Sunday, February 11, 2018

Breakfast At The Hawthornes.

 

Generally, when I make pancakes or waffles, I don't measure anything.  I just throw together flour, baking powder and/or soda, milk or buttermilk, sugar, vanilla, and eggs into a bowl and hope for the best.  And it always comes out good.

However, if I want The Best Pancakes and The Best Waffles, I have two tried and true recipes that will deliver.

First, the pancakes.

The Best Pancakes

1 cup flour
1 TB sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 stick (4 TB) unsalted butter, melted
Whisk together dry ingredients.
In another bowl, whisk buttermilk, egg, and vanilla.
Slowly stir liquid mixture into dry mixture.
Gently stir in butter.
You want lumpy.
Let rest 5 minutes before cooking.
 

 Lumpy batter.
Lumpy is good!

 Melt a little unsalted butter in a skillet of medium heat and ladle in the batter.
When bubbles form, it's time to turn over.
 

 
 Now, The Best Pancakes must be accompanied by The Best Syrup.

Rosie's Pancake/Waffle Syrup
4 TB butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
handful each of sliced strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and coarsely chopped pecans

Melt butter and brown sugar over low heat.  Stir in syrup and vanilla.  Heat until bubbling.
Turn heat to low and add fruits and pecans.  Keep warm.








Now, for The Best Waffles.
Start on these the night before.  They have yeast in them and the batter needs to rest and rise overnight.

The Best Waffles 

1 package yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup skim milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp sugar
2 cups flour
2 eggs
 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
Sprinkle yeast over the water with a pinch of sugar.
Stir to dissolve. 
While yeast is "proofing"(It's proving it's alive by eating and emitting carbon dioxide and getting foamy.), melt butter and heat milk and cream. You want the milk and cream warm, not hot.  Add melted butter and warmed milk and cream to the yeast mixture.
Add flour, sugar, and salt to liquid mixture and whisk until smooth.
 Cover bowl and let stand at room temperature overnight.
In the morning, whisk in baking soda, beaten eggs, and vanilla.

Heat up the waffle machine.
For the first waffle, I use butter.
None for the rest.
I cook my waffles a little longer than the machine calls for.  I like crisp.
Crisp is good.

We like to put these in the toaster oven before serving,
 to crisp them up even more and make 'em even better.

Yeast, warm water, and a sprinkling of sugar.
Proof the yeast.

 Whisk in the melted butter, milk, cream, flour, sugar, and salt.

 Whisky! Whisky! 
Cover and let rise overnight.

 The next morning, it's all poofy!

 Add in eggs, vanilla, and baking soda.

 Whisk until smooth.

Then ladle into the waffle iron.
I like to cook for a bit longer than called for, then let set the waffles in a warm oven to crisp up even more.






Enjoy!

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