Pancakes

It was about 10:00pm and I suddenly had a craving for pancakes. I was wide awake and willing to cook, so I rummaged through the cabinets to see if I had all the necessary ingredients. I did... sort of.

Vegan With a Vengeance is my favorite cookbook so far. It offers delicious, practical recipes - chocolate chip pancakes is one of them!

But before you make pancakes there are two very important keys to cooking them:

1. Consistency of the batter - the batter cannot be too runny or it will make thin, icky pancakes like this:

   
        2. Know ahead of time that your first pancake is your guinea pig pancake. You will likely not enjoy the first pancake and will feed it to your easy-to-please spouse or your pig. Your first pancake will probably be too big (pictured above) until you take your excitement down a notch and make smaller (about 4'') cakes, and it will probably be overcooked (as you are trying to get the pan at the right temp). Let me reiterate, your first (and maybe the second, too) pancake will SUCK and that's okay! Here's a comparison of a bad pancake (my second one is on the right - it sucked as bad as the first. And the better pancake is on the left):

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pancakes
Ingredients:

• 1 cup plus 2 tbs all-purpose flour
• 3 tbs cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 c water
• 1 to 1 1/4 c soy or rice milk
• 2 tsb canola oil
• 3 tbs pure maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)
• 1/3 c semi sweet choc chips
• Canola oil cooking spray for pan

I mentioned that I "sort of" had all the ingredients. Well, I was about 1/2 cup shy of all-purpose flour but I figured I would substitute extra cocoa for the missing flour. That didn't work. So I just kept adding arrowroot flour until I got the right consistency.  If your batter is too runny your pancakes will turn out thin and likely overcooked. If this happens, you could always throw some fresh fruit in the center of the thin cake and fold it over like a crepe!
You want the batter to be thick so that it slowly pours from the bowl and slowly forms a pancake shape. Pour your batter slowly (have I said "slowly" enough yet?) so that you can judge the size of your cake. Start small and get the hang of flipping them before you try for a bigger pancake. It's a pain to keep making little ones over and over, but I prefer that over a big pancake that rips or bends while you are trying to flip it!

To make:
Add all the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl and stir with a whisk. The cookbook instructions say to "sift" it together and I find stirring with a whisk does the job! Next, create a well in the dry stuff and add all the liquid ingredients, and finally, stir. It can be a little lumpy. You don't want to stir it until it's runny.
If you have the chocolate chips, fold them in now.

Oil and preheat skillet over medium heat for about 2 minutes. You want it to be hot before you put your guinea pig cake on there.
Cook about 3 minutes or until bubbles form on top. You'll get the feel for the right timing after you mess up a few cakes. Flip pancake and let the bottom cook about 2 minutes or less, depending on the cake thickness.

 Ready to flip!

To keep 'em warm, wrap in foil or pre-heat the over beforehand and stick them in an oven-safe dish to keep toasty while you finish cooking!

Vegan With a Vengeance cookbook contains other pancake recipes that are awesome! If you have some cinnamon, vinegar, and a banana lying around you can make some extra fluffy pancakes.
For a simpler pancake all you need is flour, baking powder, baking soda, soy milk, and oil.

Happy late-night snacking!

Cheers!
KP