Happy New Year, my darling little chickens. The Isis family is spending the remainder of 2008 snuggled up and watching A Bug's Life.
Before our evening of snuggling began, Little Isis approached me and asked, "My have pancakes? My have pancakes for dinner? My say please?" How could a mother say, "no" when her little boy accents his request with a "please?" However, the fact of the matter is I really hate making pancakes. It seems like I spend the entire event perched over a griddle and then people either have to eat them as they're made and we don't eat together, or someone gets the hot pancakes at the top of the stack and someone (cough*Mommy*cough) gets the cold pancakes at the bottom of the stack. It's just not a good system. And so, as my New Year's gift to you, I offer my flip free pancake recipe....
Here's what you need:
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 4 tablespoons butter or margarine (melted)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 bananas, 1 mashed
- About 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips -- I used these
- 1 cup plus a little more milk
Mix all of the ingredients, except the sugar and one banana, in a bowl and pour into a greased pan. The 1 cup milk is not quite enough to make the batter pancake-like, so I usually end up adding a splash more. We make these with vanilla soy milk and they come out great. Slice the remaining banana over the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Then sprinkle the top with the sugar and place under the broiler 3-5 minutes. You'll end up with crunchy, carmelized bananas on top.
Figure 1: On the top, the finished unflipped pancake with caramelized bananas and butter. On the bottom, served with a side of scrambled eggs and topped with butter and syrup.
Once we were finished dinner, Little Isis told me that he wanted to make a present for Mommy's readers.
Figure 2: Little Isis has drawn you all some "whack-a-balloons."
Not to be outdone, Dr. Isis thought she would put together an artistic offering of her own.
Figure 3: I have enjoyed 2008, my darling readers, and am very much looking forward to spending 2009 together.
Comments
Dr. Free-Ride does not mind flipping pancakes at all, but your no-flip recipe looks so good that she may have to try it on the sprogs.
Happy New Year to the Isis family!
Posted by: Dr. Free-Ride | January 1, 2009 1:21 AM
My fiance and I use an excellent technique to keep pancakes warm!
We just eat the stove to 200 degrees and store them on a baking sheet in there. It keeps 'em all nice and warm. :)
Posted by: DMI | January 1, 2009 2:15 AM
Mr.SM makes awesome Banana BlueBerry pancakes and uses the same trick as DMI. I will show him the recipe tomorrow and see what he thinks!
Posted by: ScientistMother | January 1, 2009 4:40 AM
Happy New Year, Dr. Isis!
Posted by: Comrade PhysioProf | January 1, 2009 8:44 AM
Happy New Year Dr. Isis!
Thank you Little Isis, for a most lovely picture of whackaballoons.
Not to impinge on the awesome majesty of those pancakes, but can I call 'bullshit' on that "butter"? It's a most unnatural color! Or is this some weird kind of syrup I am unfamiliar with?
Posted by: becca | January 1, 2009 9:08 AM
happy new year! bring on 2009!
my husband makes me pancakes! we don't have nonstick cookware (by choice) and i suck at flipping pancakes on non-nonstick.
should i ever want pancakes when i'm by myself, i'm going to have to try your recipe.
Posted by: leigh | January 1, 2009 11:16 AM
Dr. Sandyshoes makes the pancakes round these parts. I think I'd lose my junk over flipping them, too.
The Ghirardelli chips are awesome. Everything else tastes like wax after you've used them.
A very Happy New Year to the Isis family!
Posted by: sandy | January 1, 2009 1:24 PM
{{{Sigh}}}
Yes, Becca. You may call bullshit all you'd like if it makes you happy. Dr. Isis and Little Isis have a dairy allergy. Thus, the use of soy milk and the fact that what you see in the picture is not actually butter but margarine.
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | January 1, 2009 2:21 PM
Oh dear Dr. Isis, it's all in good fun! Besides, if all I have to call BS on is the 'butter', then you must be very accurate these days. Or I just got incredibly distracted by that color (side note- in researching this comment I learned that margarine must contain 10% vitamin A [I presume they mean 10% of the RDA, rather than 10% of product weight... it's an odd yellow, but it's not *that* bright]).
In any event, I am extremely in favor of of nondairy substitutes, but rather picky about some of them. That particular margarine looks rather suspciously like a soft spread product I once took along on a 75 mile canoe trip, selected for it's complete imperishability (if the microbes can't eat it, shouldn't that tell us something?).
Surely as a domestic and laboratory goddess with a cardiac physiological bent, you can tell us how you have selected a margarine for your family.
Poly:mono unsaturated fatty acid ratio?
trans-fat free?
Particular vegetation sources involved in oils?
Cost per gram?
Clever marketing? (see link)
Inquiring minds, Dr. Isis!
Posted by: Becca | January 1, 2009 4:03 PM
I have yet to meet a kid who does not consider "Breakfast for Dinner" to be some sort of magical treat. It blows their minds to see a parent disobeying Important Rules, and they feel very much like they're getting away with something.
Posted by: Julianne | January 1, 2009 4:36 PM
Yum, I will have to try the vanilla trick! I can't drink milk, either, but the plain soy milk often leaves food tasting a bit strange. I've been put off vanilla soy milk since mistakenly putting it on captain crunch (ew.).
Posted by: unbalanced reaction | January 1, 2009 6:40 PM
It's all pretty simple. I just buy the one that I think tastes the best.
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | January 1, 2009 6:59 PM
Happy 2009, Dr. Isis!!!
I've become a fake-butter-eater, too. I have bad cholesterol! No biscuit! :)
Posted by: The Perky Skeptic | January 1, 2009 8:02 PM
"Happy New Year, my darling little chickens. The Isis family is spending the remainder of 2008 snuggled up and watching A Bug's Life."
HEY! Who are you calling chicken?! :p
Seriously, looks like you had a nice, lovely, low-key New Year's celebration. Glad you had fun.
Posted by: J. J. Ramsey | January 1, 2009 8:56 PM
I know, I know...I'm supposed to leave more thought-provoking comments, but each time you write about cooking or food, it just makes me so damn hungry. I don't know why...it doesn't happen on any other blog (including even the cooking blogs), except for this one. Perhaps it's because I'm expecting an article about science or academia and not food? Whatever the reason, I just had to say, "mmm." :)
Happy New Year!
Posted by: mudphudder | January 3, 2009 12:24 AM
Dr. Isis, I made your no-flip pancakes for dinner for my family last night, and they were delicious!
By the way, you listed "sugar" twice in the ingredients list, each in different amounts. So, I added the 1 tablespoon sugar with the other ingredients, and sprinkled the 2 tablespoons sugar over the top of the pancake before putting it in the broiler.
Posted by: Avi Steiner | January 3, 2009 3:32 AM
That's just the way to do it! Good job, Avi!
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | January 3, 2009 9:22 AM
Dr. Isis, you are so prolific that I cannot keep up. I have only just read this post and I can't wait to try it because I FLIPPIN HATE FLIPPIN PANCAKES TOO!!!!! And this looks tasty.
Posted by: PhizzleDizzle | January 5, 2009 12:48 PM
I also hate making pancakes for exactly that reason (I do just about all the cooking in our little household). But something tells me my 2.5 yr old isn't going to go for all those things mixed on top of each other.
He's kinda high strung, and different foods touching one another doesn't go over well.
Posted by: Nat | January 5, 2009 1:09 PM