Spiced Pancakes

Pancake Saturday continues! This morning, I played around with the recipe I used last weekend, adding some spices to it to give it a bit more pizazz. I kept it pretty simple still. Hubby and I both loved these; he ate his with syrup, and I had mine with honey. Delicious! Hubby said I should definitely keep this recipe.

Spiced Pancakes
(adapted from Nigella Lawson's How to Be a Domestic Goddess)

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
  
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
• 1 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Yields 9 pancakes.

Heat your oven to about 200F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. This way, you'll be able to keep the pancakes warm in the oven as they cook since the process takes a bit of time and no one really wants cold pancakes.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. Create a well in the center of the mixture, into which you'll later pour the wet liquid.

In a separate bowl (or large measuring cup if you have one) beat the eggs, milk, butter, and vanilla. Pour into the well in the dry ingredients and mix well.

Pour a tiny bit of vegetable or canola oil into a heavy non-stick skillet. I use my nice big cast-iron one. It's fabulous. Heat it over a medium-low heat; you don't want to completely fry the pancakes. Most of the oil should collect around the edges of the pan, and that's good.

Once your oil is nice and warm, pour about 1/3 cup of the batter into the center of the pan. Gently spread the batter out by making a circular motion with your spoon/measuring cup in the middle of the batter. Don't use enough pressure to scrape the bottom of the skillet; you're just trying to coax the batter to expand out.

Let the batter cook for a few minutes, until bubbles start to pop through around the edges (and in the center a bit) and the batter no longer has such a shiny sheen.


At this point, flip the pancake over. Lightly tap around surface of the pancake, especially around the sides. Let cool a couple of minutes more. After the first minute, you're free to flip the pancake over to see how done it is, then flip it back to cook some more. The pancake is finished when, if pressed, the indentation springs back. If you don't want to poke the pancake (hubby thought I was insane and would burn my hand off), lightly press the spatula against the pancake and wiggle it back and forth. If the pancake moves across the surface of the pan instead of jiggling, then it should be done.

Remove pancake from the pan and place on the baking sheet in the oven. Move on to the next one. It's always a good idea to sample your first pancake to make sure your batter is right and your timing is good. Plus, if you're making pancakes, you're probably hungry and it's gonna take awhile.

I've never been a big fan of maple syrup. As a kid, I absolutely hated it. Even when I first started dating hubby, if we had pancakes, I'd make him chew gum or brush his teeth before I'd let him kiss me. I hated maple syrup so much I'd refuse kisses! That speaks of a deep hatred, no? In the past few years, I've come to appreciate maple syrup, though I in no way love it. I prefer fruity syrups or honey by far. What do you like on your pancakes? Got any syrup/pancake-topping ideas for me?