Oven Pancake

Happy New Year...

I get busy-- as you can tell it's been almost 3 months since my last entry, but I made a quick "Oven Pancake" last week, and managed to take one (not very good) photo of it right before I devoured it.

Oven Pancake, or Ugnspannkaka as we call them in Da Ol' Country, is also similar to Dutch Babies, or German Pancakes, but the ratio of flour, eggs and milk is a little different.  Traditionally, a Swedish Ugnspannkaka (Oongs-pun-KA-kah) is served slathered in melted butter, topped with lingonberry preserves, and sides of crispy bacon.  It sounds like it should be a breakfast meal, and honestly, I don't know why it couldn't be, but we have always eaten it for dinner growing up.  I didn't have any bacon that night, but I did have some homemade frozen pork-sausage patties which were delicious on the side as well.

INGREDIENTS:

2 eggs
2 cups milk
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
Butter for  greasing baking dish, and for spreading on top
Cranberry or lingonberry preserves (or other fresh fruit, or other preserves of your choice)

[Could that list of ingredients be any easier? You probably have all of that on any given night.]

DIRECTIONS: Beat all ingredients in a bowl, until well blended and a little bit frothy at the top.

Pour into a buttered baking container of some sort. (A small lasagna pan, for instance, or an oven proof cast iron skillet would also work as long as there was plenty of butter in the bottom of whatever it is to keep the crust from sticking.)

Bake at 375-400 degrees for 30-40 minutes.  (If your oven tends to run hot, go for 375.  You don't want the top to burn.)  The Oven Pancake is done when it's browned on top, bubbling and fluffed up around the edges and the center is firm to the touch. 

My Rad Berry-Spice Whole Grain pancakes

Yes, I will just say they’re my rad pancakes, because I don’t know for sure what the original recipe was, or whose it was, and so many modifications have gone into this that I’ve created something fairly different and healthy! Rather than a lot of refined carbs, this is mostly whole-grain and delicious. And we eat these, or variations of these, almost every Saturday morning while watching Spongebob. Yes, we’re 36 and home-owners. We like SpongeBob.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cups flour (I usually do half white/ half whole wheat)
2 tbsp ground flax
1 tbsp brown sugar or honey (if using honey, add it when all wet ingredients have been mixed in)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
A dash of nutmeg
1 cup milk + 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 egg
2 tbsp oil (although this can be omitted with good success)
1 cup berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, huckleberries...whatever sounds good to you!)

Beat all ingredients together, and fry pancakes on buttered griddle or skillet at medium heat. Drop berries into the top of the pancakes as they’re frying. Flip when edges are bubbly.

For a variation on the above, omit the spices, and mash one banana into the pancake mix, and sprinkle chocolate chips on the uncooked side of the pancakes before flipping them over. Extra good.

And at Thanksgiving / Christmas time, I substitute 1/2 the cup of milk with 1/2 can of pumpkin. It’s so awesome. Just sayin’s all.