German Pancakes

 When our children were young, I made this frequently.  Now they are making it for their families.  Everyone loves German Pancakes.

German Pancakes

6 eggs

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup milk

Put 1/2 cube of butter in a 9x13 pan.  Preheat oven to 450.  While preheating, put the pan with the butter in the oven until the butter has melted.  Beat all ingredients together in a bowl and pour over the melted butter.  Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven.  Cut and serve with syrup or blended  frozen strawberries (sweeten with sugar or applesauce,) warmed.  Or you can make this delicious fruit topping:

Fruit topping

1 10 oz package frozen strawberries or raspberries

1 can pineapple, drained

1 banana, sliced

Brown sugar

Sour cream

Mix the fruits together and put on the pancake.  Sprinkle with brown sugar and a dollop of sour cream.

Two.  Ready for a family of 8.  The kids love to see how this puffs up in the oven.

Holiday Pancake Fun

 This isn't really a recipe, but a technique that I just learned from my son-in-law.  He made these cute pancakes for Valentine's Day.

You could use this same technique for any holiday, birtthday, or special day.  

Just put some of your pancake batter in a squeezable condiment container.  Write with the batter in the container right on the griddle. You can make pictures or write words.  Let it cook a minute, then pour the pancake batter over it as usual to make the pancake. The writing will be darker because it cooks longer.  Isn't that a fun idea?

Kristen's Crepes

 When the Mackrory kids have a birthday, they get to choose what they have for the meals that day.  Almost without exception, they choose crepes.  They all love them.  For their family of eight, they use this tripled recipe.  You could easily reduce or expand it.

I did not get a good picture, but these were so delicious and were good as leftovers, too.

Kristen's Crepes

6 T. melted butter

3 cups flour

4 1/2 cups milk

9 eggs

Mix all together and pour a little of the batter in a fry pan, swirling to cover the pan.  When done on one side, flip to the other until done.

Fill with desired fillings and roll up like a burrito. They can be savory or sweet.  You can then top with whipped cream, syrup, a gravy- whatever you desire.  The Mackrory's favorite is filling with strawberries and whipped cream.

Other favorites:

Frozen or fresh blueberries, peanut butter, Nutella, bananas, cinnamon sugar, etc.   She has made them with chicken and sauce, too.

Brian's Fluffy Pancakes

Michelle's husband, Brian is the Pancake King.  Frequently when we visit, he makes delicious pancakes for us.  Recently, when we tended the kids, I enlisted their two oldest children to help me "steal" Dad's recipe.  It was written on the side of the flour container.  So, Gabbi typed it out for me and Jaron wrote it out for me. 

 Brian's Fluffy Pancakes

3 cups flour

2 T. sugar

2 T. baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

3 cups milk

Heat griddle to 350.  Mix ingredients together and pour onto hot griddle.  

Easy Peach Syrup

Picture from butterwithasideofbread.com

4-5 Fresh Peaches OR a 29 ounce can of Sliced Peaces
1/3 cup Granulated Sugar (We cut this in half)
2 Tbsp. AND 1 tsp. Corn Starch
1/4 cup water (We actually used 1/4 cup of the peach juice from the can)
2 Tbsp. Butter (We used 1)
1 Tbsp. Vanilla
1/4 tsp. Ground Cinnamon (We omitted this entirely)
a dash of Salt

If you are using fresh peaches, peel and slice them, and set them aside. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the Sugar, Corn Starch and Cinnamon. Take about 1/3 to 1/2 of the peaches and add to the mixture, pour in the water (or peach juice) and stir. Puree the mixture with an immersion blender, and stir. The mixture will be pale and cloudy.
Microwave for 3 minutes (while it is in the microwave chop the rest of the peaches into much smaller pieces), stir, 1.5 minutes, stir, add chopped peaches as well as the Butter, Vanilla and Salt. Return to microwave for an additional minute.
Use right away or transfer to an airtight container to be kept in fridge (where it will stay fresh for about 2 weeks). Heat for 1-2 minutes before serving. This is great on Pancakes, Waffles and French Toast. You can also make this on the stove, if you would prefer. This is my mom's new favorite.


You can find the original recipe here, with stove-top instructions.

Aebelskivers

A Hinton family tradition that comes from my Scandinavian ancestry is aebelskivers.  We make them every New Years morning for breakfast.  For their wedding showers, we gave each of our daughters an aebelskiver pan so they could continue the tradition. 

