Beer and Bacon Pancakes

Y'know what I've always thought was a great idea? Breakfast for dinner. I tend to make it on a fairly regular basis, but I don't always experiment. Well, that's changing.

So. Pancakes. Made with beer. And bacon. Crazy huh? My roommate suggested the idea of pancakes made with beer, and a quick Google search led me here of all places. Rather than following this method exactly, I decided to simply use it as a guide and improvise a little. I adapted a basic pancake recipe to my needs, and these are the results:

Not bad, huh? Truth to tell though, the results weren't quite what I hoped they would be. Don't get me wrong, they were tasty enough, but I think the idea needs some tweaking. For one thing, the "beer" flavor overwhelmed the others, so we lost the delicious savory bacon taste except in small bursts. And although I used a seasonal beer (Shock Top pumpkin wheat), a lot of the warm autumn flavors fell to the background too.

Next time, I think I'll use a lighter flavored beer, like maybe a blond or a hefeweizen. The other option, if I want to stick with the pumpkin ale, would be to add more spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. I love the praline bacon (yes, you heard me), and I think it works well in the recipe. But next time I plan to use think-cut bacon instead of the thin stuff; I think it'll hold up better in the batter.

Well, I suppose I should actually get to the method now, shouldn't I? As always, if anyone has an suggestions or comments, I'm always glad to hear them.

THE INGREDIENTS!!!
2 cups AP flour
5 tsp baking powder
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 12oz beer (something of quality, please)
1 12oz package bacon
2.5 oz brown sugar
1.5 oz pecans

THE METHOD!!!
 The first step is to make Praline Bacon. It's pretty easy to do, actually. First, heat your oven to 400 degrees. Grab a cookie sheet with a lip and line it with a big piece of aluminum foil. Set a cooling rack on top and lay out the bacon in a nice neat row. Bake until almost, but not quite, done. The thin stuff took less than 10 minutes, but the AB method calls for a full 30 on the thick-cut strips.

While the bacon bakes, drop the pecans and brown sugar into a food processor and chop to a fine bread crumb consistency. When the bacon is almost done, pull it out. Working carefully, sprinkle the bacon with the brown sugar/pecan mixture and gently pat down to set it.

Place the bacon back into the oven for another 10 minutes or until done. And make sure to watch it; I didn't keep a close enough eye on it and ended up burning it a little.

Oh, don't look at me like that. I know it's a culinary sin and I'll go to confession later.

Anyway. When the bacon is (properly) done, let it cool for a few minutes before removing from the rack and chopping into bite-sized pieces. Again, work carefully so as not to burn yourself.

Meanwhile, combine the flour and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs, beer, and bacon, and stir to combine.

Heat your electric griddle to medium, about 300 to 325. Drop the batter in 1/4 cup increments onto the hot griddle, and cook for 2-3 minutes per side, or until done. Serve with (real!) maple syrup.

See, it's a pretty straightforward method. It just needs some fine-tuning.

Anyway, as always, thanks for reading!

Blueberry pancakes

Y'know what's fun? Breakfast for dinner. There's a reason places like Ihop stay open 24 hours a day: because food like eggs and pancakes are always tasty no matter what time of day you eat them.

I bring this up because we decided to make pancakes, eggs and ham for dinner tonite. Nothing fancy, just a quick, easy meal.

For the ham and eggs: I cut up some left over ham into chunks and warmed it up in a skillet. After that, I beat about nine eggs together (three people in my apartment, remember) and added them and some shredded cheese to the meat. Scramble. Done.

As for the pancakes: I was going to get some pancake mix, just to be quick, but I realized its just as easy to make them from scratch. Y'know, with flour and baking powder and the like. I'd planned to follow a basic recipe, until I decided I really wanted that tangy buttermilk flavor. Except I didn't have any buttermilk. I could've run down the street to the store, but this was supposed to be quick and easy, remember? Plus, whenever I get buttermilk for something like this, I inevitably end up having to throw half of if down the drain a few weeks later.

I looked up my options. I knew that if you added some acid to regular milk (specific data: 1 tablespoon vinegar/lemon juice with enough milk to equal 1 cup, then rest five minutes) you could get a passable substitute. Hmm... well, what else could I do? So I checked. Yogurt! Or even sour cream. It makes sense if you think about it. So I took a six-ounce blueberry Greek yogurt I had, added two tablespoons of sour cream, and finish off the rest of the liquid with regular milk. The result? Oddly blue-ish pancakes:

They were definitely tasty, but a little underdone in the middle. My guess would be I should have cooked them a little longer at not quite as hot a temperature (I did 300 degrees on an electric griddle). I assume it's because the batter was heavier than if I hadn't included the yogurt/sour cream mixture. So now I'll know for next time.

Like I said, quick and easy. I made the whole thing in about 30-40 minutes, from pulling out all the ingredients to sitting down with a fork in hand. And it was actually fairly cheap too. Most of the ingredients are of the keep-on-hand variety, like eggs, milk, butter, flour, etc. The ham was all leftovers, but we've done bacon or sausage before for only a few bucks. I'd have to go check my math, but I'd wager the whole meal was under $10, and that's not bad.