Batter Blaster!!!!

Last week we were grocery shopping and saw this intriguing thing near the eggs

Batter Blaster!!!!!1!!!! Pancakes! Organic, even. That's right, they now have pancakes in a can. The same kind of can as the miraculous squirt whip. They were a bit pricey ($5) but we've already made pancakes for the two of us 3 times and it isn't empty yet. And whoa, the convenience factor (not to mention the coolness) - we really wished we had seen this a week earlier for the tent camping trip. Totally worth $5 to avoid mixing etc. while camping. We are planning on getting it again for our cabin trip in September but that has a real kitchen and everything so it isn't really necessary...

Handy diagrams

Pancake squirting action shot

They're good but they do taste a little different than my usual pancakes... lighter? fluffier? Like there's a lot of air in them, which I guess there is.

Speaking of breakfast breads, here's a gratuitous shot of the yummy french toast Trevor made with my homemade potato bread. It made really good french toast!

Cottage Cheese & Apple Pancakes

Cottage Cheese & Apple Pancakes
from: The New Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen

4 eggs separated (yolks optional - use all, some, or none) I used a couple of the yolks
1 cup cottage cheese
1 cup (packed) grated tart apple this was one Granny Smith apple. The apple wouldn't grate for me, just kind of mushed. So I chunked it and threw it in my mini food chopper to get it to more of a tiny chop than a grate.
3/4 cup flour
1 to 2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon I only used a small dash
optional: 1 Tablespoon honey I wanted these more on the savory side and did not use the honey
1/2 tsp salt
optional: 2 to 3 Tbs. finely minced walnuts or almonds I don't really like nuts so didn't use
oil or butter for frying

1) Beat the egg whites until stiff.
2) Combine other ingredients and mix well. Fold in the egg whites.
3) Heat oil or melt butter in a skillet. When it is hot enough to sizzle, add spoonfuls of batter. Fry on both sides until firm and lightly browned. Serve right away, topped with your choice of toppings.

toppings: maple syrup
sour cream or yogurt
Berry sauce This is another recipe in the book - I suggest fresh or frozen strawberries or strawberry jam
We tried these with all of the toppings (separately) the strawberry was great (some fresh made strawberry jam) and the maple syrup was also very good.

Once again the recipe says serves about 4 but I'd cut that in half. I doubled the recipe (to use up all the cottage cheese) and we cooked and ate half the first day and half the second day. (Recipe states: The batter keeps well for days so you can have it on hand.) Served this one with soy/sausage as well. I'm told it went really well with the polish sausage and also really well with the side of vidalia onion he cooked to go with the sausage the second day.

This one sounds a little odd, I think, but it is a real winner. I experimented by trying it and am happy I did.

Banana Pancakes

These were quicky cheater pancakes. I had two bananas that were in an emergency need of being used so I just added them to a small batch of pancakes from mix (1 cup of mix size batch). When I looked at Banana Pancake recipes they were talking about slicing the bananas and putting them on the pancakes as they cook (like blueberries). I wanted the banana to be integrated into the pancake (plus mine were too soft for slicing). So I just made up the mix and stirred in the mashed banana. Then I added a little extra water until the consistency looked good (the banana thickened it up). They turned out nice and banana-y - like a nice banana bread flavor.

Oh, I was going to use my grandma-in-law's trick for great pancakes - she uses an all in one pancake mix where you are only supposed to add water but adds the egg and oil that it calls for waffles. Basically she makes waffle pancakes, whatever you call them they are great. But anyway, I was out of eggs. But consider that when you are making pancakes from a mix.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

Sweet Potato Pancakes
from: The New Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen note: This is an update of the original Moosewood Cookbook from 1977 so the same or similar recipe may be in that edition as well

4 cups (packed) coarsely grated sweet potatoes (recipe says 1 large or 2 medium - I had 1 large and only got 3 cups so...) done with the largest grate on my box grater
1/2 cup grated onion I used vidalia. I grate onion with the small grate on my flat hand grater to get it very fine
3 to 4 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste
4 beaten eggs (yolks optional) I used the whole eggs since I didn't have another use for the yolks
1/3 cup flour
optional: 1/3 cup minced parsley I used a random small handful

oil for frying
toppings: sour cream or yogurt
applesauce

1) Combine all ingredients and mix well.
2) Heat a small amount of oil in a skillet until it is very hot. (A fleck of batter should sizzle on contact.)
3) Use a non-slotted spoon to form thin pancakes, patting the batter down. Fry on both sides until brown, adding small amounts of additional oil, if/as needed.
4) serve hot, with toppings.

This is basically the same as a regular potato pancake recipe but I never thought of using sweet potatoes. It is a really good idea! They come out nicely colored orange and taste great.
Oh, the recipe says 4 to 6 servings but I don't see that happening. Maybe as breakfast with a bunch of other stuff. I adapted the recipe the go along with my 3 cups of sweet potato and the two of us ate almost all of them for dinner with a soysage/polish sausage each on the side.

Making Pancakes like... Hotcakes

This has unintentionally turned out to be the summer of the pancake in my house. When we realized how many pancake varieties we've already tried we decided to make it official and keep it up with the pancakes. Pancakes make a good quick Friday night supper. And so, I blog them to spread the pancake wealth. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of any we've made so far - some of them looked pretty good. I'll blog each recipe separately - so far we've had Sweet Potato Pancakes, Banana Pancakes (these were a breakfast), and Cottage Cheese Apple Pancakes. Up to bat next is Zucchini Feta Pancakes. Then, who knows.... the search for other crazy pancakes begins.