Apple Yeast Pancakes (with Vanilla-Rum Sauce)

These are exceptionally good, simple pancakes. You only need a single egg, some yeast, milk and flour, plus a little sugar and oil and some cooking apples. Apart from those pantry (and fruit bowl) staples, nothing special is needed. That makes them a reliable option for a good late-autumn breakfast when you haven't gone grocery shopping quite yet.

I added some spices and walnuts, which went very well with the apples, but can be easily skipped. The mild yeast flavour of the batter and the apples are a good match. While I've got other, richer recipes for yeast pancakes, these can be fallen back upon when a single egg is all I've got. 

The vanilla sauce I made with rum was from the previous day (and my second-last egg) and when warmed, tasted extremely good with these pancakes in particular. Other good companions include sour cream, maple syrup (of course) and apple butter. Serve them hot and enjoy them in plenty- this recipe makes a lot. Halve it if you don't want to eat a dozen or aren't feeding a small army. I've got some in the freezer for the days when I don't have time to make pancakes, along with waffles and my new favourite homemade granola... it's good to be prepared.

Apple Yeast Pancakes
Adapted from Moje Wypieki
Makes a really, really large amount of pancakes

750-800 g. Flour (I used half type 550 and half bread flour)
1.5 L Milk, 3.8% is best
2-3 TBSP Brown sugar
42 g. Fresh yeast, or 3 Tsp. Active dry yeast
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp. Nutmeg
2 Tsp. Vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 TBSP Nut oil, or melted butter
1 Egg
5 Cooking apples, thinly sliced (with a mandoline is best)
2/3 C. Walnut pieces (optional)

Oil or butter, to fry
Syrup, vanilla sauce or cinnamon-sugar, to serve

Mix flour, salt and spices. In the middle, form a well.

Heat one cup of the milk until warm and dissolve the yeast and sugar. Add to the centre of the flour and let sit, covered, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the rest of the milk, vanilla, oil, and egg and mix well to combine.

Let rise covered for 1 1/2 hours.

Prepare a cup of hot water and two large spoons. Heat a nonstick skillet or cast iron pan with a bit of butter or oil. Use the spoons to scoop balls of dough onto the pan and use a spatula to press a few slices of apple into each (along with walnut pieces, if using). Cook for about a minute on each side and keep warm in a low-temperature oven until ready to serve.

Rum-Vanilla Sauce
400 ml. Milk, 3.8%
1/2 TBSP Cornstarch
1 Egg yolk
2 TBSP sugar, plus 1/2 TBSP vanilla sugar 
2 TBSP Dark rum
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract

Heat milk over medium heat until steaming in a small saucepan. In another bowl, combine cornstarch, sugar, and yolk with a whisk. 

Once milk is hot, use half a cup to temper the yolk mixture by whisking it in very quickly, until well-mixed. Pour into the pan with the rest of the milk and cook, while whisking, until it bubbles.

Remove from heat and whisk in rum and vanilla. Keep warm until serving.

Neo-Classic (Vegan) Crepes with Pear-Walnut Filling

My experiments with vegan cooking and baking continue! This is a recipe I've tried in both sweet and savoury styles and it goes really well either way. Besan/gram flour/chickpea flour is an excellent egg replacer in a lot of things, and also helps give an eggy flavour/colour as well. It's also nutritious, so. 

I'm a legume lover in any context (and chickpeas are one of my faves) so this recipe was a natural choice. While it doesn't taste anything like chickpeas (probably for the best here) it's absolutely fantastic. 

I modulated the recipe to suit a sweet filling with some vanilla soy milk on top of the water, vanilla extract, and a tablespoon of sugar. I added a spoon of flaxseed meal just because I love it so, and also because it tends to help along the binding of egg-free baked goods et cetera. The potato starch is mostly responsible for that here, however- so you can skip it if you aren't as enthusiastic about flax as me.

