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rabidsamfanHow to make pancakes.
1. Forget to start the sourdough the night before.
2. Decide that you don't care, because it's a snowday and you can eat them later anyway, so mix up some flour and milk and add starter, pull out the reserve for more starter and wait for it to "proof" (which means get a bunch of bubbles to show that the yeastiebeasties are alive and burping.)
3. Keep looking at it while the bacon is in the oven, hoping.
4. Take out the finished bacon and turn off the oven, leaving the door open so the heat might rise and wake up the yeastiebeasties.
5. Give up and put bowl and tupperwares of yeastiebeastiemix into cooler oven and close door.
6. Forget you did that.
7. Remember belatedly, open oven and find out that there has been much lovely yeastiebeastie eructation going on, hooray!
8. Seal the starter tupperware and put away. Haul out egg, baking soda, butter, salt and a bit of sugar. Add to the bowl with the happy yeastiebeasties. (Melt the butter first, and be sure to crack the egg separately so you don't have eggshells in your pancakes. Of course, when you are careful to do that, the eggshells behave, so it seems that you just got another dish dirty for no purpose...)
9. Heat up frying pan with some oil in it. Eye batter and wonder how on earth you're ever going to eat that many pancakes.
10. Undercook first batch. Console yourself with remembering that Alton Brown says you always have to throw out the first pancake. Throw out first batch.
11. Get distracted by weather report and burn the second batch. Throw out second batch.
12. Get impatient and put third batch in too soon for pan to cool off sufficiently, even though you turned down the heat. Look at scorch marks wistfully and throw out third batch.
13. Watch next batch like a hawk and manage to get them out of pan intact and unburnt. Scrape last of batter into pan for a final pancake. Nurse it along like a faint flicker of hope in a darkened world. Add to plate when it's done.
14. Decorate pancakes with butter and syrup.
15. Eat pancakes. Yum!
16. Wonder why you're still hungry...
1. Forget to start the sourdough the night before.
2. Decide that you don't care, because it's a snowday and you can eat them later anyway, so mix up some flour and milk and add starter, pull out the reserve for more starter and wait for it to "proof" (which means get a bunch of bubbles to show that the yeastiebeasties are alive and burping.)
3. Keep looking at it while the bacon is in the oven, hoping.
4. Take out the finished bacon and turn off the oven, leaving the door open so the heat might rise and wake up the yeastiebeasties.
5. Give up and put bowl and tupperwares of yeastiebeastiemix into cooler oven and close door.
6. Forget you did that.
7. Remember belatedly, open oven and find out that there has been much lovely yeastiebeastie eructation going on, hooray!
8. Seal the starter tupperware and put away. Haul out egg, baking soda, butter, salt and a bit of sugar. Add to the bowl with the happy yeastiebeasties. (Melt the butter first, and be sure to crack the egg separately so you don't have eggshells in your pancakes. Of course, when you are careful to do that, the eggshells behave, so it seems that you just got another dish dirty for no purpose...)
9. Heat up frying pan with some oil in it. Eye batter and wonder how on earth you're ever going to eat that many pancakes.
10. Undercook first batch. Console yourself with remembering that Alton Brown says you always have to throw out the first pancake. Throw out first batch.
11. Get distracted by weather report and burn the second batch. Throw out second batch.
12. Get impatient and put third batch in too soon for pan to cool off sufficiently, even though you turned down the heat. Look at scorch marks wistfully and throw out third batch.
13. Watch next batch like a hawk and manage to get them out of pan intact and unburnt. Scrape last of batter into pan for a final pancake. Nurse it along like a faint flicker of hope in a darkened world. Add to plate when it's done.
14. Decorate pancakes with butter and syrup.
15. Eat pancakes. Yum!
16. Wonder why you're still hungry...
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 07:29 pm (UTC)And what is the recipe for sourdough pancakes? They sound yummy.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 11:06 pm (UTC)I keep two containers going in my fridge (in case one goes bad on me.) Both have about half a cup of starter.
Every couple of weeks or so, I need to refresh the starter -- and it's just as easy to make pancakes while I'm doing it. Since I live alone I mix together a cup of flour and just under a cup of milk. (You don't have to get it perfectly smooth.) Then I add the starter to the mix and stir it in. IMPORTANT NOTE TO FILE! Never let anything METAL come into contact with the starter, or the batter after you've added the starter.
Set the batter aside and let the yeastie beasties work. They like it warm, and will work much faster in a warm kitchen than a cool one. You can either pull out your starter for next time before you let things sit, or after, but you must do it BEFORE you add any other ingredients. I frequently set up my batter the night before I want to make pancakes, but I think it tastes better if I do it all on the same day. Just plan on it taking at least an hour for the batter to "proof".
When you've got lots of bubbles in the batter, put away your reserved starter for next time. (You should have pulled out about the same amount you put in, of course.)
Now, take your batter and add 1 egg, 1 tsp of baking soda, 1 tbsp of either oil or butter, a dash of salt, and if you want it to be waffles, or you like your pancakes sweet, a tbsp of sugar or honey. I like using butter I've melted in the microwave. The heat of it encourages the beasties to new efforts.
Your skillet or grill should be lightly greased, and already hot when you pour about a third of a cup of batter onto it for each pancake. Do not wander away the way I tend to. Amuse yourself until the bubbles forming on the top of the pancake stop filling in when they pop and the edges start to look dryer. You want the pancake two thirds cooked before you flip it.
Flip it. Nudge it with the spatula after a half a minute or so and when it starts to move easily across the pan it's done.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 07:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 10:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 08:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 10:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 08:07 pm (UTC)Better luck next time!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 10:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 11:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 08:28 pm (UTC)But I cheat on sourdough pancakes. I keep a batch of "herman"-style starter around, and I just add about a half cup of that to my pancakes, which more often than not, I make from ordinary pancake mix.
Sounds like they were yummy, even if you did not get to eat many of them.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 08:43 pm (UTC)How do you make your starter go?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 10:59 pm (UTC)I got my original recipe from a women's magazine in about '73, but I did not keep my original batch going on that long. I had it going for a couple of years and then forgot to feed it for a few weeks, and it got kind of funky, and my husband threw it out. (I would've tried to revive it--"herman" is pretty durable that way.) I've had a few batches going since then.
The latest batch was a gift from a co-worker of my husband's.
I googled, and "Herman" is still floating about by that name. This recipe is not identical to the one I had, but it's pretty close. I also still have the original magazine, but it's not in very good shape as it got puppy-chewed around the edges about 16 years ago.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 11:16 pm (UTC)I've forgotten to feed my starter once or twice and had to experiment a bit to revive it (four different containers and only one of them worked!) but since then I've been pretty faithful about feeding it, whether I have pancakes or not. All I ever give it is milk and flour.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 11:26 pm (UTC)But I often stir some of it into perfectly ordinary baking recipes to give them a little yeasty kick-- biscuits, cakes, etc. I just bring it to room temp, and then add anywhere from a quarter to a half a cup, and adjust the liquid ingredients accordingly.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 11:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-14 12:31 am (UTC)My mother's sourdough is named Herman, but it eats potato flakes. I'd have to look up the recipe for getting it going.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 08:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 10:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 08:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 10:43 pm (UTC)And I made stew! The rutabagas and turnips were perfect!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 09:31 pm (UTC)And yummy bacon! I like it better from the oven! Less mess, more taste!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 10:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 10:35 pm (UTC)Much better than my breakfast, I can tell ya, snarfed down between meetings.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 10:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 11:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-12 11:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-13 12:03 am (UTC)And a snow day!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-13 12:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-13 07:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-13 11:50 am (UTC)