By Jane Thomson
More pancakes and less prose (could this be on a t-shirt?) Pancakes, combined with fruit and either milk, eggs, yoghurt or sausage make a decent meal. It”'s only when you take in “all you can eat” that they become a weight hazard. Any of the pancakes below would be good with syrup, honey or tart/sweet fruit jelly.
WATKINS OATMEAL PANCAKES ”“ (This must refer to the Watkins company that sold household items, including vanilla, door to door. Perhaps they are still in business.)
1cup rolled oats
½ cup of whole wheat or unbleached white flour
1 ½ cup buttermilk or low-fat milk
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
1tsp. cinnamon
Combine oats and flour. Add milk, beaten eggs, baking powder, vanilla and cinnamon. Beat until flour is blended well. Let stand 30 minutes (all of these recipes can stand in the refrigerator for several days in batter form before being used up). Heat nonstick griddle, greased for good measure, at medium heat. Drop about ¼ cup of batter on heated griddle for each pancake ”“ it”'s going to spread out! Watch pancakes get dry and bubbly around the edges, then turn them to brown other side (these cooking directions good for all these recipes).
GINGER PANCAKES ”“From the “S”'Trib” long ago; attributed to a DoRayne Johnson.
2 1/2 cups flour
5 tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ginger
¼ cup molasses
2 cups milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup raisins
6 tablespoons melted shortening or margarine or butter
Sift together powdered ingredients. Combine milk and molasses separately. Add eggs to that mixture, stir in melted fat and blend into dry mixture. Stir in raisins. Bake on heated griddle, using about ¼ cup of batter (this amount good for any pancake recipe). Makes about 20 pancakes. These pancakes might be good topped with more molasses. Syrupor honey were fine, as was the fruit jelly.
CHOCOLATE GRIDDLE CAKES Serves four (no, probably more)
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ¼ cups flour
1 cup sugar
½ tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
2 large eggs (the original recipe called for
one more egg yolk; but I used about ¼ cup of pasteurized egg whites)
¾ cup buttermilk
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla
Sift dry ingredients together; then whisk in the eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla until well combined (much like recipes above). See top recipe for cooking pancakes, in case you don”'t already know. The original recipe came with a recipe for a sauce, made by carefully combining 7 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped, with 1 cup of heavy cream, which had been brought to a boil. I didn”'t make this. I had some chocolate syrup on hand.
