Blueberry Pancakes

[heidih]

Just a quick question/observation lesliec - what struck me about you pancakes was the amount of oil in the pan. Here in the US I always see them on a seasoned griddle or flat-top with no visible oil so that they appear to have an almost dry surface. Is your method the norm in your area? 

[lesliec]

I'm not sure we have a norm, Heidi.  Pancakes certainly aren't unheard of, but neither are they exactly a cornerstone of our national cuisine!

 

I just used some butter out of habit, I suppose.  You're right; if the pan is properly seasoned - mine is; it's a lovely heavy Lodge - it's probably not needed, particularly since the batter itself has butter in it.

 

But somebody - Escoffier? - said everything tastes better with butter, and who am I to argue?

 

Jo - no problems here with sticking (maybe the butter helps), but as you saw I used the 'second squirt' method.  They were great with maple syrup.

[John80]

hi Leslie,

tried to make the pancakes the same way you did and it actually worked out great! My girlfriend and me had some with maple syrup as well which was absolutely delicious.

A shame pancakes are not that popular (at least in the US). If more people knew this recipe they would certainly be

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I revisited blueberry pancakes to test out Leslie's method of cooking the cakes in butter.  The results were perfectly fine, even if being splattered with boiling butter hurt.  Still, I would have to say I prefer pancakes baked on a dry surface, whatever Auguste might have to say.

 

The double layer technique allows a very large number of berries to be incorporated in the pancake.  The result is a solidly satisfactory hit of blueberry flavor.  Did I mention blueberries are four times as expensive as a couple weeks ago?  The birds and I have picked my blueberry bushes clean.

 

For the future I plan on reducing the milk even further, and perhaps replacing all the butter in the batter with more sour cream.  Of course the risk is making the batter too thick to be dispensed from the iSi.

 

And now that my iSi is empty I can return to making methode rotuts.

Edited October 26, 2019 by JoNorvelleWalker
methode rotuts (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Since all the methode rotuts was gone, today was more blueberry pancakes.  This time I removed all the butter and increased the sour cream.  I also decreased the salt:

 

90 g cake flour

90 g AP flour

225 g whole milk

2 large eggs

4-6 Tablespoons sour cream

1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

blueberries (reserved)

 

 

Best yet.  Butter gets in the way of blueberries.  I still think the batter can be thicker, so I'll plan to reduce the milk next time.  But I need more bacon.

Edited October 26, 2019 by JoNorvelleWalker
ditto (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

There was a sale on berries* from the Argentine.  So I bought a DeLonghi griddle.

 

This time I used Arrowhead Mills organic pastry flower which apparently was a mistake.  It is a course ground flour and the batter would not pass through the iSi filter.  I feared the flour would clog the nozzle but it actually worked OK.  Next time AP flour.

 

So the recipe was:

 

180 g pastry flour

220 g whole milk

2 large jumbo eggs

4-6 Tablespoons sour cream

1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

blueberries (reserved)

 

I played with different times and temperatures after first characterizing the DeLonghi with my surface contact Thermapen.  The DeLonghi temperature fluctuates a bit but it is better than I expected.  I first tried 375 deg F. (a widely recommended pancake temperature on the web) but 375 was too low.  DeLonghi calls for 400 which was better.  I found 410 was better still.  For some reason there is no setting between 410 and 450.  Both 410 and 450 worked for me.

 

What was very nice is I found the surface of the DeLonghi did not need oil or butter!  Anyhow...

 

 

 

*better berries than we generally get locally in season, my balcony excepted.

 

[Anna N]

6 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

There was a sale on berries* from the Argentine.  So I bought a DeLonghi griddle.

 

 Makes perfect sense to me. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

My bushes are adorned in abundant hope -- an infinity of little hard green berries, about 2mm in diameter.  We all know who will get them.  And it isn't me.

 

Meanwhile a friend made me a present of a pint of store-bought berries.  Very lovely store-bought berries.  As I recall they are from Carolina but I am too lazy to get up and check.  Too soon for local berries.

 

What to do?  I made up a batch of batter.  The pancakes were like cardboard.  Two days later and the pancakes were ethereal.  The batter needs time, either for the gluten to relax or more likely for the nitrous oxide to dissolve.  Maybe both.

 

I had no sour cream.  I'm trying to get up off my ass to make some.  So I used butter.  This batter was thick enough to work with one layer.  I could have used the @lesliec two layer technique to make cakes monumentally thick indeed.  But I did not.

 

 

 

 

Stack of four.  Good stuff.

 

 

[kayb]

Y.U.M.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

This afternoon I finished off the batch of batter.  Such a sad sigh the iSi makes as it runs out.  By the way these beautiful berries are actually from Georgia (not the walnut one).

 

[paulraphael]

On 5/19/2018 at 5:48 PM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

This afternoon I finished off the batch of batter.  Such a sad sigh the iSi makes as it runs out.  By the way these beautiful berries are actually from Georgia (not the walnut one).

 

 

You probably have days worth of batter left. One of those plump blueberries just got stuck in the valve. Try talking to it gently.

[AlaMoi]

this is a batter recipe from 40+ years ago - as 'tested' by consumer reports.

 

I also like to hand drop the berries after the pour . . . no blue batter...