Today is National Tortilla Chip Day. Now, don't get me wrong. I have nothing agains tortilla chips. I've even created tasty desserts with them. But I have a different carb on my radar today: PANCAKES.
You see, a few weeks ago Krusteaz sent me a whopping box full of every sort of breakfast boxed mix, including Belgian waffles, blueberry muffins, and plain buttermilk and blueberry pancakes. They sent it to me because February is Hot Breakfast Month (did you know?) and they want to promote the idea of breakfast all day, including for dinner. They asked, in return, that I tell you about this coupon. Well, I've done it. You might want to use it after you see what I did with their mix.
As readers of this site well know, a boxed mix to me is like a written experiment to conduct a culinary experiment. So while I looked over my box of goodies, I found myself wondering one thing above all:
What would happen if I mixed up a batch of pancakes, but instead of cooking them on the griddle, baked them into one big pancake in a pie plate?
Well, let me tell you, the oven was set to preheat to 350 (I just stuck with a moderate temperature) within the minute, and I hastened to grab and grease a pie plate.
I prepped the blueberry pancake mix per the instructions, which I can summarize in two easy words for you: ADD WATER.
A batch of 6-7 servings was 1 cup of mix plus 2/3 cup of cold water; figuring a pie plate typically has 8 or so servings, I upped the quantities slightly, using 1 1/2 cups of mix and 1 full cup of cold water.
I poured the mixture into the prepared pie plate...
and let it bake. I started out at 15 minutes; at that mark, the edges were golden but the center was still light. I let it bake for 2 more minutes, but at that point I took the pancake out because I didn't want the edges to dry out, and the top did look cooked through.
I took that baby out of the oven, and here's what it looked like:
I let some butter melt on top, and garnished with a strawberry. Oddly I had no syrup in the house, but as my mamma taught me, a good pancake really doesn't need syrup; it should be able to stand on its own. So how would this one stand up?
Since there are no rules about how to cut a large pancake baked in a pie plate, I bravely forged my own path and decided to serve it in wedges. It sliced nice and cleanly. Nice, toasty edges, but soft in the center.
The texture was fluffy and perfectly done. I dug in with my fingers, because A) I am a LADY, and B) the closest fork was a marathon 20 feet away.
Well, I'll be. This worked pretty darned well! The texture was very fluffy. While the finished creation looked cake-like, it definitely still had the soul of a pancake. It was a fun and novel way to serve them, and the mix tasted just fine without syrup, I think.
This experiment got my mind going in so many directions. You could doctor the mix up with add-ins like chocolate chips, nuts, or banana slices; or, what if you baked up two large pancake rounds and stacked them with a maple buttercream for a sort of ultimate breakfast pancake cake?
Or, in keeping of the "Breakfast Night" theme, you could top this sweet pancake with eggs, sausage, and/or bacon for a savory delight.
Of course, you could just bake it up and serve hot little pancake wedges, like I did.
If you want to recreate this magic, here's how I did it!
Oven blueberry pancake
- 1 1/2 cups Krusteaz Blueberry Pancake Mix
- 1 cup cold water
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease a pie plate.
- Mix the pancake mix and water together with a wooden spoon, only long enough to moisten.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until the edges are golden and the top has a matte finish (it may still be light in color).
- Remove from the oven, let cool slightly, and serve.