To take it over the top, substitute light cream for some or all of the milk.

Lazy Sunday French Toast

1 long loaf crusty French bread
1/2 stick butter, melted
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups milk
3 Tbls. sugar + 1 Tbls. right before you bake
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla

The night before
Butter a 13 x 9 inch baking pan and set aside.

Cut the bread diagonally into roughly inch-thick slices. Discard the tippy ends if they’re super hard and crusty. Arrange in the baking dish, smooshing them a little if need be. Brush the tops generously with the butter, using it all.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, sugar, salt, and vanilla until well combined. Pour over the bread in the dish, tipping the baking pan to ensure all the bread is coated evenly. The goal is to get each piece of bread soaked.

Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight.

The next day
Take the baking pan out of the fridge and pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees. You want to take the chill off the French toast as your oven heats up.

Sprinkle the tops with 1 Tbls. of sugar. Bake uncovered for about 25 minutes, until the tops are golden brown.

Serve immediately with butter, maple syrup, and piping hot coffee.

***
Copyright 2008 The Hungry Mouse™/Jessica B. Konopa. All rights reserved.

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This recipe is a happy accident.

I was planning on making my Coconut Bomb cookies this afternoon, and realized a little too late that I was out of, well, coconut. I had a container of fresh blueberries in the fridge, so I changed a few things and tossed them in instead.

And man, am I glad I did.

These cookies are like a blueberry muffin’s tomboy sister: shorter, a little sturdier, but still plenty sweet. With a soft, almost-but-not-quite cakelike texture, they’re part cookie, part cake, part scone.

They have a nice tang from the combination of sour cream in the batter and a drizzle of lemon icing on top. They’d be perfect to serve with brunch or at an afternoon barbecue accompanied by a little vanilla ice cream.

Here’s what they look like before they’re glazed.

Blueberry Cake-ettes

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, well packed
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 cup powdered sugar
Juice from 1-2 lemons

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Make the icing first
This is the same basic lemon juice and powdered sugar icing that I put on my cream cheese cookies.

Sift the powdered sugar into a medium bowl to remove any lumps. Squeeze one lemon into the powdered sugar. (Do this over a strainer or your hand to catch any pulp.) Whisk to combine completely.

Add more lemon juice until the icing is about the consistency of heavy cream. Set aside on the counter.

Make the cookie dough
Combine the butter, brown sugar, white sugar, and eggs in the bowl of a mixer. Cream together until light and fluffy.

Add the sour cream and vanilla and mix until well combined.

Stir in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix again until the dough comes together and is uniform in consistency.

Fold in the blueberries as evenly as you can without popping too many of them.

Bake, glaze, and enjoy
Using a tablespoon, drop large blobs of cookie dough onto the baking sheets.

Bake for roughly 12-15 minutes, until cookies are light brown on the bottom and the tops just spring back when pressed with a finger. (The bigger you make them, the longer they’ll take to cook.)

While still hot, brush generously with lemon icing. Let cool completely and enjoy.

Makes about 26 large cookies.

***
Copyright 2008 The Hungry Mouse™/Jessica B. Konopa. All rights reserved.

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