And they have.  In each of our homes on New Years Day, we know that we are all making and eating these delicious little pancake balls.

I know it wasn't the original recipe (duh!) but I have taken to using Bisquick. It's easier.  My daughters make them from scratch.

Aebelskivers
4 eggs, separated
3 cups Bisquick
2 cups water
4 Tablespoons melted butter
Butter for frying
Applesauce
Powdered sugar for garnish
In a medium bowl, beat egg yolks until pale.  Stir in Bisquick, water and 4 Tablespoons melted butter until blended.  I another medium bowl, beat egg whites until stiff, but not dry.  Fold whites into Bisquick mixture.  Generously butter each aebelskiver cup (in recent years I have used cooking spray instead)  Heat.  Fill each cup 3/4 full with batter.  (You can add a little bit of applesauce or even blueberries in each one at this point, or you can just make them plain)  When set around the edge (about 1 1/2 minutes), turn the ball over with a fork (or my mom always used a knitting needle.)  Continue to cook and turn until lightly browned on all sides and done in the middle.  Roll gently in powdered sugar.  Serve with syrup of choice and applesauce, if desired.

Lemon Blueberry Pancakes with Buttermilk Syrup

Ken was looking through a magazine and found this recipe for Lemon Blueberry Pancakes.  While visiting Kristen in Wisconsin, we gave them a try.  They were delicious!

Lemon Blueberry Pancakes
1 1/2 cups plus 1 Tablespoon flour (we used part white and part wheat, but the recipe called for white)
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 heaping Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups evaporated milk
1 lemon, zested and juiced (add more juice if the lemon isn't very juicy)
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 large egg
1 cup blueberries
Syrup (Recipe below)

Heat your grill.  In a bowl mix together the milk, lemon, and zest.  Let this mixture sit while you mix together all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.  After about five minutes, add the egg and vanilla to the wet mixture and mix well.  Pour wet into dry mixture and combine.  Then stir in the butter.  Add more milk if the mixture is too thick.  Gently stir in the blueberries.  Butter the hot skillet and cook the pancakes.  Serve hot with buttermilk syrup.

They turned out even better when I made them at home a few weeks later.

Buttermilk Syrup
3/4 cup buttermilk (can add lemon juice to milk to make buttermilk)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon baking soda.
In a large saucepan, combine the buttermilk, sugar, and butter.  Bring to a boil and boil one minute.  Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and baking soda.

Okonomiyaki

When my husband served his first mission to Japan, he learned to love a dish called Okonomiyaki.  It's name literally means "what you want fried."  It is a savory Japanese pancake with whatever you want put in it.  It is a dish made all over Japan, but each region makes it differently.  This is a good, basic recipe to start with.  It is one of my favorite Japanese foods I've made here. 

Okonomiyaki
1 cup flour
2/3 cup water or chicken stock
2 eggs
4 cups finely chopped cabbage
1 bunch green onions, finely sliced (some people put much more than this in it)
1 cup or so of Meat of choice: chopped shrimp (my favorite), chopped chicken, thin-sliced beef or pork.  Japanese like to use pork belly (looks like bacon, but not cured), squid, and shrimp.
1/2 cup cooked noodles (optional)  The Japanese use either udon (very thick, round noodles) or soba(thinner noodles that look much like spaghetti)  Not everyone puts noodles in, but those are the crazy ones!
Toppings:
Okonomiyaki sauce (kind of like Worcestershire sauce, but sweeter and thicker.  I think you could sweeten Worcestershire sauce and it would work.
Kupi (Japanese mayonnaise)  It is sweeter than mayonnaise, but mayonnaise would work, I think
Bonito Flakes ( dried tuna flakes) optional They smell fishy, but really just add saltiness.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, water and eggs.  Add the cabbage, onions, meat and noodles.  Mix all  together.  On a hot lightly oiled griddle, spread some of the mixture in the shape and size of a large pancake.   Flatten the pancake with a spatula as it cooks.  When browned, turn it over and cook the other side.  Serve hot with the sauces.  This recipe makes two large okonomiyaki or three medium. 

To read about our mission experiences and our Okonomiyaki miracle, go here:  http://kenandkayhinton.blogspot.jp/2016/01/mission-miracle-okonomiyaki.html