Puff Pancakes

I think the more I cook / bake - I realize I really truly love breakfast food. There's just something about the weekend and having time - I'm not in a rush to get to work and I feel more relaxed.  Clean up is rarely as big as dinner and my daughter can really help me get breakfast together.

This morning we made Puff Pancakes.  I saw this recipe while getting out a tried and true recipe and vowed to make it the next morning (meaning THIS morning).  It was so simple and a great recipe to include a toddler on.

What's great about this recipe is that it uses one bowl and two pans - and it bakes in the oven.  So while it is baking, you can clean up or get ready for the sit-down.

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole milk
2 tbsp melted butter
1/4 tsp salt
freshly grated lemon zest (from most of a lemon if you have it) as well as a few tbsp of the juice
Icing sugar (for dusting)

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 400F.  Generously butter two 8-9" pie pans.
2.  Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl on low speed for a few minutes.  Add the flour, 2 tbsp at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat only until smooth.  Beat in the milk, butter, salt and lemon zest/juice. (The more lemon you add, the more lemony it tastes, so I always add a bit more!)
3. Evenly divided the batter between the two pie pans, evenly pouring it throughout.
4. Bake for 10 minutes.  Reduce the oven temperature to 350 and bake for another 5 minutes.
5. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with icing sugar.  Serve immediately.
6. Top with whatever you like (syrup, jam, Nutella, cinnamon-sugar, etc).

My daughter loves syrup and always says "more syrup."  She would drink the syrup rather than eat the food.  We finished our syrup yesterday so today's puff pancake had to have a different topping: we used homemade Canadian wild blueberry jam and it was just perfect!  My husband put Nutella - another great choice.  The lemon flavour with the pancake was so good, it reminded me of the lemon-sugar crepes I had in Paris!  Speaking of crepes, this pancake was almost like a crepe but a little bit thicker.  It's the perfect in-between of a pancake and crepe - for those days where you can't decide which one you'd like!

I cut each pancake into 4 large slices and it served my family of 3 just fine.  It could easily have fed 4; we just liked it too much!

By the way - it was so much fun for my daughter to see how it puffed up in the oven! And of course we were just so excited to eat them that I completely forgot to take a picture of at least one all dressed up with its toppings!

Both pancakes right out of the oven.

Close-up of one.

Sprinkled with icing sugar (my daughter did the lower one!)

Close up

Crepes

I love crepes! I can eat them all day, every day.  My favourite tends to be Nutella with bananas or strawberries, but while I was in Paris I ate a lemon sugar crepe every night.  I woke up one morning and decided I was going to make crepes for breakfast and introduce my 15 month old daughter to the beauty of a crepe.  I have adapted this recipe to be non-dairy as well, but that will be for another post.
You can use any filling/topping you'd like, but this morning I decided to do cooked apples.  Prepare the apples first as they can cook while you are making the crepes.
And don't worry if the first crepe doesn't turn it - it never turns out for me so I researched it once and apparently it is a myth that the first crepe never turns out!

Crepes:
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
3 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
splash of vanilla
salt to taste

1. In a small bowl combine the eggs, milk, butter, vanilla, baking powder and salt. Add flour, blending well. Heat heavy skillet or crepe pan over medium heat. Brush with shortening or oil (or spray with non-stick cooking spray).

Batter starts to bubble and
curl on the edges.

2. Pour batter, about 1/3 cup at a time, into pan.  Tilt and swirl pan to spread batter very thin - to the edges of the pan.  Brown about 1-2 minutes (until it starts to bubble), turn and brown the other side.
3. Transfer crepes to a plate and cover with foil paper or place in warm oven to keep warm.
4. When all the batter is cooked, place a crepe, one at a time back into the pan and fill with the filling (below). Fold in half (or thirds) and briefly heat through.
5. Dust with icing sugar and garnish with whipped cream or syrup and serve.

Makes approximately 8 crepes.

The final product - yum!

Filling #1:
5 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced.
2 tbsp butter
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp cinnamon (to taste)

Heat skillet over medium heat.  Melt butter in the pan and add apples.  Squeeze lemon juice over top and sprinkle with cinnamon.  Cook until the apples are soft and starting to break down.

Filling #2:
Nutella
Sliced Bananas

Spread nutella over half the crepe. Once it starts to melt, place the sliced bananas over top.  Fold the crepe over and flip to heat the other side.

Filling #3:
Nutella
Sliced Strawberries

Spread nutella over half the crepe. Once it starts to melt, place the sliced strawberries over top.  Fold the crepe over and flip to heat the other side.

Filling #4:
1 lemon, juiced and zested
sugar

Sprinkle the crepe with sugar, lemon zest and juice.  Fold over and serve.