Try substituting half the wheat flour for buckwheat for something different. I made them that way in the savoury manner with some vegan cheese and herb-roasted cherry tomatoes and it was delicious. Really, anything you'd put in a standard crepe goes. Here I tried a filling of diced pears, spices and walnuts that's worth a shot since they're in season, and tastes a bit like an autumn pie filling. Nice.

Now for the caveats- it took me a good two practically-inedible misfolds of crepes to get the heat and oil level just right, so don't give up. Try thinning the batter, or lowering/increasing the heat, until you get them to not stick and also cook nice and evenly. Take your time- they go really fast once you get it right, even faster than regular crepes. I made mine a bit on the small side, too, so that they'd be less likely to tear- but I made a couple of big ones and they were just fine. 

I plan to try further variations, maybe with a pseudo-cheese filling using vegan cream cheese, apricots, and so on. I made some with a sour cherry-apricot jam mix and it went well, but a little cheesy action never hurt anyone. 

Neo-Classic Crepes
Adapted from the Bean by Bean: a Cookbook by Crescent Dragonwagon

1 TBSP Flaxseed meal (optional)
2 TBSP Potato starch
1 TBSP Oil, either neutral or with a nice flavour (like olive or nut oil)
about 2 2/3-3 C. water (I used 2 2/3 C. water and 1/3 C. soy milk)
1/2 C. Chickpea flour/besan
2 C. AP flour (I used 1 1/2 C. of AP white flour and 1/2 C. graham flour)

2 Tsp. Vanilla extract and 1 TBSP sugar, if making sweet
1/2 Tsp. Salt (increase to 1 Tsp. if making savoury)

Oil and/or melted vegan butter, to fry

Pulse potato starch, flaxseed meal, oil and salt with 2/3 C. of water in a blender or food processor.
Add the flours, sugar and vanilla (if using), and an additional 2 C. water and blend until completely smooth. Keep adding water (I used vanilla soy milk here) until the consistency is of thin/table cream.

Use right away or refrigerate for up to a week. (I refrigerated it overnight, which I think helps relax the gluten.) When ready to cook, use a cast iron or nonstick pan. Heat to medium high and once hot, add a small amount of oil. Pour some batter onto the oiled pan and tilt to spread around. Cook until the surface no longer looks "wet", then flip. After another 15-30 seconds, take off the pan and place onto a plate to be filled.

Pear-Walnut Filling
Note: this is enough for about half of the above batch of crepes. Make more as you see fit.

5 Small pears, peeled, cored and diced
2 TBSP Sugar
1 Tsp. Vegan butter (optional)
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon
Generous pinch of cloves
Small handful of walnuts, crumbled to bits

Heat the sugar, spices and vegan butter (if using) on medium-high. Add the pears and mix well. Stir to coat evenly in sugar-spice mixture and cook on medium-high until the juices released are thickened. Add walnut pieces and vanilla and take off heat, covering with a lid, and leave for 5-10 minute to soften while you work on the crepes.

Nalesniki- Polish Pancakes

One recipe that hardly qualifies as such is my mother's nalesniki. I don't know how she does it- she never follows a recipe, but they always come out fantastic. I guess it's just an instinctual thing, but I still like to quantify, so I got her to measure her ingredients until I found what seemed to be the "ideal" starting combination of ingredients. One thing that amazes me is how she skips all the steps I assume to be essential, often not sifting the flour, never adding salt, and mixing the batter very thoroughly without loosing tenderness. But I'll accept this unorthodox lack of methods and materials consistency if it means my favourite pancakes in the world.

I've tried to make these myself a few times, but I fell into such pitfalls as assuming a greater need for eggs than there are (you really only need them to bind the batter) and adding too much milk relative to water (they shouldn't be too thick). You also need a really good, reliable pan- this can take a while, but once you find "the One" it'll never let you down.

The absolute best way to serve these, in my opinion, is with sour cherry preserves and sour cream. However, the options are limitless as what you have on hand- we use all types of jam, nutella, a mixture of cottage cheese with sugar and fruit, a spread made of ground walnuts, honey and cinnamon, and essentially whatever else looks like it might be good.

