Apple Cinnamon Ktastic-cakes

One thing I really enjoy about knowing how to cook--at least a little bit--is experimentation. Granted, I have far more failures than successes while experimenting, as evidenced by the scones I made on Friday.

I set out to make some cranberry-apricot scones because I like cranberries and apricots and especially scones. Unfortunately, I started mixing ingredients before I checked to see that I actually HAD all of the required ingredients. Sadly, I was about half a cup short on soymilk.

"A little water and oil will certainly do the trick!" I assured myself.

I, as you may have guessed, was sadly mistaken.

So, after serving a batch of oily, oily scones--and oh, I ate lots of those damn scones. I was really hungry--I knew I had to redeem myself somehow. Enter the old standby: pancakes.

My pancakes are a case of successful experimentation, however, as I am pretty sure they are the best damn pancakes I have ever made. They resulted from a combination of having already cooked pancakes too much for pancakes to be impressive and having a few apples lying around.

Also, this is probably the first recipe I ever made up on my own! Neat.

Apple Cinnamon Ktastic-cakes
-2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
-2 tablespoon sugar
-2 tablespoon baking powder
-1 tablespoon vegetable oil
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-2 1/2 cups soy milk
-1/2 apple (I used Cripps Pink but I'd also recommend Pink Ladies or Gala)
-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
-1/2-3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Combine the dry ingredients, like you knew you were gonna have to do anyway.
  
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix, but not too much. Some lumps are okay.
  
• Chop up your apple. You could probably grate it, but my grater is MIA so I tend to just chop things up! Fold the chopped up apple into your pancake batter. Now it'll look super-lumpy and a little scary. Don't worry.
  
• Heat a little oil in a frying pan over low-medium. It's the right temperature for pancake-cookin once you can sprinkle water droplets over it and they sizzle a bit.
• There are two options for cooking your pancakes. Making bigger cakes results in mushy insides (which tastes great, don't get me wrong, it's actually a very pleasant texture) with a crisp outside. Smaller cakes cook more thoroughly but still have a nice, crisp exterior--almost cookie-ish. Personally I liked the little ones better, but it's good to experiment. So drop some batter in your pan according to how big you want 'em.
• Flip the pancakes after the uncooked side starts to "bubble up." Cook both sides to a golden brown.
  
• While you're going through the batch, you can keep your pancakes warm by throwing them in a 200F oven.

So there you have it: I made something up and it was actually GOOD. What a concept. You can slice up the other half of your apple for a delicious garnish and throw down some microwaved soysage, if you're REALLY going to get into the whole cooking breakfast thing. Which you know I am.


Enjoy!