Off-Campus Kitchen: Easter Pancakes
I spent Easter weekend with my extended family in rural Vermont. There's nothing like my aunt's cooking to give me a respite from campus, and nothing like being off-the-grid for resetting my Dartmouth priorities. My cousin came home Saturday to report that his friend had spent the afternoon making his own maple syrup, from trees on his Vermont property. Making maple syrup involves boiling down the sap of the maple tree — check out the sugaring operation at Dartmouth's own organic farm if you're intrigued by the idea. Anyway, the friend sent along a Ball jar full of fresh maple syrup with a proposition that he come by the following morning to taste my aunt's homemade pancakes, drizzled with his homemade syrup. My aunt agreed, so we woke up Easter morning to these delicious made-from-scratch pancakes graced with syrup made literally the day before.
Perhaps you can't replicate the absolute freshness of the syrup in your dorm, but you can try making pancakes from scratch. Writing that I prefer to make things from scratch is a given at this point in the column, but as I've said many times before, I tend to think made-from-scratch tastes better and, although more time consuming, gives me more of a sense of connection to my food.
I'll also note that my aunt keeps things lactose-free; although I've modified her recipe to include milk and butter, you can substitute them with almond milk and oil, which I can testify is delicious.
Easter pancakes
Wet ingredients:
3 eggs
2 cups milk
6 tablespoons melted butter (allow to cool a bit after melting, so the butter doesn't start to cook the eggs)
2 tablespoons vanilla extract (optional)Dry ingredients:
3 cups flour
5 tablespoons sugar (preferably powdered, so it dissolves faster)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (omit if you have salted butter)For the pan: additional 3 tablespoons butter
1. Mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately. In this state you can make the batter ahead of time, but as soon as you combine wet and dry ingredients, it's a ticking clock for the fluffiness of your pancakes.
2. Melt additional butter on griddle or skillet over the stove, on medium heat. Ensure the butter is well-distributed over the cooking surface.
3. Scoop about 1/4 cup batter at a time onto the skillet. Cook each pancake on one side for about two minutes, or until pockmarks form on the exposed batter surface. Flip and cook for about another minute. My aunt's trick is to judge “done-ness” from the steam that rises from each pancake — the amount of steam will taper off as the pancake uses up interior moisture, becoming more cooked.
5. Optional: If you have large metal cookie molds, you can pour the batter into them to make shaped pancakes, as shown in the photo. Just be sure to remove the mold after the first minute or less of cooking; if you leave it for too long, the pancake will cook onto the mold and become difficult to extract.Serve with desired condiments — I like fresh Vermont maple syrup and butter.