The only very important thing to remember is to use enough butter for both flavour and sticking-avoidance. It takes some practice to perfect these, but they become a second nature to make very quickly. It's good to have one person filling and rolling them up while the other works the pan, so it never gets left batterless- that would make it burn. Try doubling the recipe for extras- they freeze excellently.

If you haven't ever tried this style of pancake, it's pretty much the standard for Central and Eastern Europe, with every region and nation having its own variations, not to mention every household. Some are thicker and some are thinner- some have more egg or fat, and some are more watery. It can all be experimented with as you go until you get them exactly how you want. If you don't add sugar or vanilla, and add a half teaspoon of salt, you can also make them savoury with such fillings as spinach and cheese or mushrooms. They're delicate and soft but also just chewy enough, and are all-around my favourite for a reason.

Nalesniki
Makes about a dozen

675 ml. Milk, 3.8% preferred
2 TBSP Sugar (use homemade vanilla sugar if you want more flavour!)
1 TBSP Oil (we use almond or hazelnut oil, but any neutral oil is fine)
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
300 g. Flour (pastry flour is better, but AP is fine)
2 Eggs, medium to large
Water as needed (fizzy mineral water is better)
About 1 Tsp. butter per pancake, to fry
Filling- Jam, preserves, cheese filling, chocolate spread and so on
Optional: Sour cream etc. to serve, depending on the filling

Mix the milk, sugar, oil and vanilla. Add the eggs and flour, sifting if very clumpy. Mix with whisk attachment on medium-high (or by hand) until well-incorporated. Thin out the batter with about 1/2 C. water to begin, adding more if necessary.

Heat up a good crêpe pan (something that distributes heat well, especially good is a cast iron pan) on high heat, then reduce to medium and melt a piece of butter. Ladle on about 1/4 C. of the batter and tilt the pan to coat evenly. The first will take the longest to cook, and might not come out well, but they do get better with each attempt- flip once it no longer has wet spots on the surface and cook for another thirty seconds before flipping onto a plate and spreading with filling and rolling up.

Keep warm in a 80℃ oven until ready to serve- give any optional toppings on the side.

Hoddeok- Korean Yeast Pancakes with Brown Sugar, Cinnamon and Walnuts

I adore these pancakes. They're sold in Toronto's Koreatown with either a brown sugar or red bean filling, and sometimes the walnuts are replaced with roasted sunflower seeds, but they're always delicious. They can be eaten for breakfast, as a snack, with tea, and so on- just make sure you serve them hot so that the brown sugar is in its syrupy, gooey state.

These are really, really easy to make, even if you're not experienced with yeast doughs. Just make sure the water isn't hot, and you're good to go. The ingredients are simple, and probably already in your pantry. The rise time is quite short, and you don't even need to knead it too much- just mix well with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon. The only step requiring any real work is shaping the dough into balls and filling them, which is quick work as long as your surface has enough flour to prevent sticking. They're vegan, too. What's not to love?

These are the best on a cold, wet, or otherwise gloomy day when you want something sweet with a drink of tea or coffee, but don't have the energy to make the whole shebang of a pastry. Of course, syrupy and fried things are always rather comforting, and these have the added bonus of making the vicinity smell like cinnamon and brown sugar.

If you want to switch it up, the filling options are very versatile. I made half of mine with a cup of grated mozzarella, a clove of minced garlic, a teaspoon of oregano and a fat pinch of red chili flakes to make a savoury version. Really, anything melty is very good. Suggestions include choco-hazelnut spread and banana slices, chocolate and mini-marshmallows, tomato sauce and cheese, maple sugar... whatever you happen to have on hand. I'd definitely try the more classic red bean paste option, too.

Have a big pot of tea ready so that both are hot and fresh at the same time. Commit the recipe to memory as I have and enjoy the wizardry of cinnamon and brown sugar together in fried yeasted dough as often as desired.

