Recipe for "pancakes-2"

NAME

     PANCAKES-2 - Light and fluffy breakfast pancakes
     The formula comes from The Joy of Cooking by  Irma  S.  Rom-
     bauer  and  Marion Rombauer Becker. I bought the book when I
     was visiting California a few years back. The  pancakes  are
     to  my liking, but my wife has had to endure vast quantities
     of failures before I got the right technique. These pancakes
     are amazing for their stupifying ability. No more than three
     can be eaten in one day.  A  slow  and  painful  death  will
     result from exceeding these guidelines.

INGREDIENTS (8-10 15-cm pancakes)

     150 g     all-purpose flour
     5 ml      salt
     75 g      sugar
     9 ml      baking powder
     1 ml      vanilla essence
     2         eggs
     50 g      butter, melted
     300 ml    milk

PROCEDURE

          (1)  Put a frying pan on a low to medium heat and  melt
               the butter.
          (2)  Whilst the butter is melting,  measure  the  flour
               and sift into a large mixing bowl.
          (3)  Add the salt, sugar and baking powder.
          (4)  Measure the milk in a measuring jug.
          (5)  Separate the eggs and place the whites in  a  cup,
               adding the yolks to the milk.
          (6)  Add the melted butter from the frying pan.  Remove
               as  much from the pan as you can, but don't be too
               particular. The remaining butter in the frying pan
               will  be  used  to  cook  the pancakes in. I use a
               rubber spatula to get most  of  it  off  the  pan.
               Leave  the  ring on, but don't put the pan back on
               it.  (I have an electric cooker which takes a long
               time to heat up).  In this way you can start cook-
               ing the pancakes as soon as the batter is ready.
          (7)  When the butter has  coagulated,  add  the  liquid
               mixture  to the dry ingredients and mix them up. I
               use a metal spoon. It is at  this  stage  you  can
               judge  whether  the  mixture  has  the  right con-
               sistency.
          (8)  Wash the measuring jug and dry it thoroughly. Pour
               the  egg whites into it and whisk with an electric
               hand-held whisk. I whisk them until they are quite
               hard.
          (9)  If there are lumps in the batter, you can user the
               whisk to get rid of them.
          (10) Using  the  spatula  (from  the  butter,  right?),
               transfer all the egg whites into the big bowl.
          (11) Fold the egg whites into the batter with the metal
               spoon  until they are all incorporated. The batter
               is now ready.
          (12) Put the frying pan back on the heat and wait until
               it is to a reasonable temperature. I can't be more
               specific because it depends on your cooker and the
               frying pan that you are using.
          (13) Make the pancakes one at a time, turning them over
               when the underside is cooked. Eat immediately with
               butter and maple syrup.

NOTES

     The order that I do things is the result of much  experimen-
     tation.   I  have a Creda Cavalier and use a Fissler German-
     made corrugated-bottom frying pan. With this  combination  I
     set the ring to 2.75-3.0.
     One way to test is to place a small dollop of batter in  the
     frying  pan.   It should take about 1-2 minutes to brown. As
     the underside is browning, bubbles should be forming on  the
     top  surface.  The consitency of the batter and the tempera-
     ture of cooking are correct when the bubbles fail  to  burst
     when the underside is fully cooked.
     Now that I know what I'm doing, they're easy, but  I  had  a
     awful  lot  of  failures to start with. Don't expect success
     the first time. You won't be  disappointed.  The  effort  is
     worth  it  in the long run.  What is important is to get the
     moisture content of  the  batter  correct.   If  it  is  too
     sloppy;  then  the  pancakes will be flat and stodgy. If the
     batter is too dry; then the pancakes will burn  before  they
     are cooked.

RATING

     Difficulty: moderate until you learn the  technique.   Time:
     30  minutes  preparation,  30  minutes  cooking.  Precision:
     measure the ingredients.

CONTRIBUTOR

     Simon Kenyon
     The National Software Centre, Dublin, IRELAND
     simon@einode.UUCP