Making pancakes is easy and the basic ingredients and cooking implements can be found almost anywhere on earth. Children usually love pancakes so It is a fantastic way to teach children the basics of cooking.
Easy and healthy pancakes from scratch
To get kids interested in cooking it is easiest to let them participate in cooking things they really like, such as pasta, pancakes and brownies. Here is a "from scratch" pancake recipe. You can buy premixed pancake mix, but it is full of chemical preservatives and other additives like colorants and anti-caking agents and so on. Pancakes are easy to make, and you can add any hearty or sweet ingredient. Personally I prefer cheese pancakes, but you can make bacon pancakes, apple & raisin pancakes, butterscotch pancakes, lingonberry & whipped cream pancakes, or just really anything you like. These pancakes you can eat cold as well, or heat them in the microwave for just 30 sec. They can be frozen for future use (I prefer to roll them up so they take up less space, but they can be frozen flat just as well). They can be packed for lunch at school.
Ingredients:
3 eggs
500 g ( about 1 pound) of flour ( I like to use whole wheat, but it makes the pancakes more brittle and less easy to flip over without breaking, so if you are a novice pancake baker, take 1/2 white all-purpose flour and 1/2 whole-wheat flour or even start with only white flour which will make the pancakes more flexible, also with whole wheat you might prefer to add some more salt to the batter)
3/4 liter (24 oz) of milk
100 ml beer (any kind, I prefer a light lager 5%) (don't worry about the alcohol it evaporates during the baking, you can use alcohol-free beer as well as long as it is made with hops and yeast) (If you really are against using beer for any reason, use self-rising flour instead of all-purpose or add some baking powder to the mix)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of honey
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
Break and stir the eggs. Add in the milk. Add the flour through a sieve to prevent lumping. Add the other ingredients. Does the batter seem smooth? If it is too lumpy, stir it or use a mixer until it is smooth.
Heat a skillet and put some oil or butter into it; make sure it is well-greased and hot enough for the first pancake. Heat the fat until it is starting to smoke slightly. Put in the first spoonful of batter to test the thickness. The first pancake can be too greasy - that is ok. You can correct it later. Consider the first finished pancake. If the batter is too thick, add milk or water. If it is too thin to your taste, add some flour. Once you have a comfortable level of heat you do not need much oil or butter. Pancake baking is just a matter of experience. You need to match the appropriate heat level and the appropriate amount of batter with the skillet you are using. The more experienced you are, the hotter you can make the fire and the quicker the tempo of your pancake baking. If the pancakes are too black on the bottom while they are not even dry on the top. the heat is up too high. They should be golden brown on both sides. Ideally, they are getting brown on the bottom and dry on the top, and then you flip them over.
You can get up to using 4 skillets at the same time, just one person, really.
How to flip pancakes into the air
This special skill will ingratiate you with any kids forever and will even impress adults. It takes some experimenting with no one watching. It is difficult to explain - first make sure the pancake is already loose from the bottom and just sliding around in the skillet loosely when you move it - good greasing here is essential. If it is sticking anywhere, don't try to flip it. If the pancake is too crumbly or likely to break, don't try it. You might try it with a recipe that is only all-purpose flour, instead of whole-wheat, because then the pancake is more flexible. If the pancake is sliding around loosely, and it seems to be holding together nicely, pull the skillet backwards jerkily and then give the far end of the skillet an upwards turn and be there to catch the pancake as it comes down. Try it gently at first, build up momentum as you become more confident. As with many skills, it is just a matter of practice.
Yummy variation tips:
1. Have a bowl of grated cheese at the ready and mix it in with some batter - probably not the whole lot. Putting cheese on top of a pancake means you cannot flip it on its other side afterwards for the cheese will stick to the pan. You can put slices on top and cover them with more batter but that will become one heavy pancake. So best results so far is when mixing grated cheese into the batter.
2. Raisins are also a great variation that most kids like.
3. Apple slices work well - put them into the skillet first and then add the batter.
4. Bacon pancakes - first fry the bacon, then add the batter.
5. Ham pancakes, salami pancakes, turkey pancakes, you name it you can do it.
6. I have even made chocolate pancakes with the kids. Just add cocoa and sugar to the batter.
For a great brownie recipe klick here: Brownie
Tamara Croes - Tamara is an environmental consultant and freelance writer and translator. She currently resides in Sweden.
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