Hoddeok
Makes 8
From Messy Witchen

1 C. Water, lukewarm
2 Tsp. Active dry yeast (I used 25 g. fresh yeast)
2 C. Flour, All purpose or bread
2 TBSP Sugar
1 TBSP Oil
1/2 Tsp. Salt
Oil, to fry

For the Filling:
1/2 C. Brown sugar
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 C. Walnut pieces

Dissolve the yeast in the water and add the sugar. Mix into the flour and add the oil and salt, kneading together to form a sticky dough. Let rise, covered, for an hour.

Knead and let rest 20 minutes. Mix all of the filling ingredients and set aside. Form 8 balls on a floured surface. Flatten each and wrap around an eighth of the filling. Seal in well and form balls.

Heat a large skillet or griddle to medium-high. Add some oil and cook 1 1/2 minutes, pressing down with a spatula after 30 seconds to flatten. Flip oven and cook another minute.  Reduce heat to low and let cook one more minute, covered, to melt the sugar. Repeat until all the pancakes are fried, and serve hot.

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

I'm a big pancake person. I love waffles, and french toast, and every other dessert-like breakfast food ever doused in butter and syrup, but pancakes are still on top.

A big stack of (slightly overbrowned) pancakes!

I think it's their versatility. Pancakes are really nothing more, by definition, than any sort of doughy disk cooked in a pan- so there's room for an incredibly diverse range of variations. You've got savoury and sweet, thin and thick, quick-rising, yeasted and unleavened, not to mention the almost infinite flavour and ingredient combinations. Even if you don't change up the pancakes themselves, there's also the huge amount of options for things to top them with. Pancakes of some sort exist in about every culture on Earth, and are all differently delicious.

These, however, are probably the closest thing to the American "default" pancake. When I was a kid I never had fluffy, American-style pancakes unless they were from a box in the freezer section- ours were almost exclusively thin and crêpe-like nalesniki rolled around a filling, or maybe some kind of banana fritter if we had too many brown ones. But the light, syrup-sponging pancakes I'd see on TV as part of the all-American breakfast seemed very exotic.

Needless to say, these are much, much better than any frozen boxed pancake. It took me many attempts to experiment with the much-exalted Martha Stewart recipe for the quintessential buttermilk pancakes until I got just what I was looking for- fluffy, light, tender and ready to absorb insane amounts of maple syrup.

I would recommend looking for "real" buttermilk for these pancakes- not regular milk that's been cultured or curdled with an acid. It really does make a difference, in my books. I used whole fat buttermilk from Organic Meadows, which is my absolute favourite buttermilk available, but use whatever looks to be the highest quality and fat content. I would even try thinning out a good organic sour cream with milk if I couldn't find good buttermilk- the important thing is that the acidity helps leaven the dough (by reacting with the baking powder) and tenderize it by preventing gluten networks from forming. This is also why you need to sift the dry ingredients- to minimize lumpiness, since overmixing the batter to make it completely smooth isn't an option.

You naturally don't need to use blueberries, if they're out of season or you want something different. You can also omit them and make plain buttermilk pancakes, or use chocolate chips. Still, when blueberry season finally hits Southern Ontario, I'm going to be collecting large bagfuls to freeze so that I can make these babies all through the winter. Fresh is obviously better since you can reserve some as a garnish, but you can throw frozen ones into the pancakes just as easily.

I would really, really recommend a nonstick skillet for these if you have one- for ages I suffered with pancakes that stuck regardless of how much oil I used or what the temperature was, or didn't want to cook through properly- a combination of a nonstick pan, medium heat and small pancake size fixed all these issues. You could also use a griddle if you have one, obviously- I didn't. And remember, flip frequently! They cook quickly, and nobody likes a burned pancake. If the surface is cooking faster than the inside, cover the pan with a lid after the first flip.

Lastly, use maple syrup. Not pancake syrup, not "butter-flavoured" syrup. You made these fantastic pancakes, so you deserve the best. And maple is the best.

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living

2 C. All purpose flour
3 TBSP Sugar
2 1/4 Tsp. Baking powder
1/4 Tsp. Baking soda
1/2 Tsp. Salt
2 C. Buttermilk
2 Large eggs, yolks and whites separated
2 TBSP Butter, melted
1 TBSP Oil
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1 C. Blueberries, fresh or just out of the freezer
Oil or butter, to fry

Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and soda and sift into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar, buttermilk, yolks, butter, oil and vanilla extract- it's alright if it's a bit lumpy.

