I like a pancake, then I like to tart it up. This is my motherfood pancake, it lives somewhere between an american pancake an a british pancake (crepe) and makes me happy every single time I make it. This is one of the foods I make when I'm here alone and need to feel some happiness and love.

No, I don't think you NEED a recipe for a pancake, it's flour, egg, milk, cooked and slathered in whatever makes you happy.  I just do them a little differently when it's just me here and I want a little treat.  The days where I'm chased away from a quiet read by televisions and feel lonely for someone to just chat to about nothing in particular, this is what I make, just for me, on those types of days...  go on, we all have them, trust me, if you make this, you'll have a little smile and a new start to the day.

DRIVEBY RECIPE:  TRACY'S BACON APPLE PANCAKE 

WITH POWDERED SUGAR AND QUEBEC MAPLE SYRUP

INGREDIENTS

Bacon, cut into tiny pieces, I use 2 pieces
water
1/2 apple, peeled and chopped small

1/2 cup all purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 Tb sugar
1 egg
enough milk to take batter to 1 1/3 cup (10 oz) of batter

maple syrup
powdered sugar

METHOD AND PLAY BY PLAY PICS

Cut bacon up small and drop in a cold frying pan, add water to coat the bottom of the pan, thinly.  Turn on to medium high and cook till water evaporates and bacon crisps, drop in apples and fry around a bit, just a bit, we don't want them turned to babyfood.  Add a pat of butter and shush it around to a smooth layer in the pan.  Drizzle batter over, thinly but enough to cover, leave it, do NOT touch or shake, don't touch it!!  when it looks dry around the edge, slide a spatula under and flip it, one solid motion. you can do it!  Fry the second side a minute or so, till it's brown under there then flip back to first side. Transfer to plate and add a little powdered sugar, fold in half, dust with a little more powdered sugar and fold into quarters.  Pour a little maple syrup over and sit quietly and eat it, all of it.  :) Enjoy.  There is enough batter to make another, plain one OR you can repeat and make a second apple bacon.  Go on, make yourself one.

Make the batter and set aside.  Add bacon and water to pan and fry till crispy, add chopped apple.
     
Fry it around a bit, add a pat of butter and then pour batter over, carefully and evenly

    

Leave it, do not shush it around, just leave it, when it's brown and set, flip it

    

Oh, flip it back again when the second side is cooked, just for a second,  Transfer to a plate, sugar and flip, sugar and flip. 

    

Drizzle a little maple syrup over it...  yeah, then eat it, quietly, with no one anywhere near you 

  

Dutch Baby Pancake for One !!

Dutch Baby for one

I am starting to think about our home school schedule for this year. Connor is starting the 8th grade and I'm starting to fret. I woke up at 4:22 am this morning and decided it was just easier to get up, write a little then cook a little than to lay there and fret. 

I decided I wanted something with an egg it, but it had to be not too sweet, not too savory and it had to be something I could devour in one sitting. Let's be honest, I am rarely in the mood to share at 4:22 am. I also never (truly never) get to eat anything without being interrupted, stared at or asked why I got THAT on leftover night. Really? I looked in the same fridge and saw the same food and let everyone else pick first... Oh, but I digress.

On this morning I am free to cook, then eat, in the dark, uninterrupted and this is how I rolled.

Call it what you will: 

Tracy's Mini Dutch Baby

Dutch Baby for ONE

Mother's breakfast treat

What I do for me

Put a small (6 inch) cast iron pan (or stainless steel pan just watch the handle!) in the oven and turn the oven on to 400.

In a 2 cup measuring up, combine with a whisk, until smooth:

1 egg

1/4+ cup a/p flour (I heap my measure slightly)

pinch of salt

a scant palmful of sugar (I don't like these too sweet)

enough milk to make a very runny batter

dribble of vanilla

(total measurement on mine, when it's all combined, is 1 cup)

When the oven hits temperature and the cast iron pan is hot, put 1-2 tablespoons of butter in it and coat the pan either by brushing, paper towel or swirling. Put pan back in oven for 5 minutes.

See, the oven time and buttering gave you something to do while you were waiting for the batter to rest. If there are too many bubbles in the batter, it won't rise as well so feel free to let it sit there a few more minutes if you can possibly help it.

Gently stir the batter (no air bubbles!) to combine and pour it into the screaming hot, buttered, pan without removing the pan from the oven, we don't want to lose any heat here.

Close the door and hit timer for 18 minutes. Don't open the door.

Remove when it's hot and puffy and golden. Slide it onto a plate all to yourself and add a little jam or some syrup or a squeeze of lemon and some powdered sugar.

It's how I do a little morning treatie just for me. Here's the beauty shots!

My little 6 inch cast iron pan. Look how it puffs up, the secret is no bubbles in the batter and do.not.open.that.oven.door. Just for my own reputation, such as it is, I don't slather it in vodka. My mother delivers maple syrup, from Quebec, when she comes to visit me in vodka bottles. They're plastic and light and she can portion out from the vats of it she buys and keeps north. I'm pleased to get it and guard it almost maniacally.

  

More beauty shots.
 

It deflates quickly but the sides are crisp and light and the bottom is almost custardy and I absolutely love them.  It slips out in one piece from the pan.  Yes, that's a maple syrup puddle.  Yes, I ate the whole thing myself.  I justified it by it's parts, rather than it's sum.  One egg, a little milk and a little flour is hardly something to fret about for breakfast.  I think there's more flour in a slice of toast so technically, without the maple syrup, this is virtually diet food!
 

Go treat yourself with a little special treatie.  You're worth it.

/enjoy

Dutch Baby Skillet Pancake

AH, I have a HANKERING!

Some mornings I want a cup of coffee, some quiet time and my ankle not to hurt (long story)  Some mornings I want a crunchy piece of toast made from my home made bread with a runny poached egg (or two) dribbling down the crispy, buttered, sides.

Some mornings I want something sweet, eggy, crunchy, soft, lofty and dense all at the same time.  Enter the Dutch baby.  To me it's just a giant Yorkshire pudding but it's got sugar and vanilla in it so it's sort of different while being sort of the same.

Preheat oven to 400.  Put a measuring cup and an 8' frying pan on the counter.

In a measuring jug:

1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup plus a quick splash of milk
some vanilla
a couple teaspoons of sugar
pinch of salt
*a tsp or 2 of orange juice or a bit of orange zest if you have it*

Mix all the ingredients with a fork until smooth, thin with a little milk if you need to.  Should be the consistency of single cream.

Butter the frying pan.  Place frying pan in the preheated oven for about 5 minutes.
 

Pull shelf of oven out and pour contents of jug into hot hot hot frying pan quickly, close oven door.

Bake for about 25 minutes.  DO.NOT.OPEN.THE.DOOR.

 

Remove from oven and slice into wedges as it deflates.

Add chocolate chips and chocolate sauce to your son's piece.  Oh then some powdered sugar.
 

I like a drizzle Lyle's Golden Syrup.  Oh and then some powdered sugar, for the prettiness.
 

Alternate toppings, oh wait, there's about a zillion.  I like sugar and lemon, Orange zest rubbed into sugar and sprinkled over the pancake. Maple syrup. Fruit both fresh and grilled.  Anything you like.

  

/Eat.  Enjoy.