Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Greek Yogurt Pancakes

Speaking of Pancakes...

It seems there is a trend here: Pancakes.  My last several recipe entries have all been pancakes so let's continue, shall we?  We like pancakes here at our house.  We eat them semi-regular.  I like them because they are a blank canvas on which to express my culinary creativity.  Greek Yogurt is not just the trendy ingredient du jour, but a regular staple in our house.  We buy cases of the fat free plain greek yogurt at a time.  (Yeah, I could make my own, but that sounds like a lot of work.  Especially when there is Costco.)  I have taken to using plain greek yogurt anywhere I would use sour cream, even in baking.  

Combining Greek Yogurt and Pancakes seems pretty natural.  Here are a couple things to keep in mind.  
Use any greek yogurt you want.  Flavored, plain, et cetera.  I used blueberry flavored once and added fresh blueberries for blueberry pancakes.  The cakes turned out a rather unappealing purple grey color.  So, be careful the color yogurt you use.  Made with vanilla yogurt, the blueberry pancakes were just fine.  Also, because these have little flour and all that protein rich yogurt, the texture of these pancakes is very different.  They are kind of spongy.  They will soak up more syrup for sure, so don't get carried away.  Finally, they cook different.  your batter is thick so it wont pour into the skillet.  You scoop it into the pan then kind of press them out.  They will still fluff up when cooking.

I hope you see these as your own blank canvas and get creative with your pancakes.  Blueberry!  Vanilla Hazelnut!  Carrot Cake! (I'll share that recipe later.)

Here I made strawberry banana pancakes with additional yogurt topping.  I love the way bananas get caramelized in pancakes.  The strawberries I like served on top.

Ingredients
6 oz. Greek Yogurt (give or take.  Approx 1 single serve container or about 1/2 cup.  I used vanilla this time)
1 egg
1/2 cup flour (of your choice)
1 tsp baking soda
Fruit or other add-in
** If you use plain yogurt, the cakes will be tart.  I recommend adding a little sugar to your batter to compensate.**

Directions
Mix together your yogurt and the egg until smooth.  Add Flour and Baking Soda.  Mix just until combined.  DO NOT add your fruit.  This applies to any pancake.  Always wait until it is in the pan.  You don't want to bruise or damage the fruit.
Prepare your skillet by preheating and adding a little butter to the pan.  Set your burner at medium-high.  Scoop about 1/4 cup batter mixture into the pan.  Lightly press the batter with the scoop to make it more pancake shaped.  NOW add your fruit (bananas in this case) as the cakes cook on the first side.  After a couple minutes (you'll notice the cake has puffed up around your fruit) when the pancake has set and the edges are starting to brown, flip the cakes and cook another couple minutes.  I cook these lower and slower to make sure they are cooked through.  When browned on the other side, remove from pan, top with additional fruit and enjoy!  I also made a little yogurt topping (instead of whipped topping.)
See my yummy strawberries and delicate dollops?

Yogurt topping:  Everything is to taste so no set measurements here.
Plain Yogurt (1/3 cup)
Vanilla (1 tsp)
Sugar (1/2 - 1 tablespoon)

Mix and use as topping on your pancakes. You could also mix in maple syrup if you wanted.
I liked the yogurt topping.  B liked it more.


B's generous portion of yogurt topping with strawberries and maple syrup

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Spaghetti Sauce with Pumpkin

Or... What to do with leftover pumpkin.

When I make spaghetti sauce I almost always start with onions, peppers, and carrots.  I saute these with whatever else I feel like adding.  Typically, I will small dice zucchini and/or yellow squash.  This particular evening, I had no usual squash, but I did have some leftover pumpkin puree (thanks to my yummy Pumpkin Pancakes.)  It seemed to me a normal substitution.

After cooking the onions, peppers, and carrots, I added my tomato sauce (I often use jarred spaghetti sauce in the interest of time.)  If I was cooking my sauce from scratch, I would cook it nearly to completion before adding pumpkin.  As it was, I added the puree shortly after the spaghetti sauce.  I stirred it in and heated everything through.

The pumpkin was a nice background note to the sauce.  It was not overwhelming but added a bit of richness to the sauce.  We are used to a bit of squash flavor anyway.  The sauce was certainly thicker because of the pumpkin puree.  If this bothers you, you could add additional plain tomato sauce.

Try it.  It is a great way to add more flavor and more vegetables to your meal.

Pumpkin Pancakes with Maple Cream Cheese Icing

In reading pancake recipes I've come across the mention of cake flour several times.  Not being a baker type person, I had no idea what cake flour was or why I might want to use it in my pancakes.  Apparently cake flour is a lower gluten flour used to make a more crumbly cake.  It also has a lower protein content and is finely milled.  Well, I'm not going to go to the trouble to buy extra kinds of flour, but I can see that flour with a finer texture might make fluffier pancakes.  I ended up taking an in-between step and adding a special ingredient- corn starch.  I think it added to the fluffiness, but further experimentation is necessary.

Anyway, since it is hot, hot summertime, it seems the perfect time to make warm pumpkin pancakes, right?  B has been on my case to use some of the cans of pumpkin puree we had in the cupboard which I had stockpiled when they were on sale.  So.  Pumpkin pancakes.  These turned out pretty delicious and I will make them again for sure.

This recipe makes a hearty breakfast for two but can easily be doubled.

Ingredients
  • 1 1/4 cup AP flour
  • 2 Tbl. Corn Starch
  • 1 Tbl. Baking Powder
  • 1/2 tsp. Salt
  • 1 Tbl. Sugar
  • Pumpkin Pie Spice (1/8 - 1/4 tsp, depending on how heavily spiced you like it)
  • 1 cup Pumpkin puree
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 tsp. vanilla (running over!)
  • Cream Cheese (2 or more tablespoons)
  • Maple Syrup
Directions
I know you're supposed to sift all your dry ingredients together, then seperately mix your wet ingredients together, then combine the two.  I don't.  This is pancakes, not rocket science.  I just want to eat a yummy breakfast not stand around all day stirring things.  So...

Dump all the dry ingredients in a bowl.  Stir it around for a couple seconds.  Add all the remaining ingredients (except the cream cheese and maple syrup) to the same bowl.  Stir until combined, but don't overmix.  Let the batter rest while you do other stuff like make your icing and get your cooking skillet out and so on.
Cooking pancakes.  No time for more pictures, just time to make and eat.

When your pan is heated (medium high heat,) melt a little butter in the bottom to coat (so your pancakes don't stick and they taste nice and buttery.)  Slowly add batter to the pan in the size pancakes you desire.  Cook until bubbles have burst then flip the pancakes over.  They will have been mostly cooked through on the first side, so they will just take a minute on the second side.  Keep warm until all pancakes are cooked.  Serve and top with this killer Cream Cheese Maple Icing.

To make the icing:
Start with 2 tablespoons cream cheese in a microwave safe dish.  Heat for about 20-30 seconds.  Stir.  Cream cheese should be very smooth.  If not, heat a few seconds longer and stir again.  If your cream cheese isn't smooth when you add the syrup, you'll have weird lumps.  Okay, once it is smooth and stirs easily, add some maple syrup.  About 1 tablespoon maybe.  Stir it in until well combined.  Taste it.  Does it taste super yummy?  Then you're done.  Maybe you think it should be more syrupy.  Then go ahead and add some more syrup until it is the scrumptious pancake topping of your dreams.  Enjoy!