Beat the whites until firm peaks form and fold into the batter.

Heat a frying pan or skillet (nonstick works best) on medium. Add Use a ladle or 1/4 Cup scoop to dispense batter onto the pan. Drop a few blueberries onto each mound of batter.

Fry about 30 seconds on each side (in the beginning it takes longer since the skillet isn't hot yet) or until golden brown. Keep warm in an 80℃ oven until all the batter is used up.

These are best served with extra fresh blueberries (in season), maple syrup and pats of butter.

Banana Coconut Pancakes with Quick Ginger Butterscotch Sauce

I wanted to make a nice Sunday breakfast with only two eggs and no milk- I also had a bag of frozen bananas that had been hanging on my conscience. As a result, this recipe evolved from whatever I had in the kitchen that might go well together.

I didn't have much flour left, but I didn't need a lot- just enough to bind the chunks of banana. I also had an abundance of coconut (it was on sale...), some rum, a bit of sour cream, and a lot of cinnamon. I thought that the somewhat tropical theme in my pantry was too good of a coincidence to not take advantage of.

Sure enough, the flavours all went together fantastically. The texture is also nice, light except for the dense banana chunks, and the coconut giving it a bit of meatiness and rich taste. Normally I'd make banana pancakes with walnuts or chocolate, but here the coconut added plenty enough flavour, along with the warm cinnamon and rum combo.

There's also this ultra-easy butterscotch sauce with ginger. I had a bit of butter and cream, as well as golden syrup, so I thought I'd let it cook while I was frying the pancakes- it makes a fantastic partner, carrying its own spicy notes and adding richness. You won't need extra butter- though it does taste very good paired with roasted almond butter.

One small issue with these types of pancakes is that they sometimes fry on the outside faster than they cook on the inside- that's why I keep the pan covered for the first half of their cooking time, so that before I flip them I can judge if they're sufficiently cooked inside.

Though they're small, these pancakes are nice and filling, and warm one up on a sadistically cold summer's morning (like today). I have plans to use the leftover sauce, along with some other overripe bananas and my coconut cinnamon evaporated milk buns, to make a fantastic and somewhat tropical bread pudding. Ah, efficiency.
Banana Coconut Pancakes
makes about 16 small pancakes

1 - 1 1/4 C. All purpose flour
1 TBSP Cornstarch
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
2 Tsp. Vanilla sugar, or 2 Tsp. sugar and 1 Tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 Tsp. Salt
2 1/4 Tsp. Baking powder
1/4 Tsp. Baking soda
1/2 C. Unsweetened desiccated coconut
2 Eggs
2 TBSP Dark rum
2 TBSP Sour cream
4 bananas, mushed up but still chunky (frozen and thawed works well)
Oil, to fry

Mix 1 C. of the flour, the cornstarch, cinnamon, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Sift into a large bowl and whisk in the coconut. Add the eggs, sour cream, rum and bananas. Add as much extra flour as needed to make a thick batter, about as thick as cupcake batter. If your bananas are not very mushy and wet, you may need to add some milk or water instead.

Heat up a large skillet, or your best pan for pancakes, on medium heat. Add some oil and spoon on as many pancakes as will comfortably fit with a 1/4 cup scoop or a large tablespoon. Cover with a lid and let cook about a minute per side, uncovered after flipping once.

Flip the finished pancakes onto a plate lined with paper towels to absorb excess oil and moisture.

Keep warm in an 80℃ oven until all of the pancakes are done.

Quick Ginger Butterscotch Sauce
From Raspberri Cupcakes

30 g. Butter
1/2 C. Dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 C. 18% Cream (pouring cream)
3 TBSP Golden syrup (golden corn syrup will do in a pinch)
1 Tsp. Ginger
Pinch of salt

Mix all in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, or until thickened and smooth. Serve warm.