Pancakes & Syrup

There's just nothing better than a plate of pancakes is there?

I went on a search a couple of years ago for the best recipe. It took a while but I believe I finally found one that met my critia. I don't like them to have a spongy texture & that's the main problem I was having with a bunch of the homemade recipes. I wanted them to be fluffy but not dried out.

Here's the result:

2c.flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. sugar
2 eggs
2c. buttermilk
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract (my added ingredient)

Mix all the dry ingredients, add the eggs, mix with a fork. Then add the buttermilk and vanilla; blend it all in nicely. The batter will be lumpy & that's good so don't stress about it not being smooth. Drop the batter by the 1/4 cupfuls onto a hot buttered skillet. When the cakes bubble and the edges dry, give 'em a flip. Then when they're nice & brown, remove 'em onto a waiting plate & put a big ol'pat of butter on top. Mmmm...GOOD!!

(If you find yourself with no buttermilk you can use this easy substitution of 1 Tbs. lemon juice or white vinegar to 1 cup whole milk.)

Also, I found this gem of a recipe at Southernplate.com. It's a website by Christy Jordan whose cookin is a lot like mine..I'm thinkin it's because we're both Texas gals and best yet..native Houstonians! Go wander over on her page, you'll love it!
Here's her original post link:

http://www.southernplate.com/2010/02/todays-post-our-best-pancakes-attitude-mules.html

Now you need something to put on top of them. I like to make my own pancake syrup. It only takes a few minutes to make and the best thing about it is you KNOW what's in it. I hate buying it, looking at the ingredients & not being able to pronounce most of the things the list on the bottle. I mean really...it's sugar, water and flavoring. You can make your own, it's delish and an added BONUS, your house will smell soooo good!!

This recipe makes one very large bottle of syrup:

2 1/4 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
3/4 c. sugar
2 1/4 c. water
1 1/2 c. corn syrup
2 1/2 tsp. maple flavoring*
2 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 Tbs. real butter (NOT margarine)

In a deep saucepan, combine the sugars, water and corn syrup; bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for 7 minutes and stir frequently. Remove from heat; add in the extracts & butter.
Cool, then pour into a nice syrup bottle. Serve warm with your pancakes or waffles.

*if you do not have maple flavor, just use pure vanilla extract in it's place.

Breakfast Time!

When the girls were little I was privileged to be apart of a wonderful group called Mothers Of Preschoolers aka, MOPS.

At MOPS I made life long friendships and one of those is with my friend, Cyndi Parra. Every meeting two of the tables were responsible for bringing breakfast items and one of these mornings my sweet friend Cyndi brought in a scrumptious casserole called French Vanilla Baked French Toast. It was so yummy...

Yesterday I mistakenly defrosted the loaf of Texas Toast which forced me to get on the ball & make some french toast which is the whole reason I bought that loaf of bread to begin with.

So...I got out my MOPS cookbook, looked up her recipe and got to making!

I didn't have any French Vanilla coffee creamer so I made some myself with a minor adjustment. I'll include that recipe next.

Cyndi's French Vanilla Baked French Toast

1 loaf French Bread (Texas Toast)
1 (16 oz) French Vanilla Coffee Creamer
7 eggs, divided
cinnamon & sugar


Prepare a 9x13 pan with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.

In a large bowl scramble 2 of the eggs & the whole bottle of coffee creamer. Tear the bread into bite size pieces & dip each piece into the creamer mixture. Arrange pieces in your prepared pan. Once you've used up all the creamer mixture, scramble up the remaining 5 eggs in the empty bowl. Pour them evenly over the pieces of bread. Sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar. Bake in a 350* oven for 30 minutes. Serve with or without syrup.

(If you like, you can prepare this the night before you need it. Remember, if you're using a glass pan or a stoneware baker, just pop it in, THEN turn on the oven & let the pan preheat with the oven; this will keep it from breaking. Just add 10 minutes to the cooking time!)

Enjoy!

If you're like me & do not keep flavored coffee creamer on hand here's a quick fix that's just as good but does not include all the crazy ingredients like, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN AND/OR COTTONSEED OIL or DIPOTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, DISODIUM PHOSPHATE, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES. What in Sam hill is all that stuff??? Geesh...

Here's my take on it and you can make it any flavor you want! Instead of making Vanilla flavored for the baked french toast I used MAPLE flavoring (with a hint of vanilla) and it was yummy!

So without further ado, here's my recipe:

Vanilla Coffee Creamer

1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
28oz whole milk
2 Tbs. pure vanilla (or 1 1/2 Tbs MAPLE flavoring & 1/2 Tbs. vanilla)

In a large bowl pour the can of sweet milk. Be sure & scrape the can good of all that yumminess but DO NOT throw it away. After it's all in the big bowl add the flavoring; mix well. Now get that empty sweet milk can & fill it up with milk, add to bowl & repeat one more time; that should give you 28 ounces. Mix well with a wire whisk & serve with coffee or in a recipe like the one above. Keep refrigerated.

This recipes yields 4 cups of creamer. (you'll need 2 cups for the baked french toast)