With our first batch of maple syrup boiled and bottled, the next obvious step is to sample our freshly made product.
Pancake dinner tonight!
We have a very clear division of labour in our household; Tony is in charge of making crêpes, while I’m in charge of making pancakes. It’s just one of our rules.
Tony follows his French Mother’s recipe for consistent fantastic results, but I experiment with the basic pancake recipe for surprising results every time.
I live on the edge, my friends, but also, you don’t mess with crêpes!
For tonight’s dinner I doubled the recipe since the hostages love pancakes. We ended up with about 40-50 small pancakes to smother in syrup.
About smothering. The hostages — especially the female one — love their pancakes swimming in a pool of the expensive store-bought syrup. It was interesting to see how conservative they were with this homemade syrup. Almost treasuring it.
So what is the verdict?
Well, the syrup turned out amazing! A little lighter in colour than the store bought one, but it seems a bit sweeter. The whiskey bottled one had a hint of smokiness to it, which added umph (my version of umami).
There were just a few pancakes left at the end of the meal, but I am sure they will be gone very quickly, as will the remainder of the syrup.
We need to make more syrup, and I think that Tony is on the line for crêpes!
Here is the pancake recipe as I made it last night. Note that this is the doubled up recipe, so if there are 2 of you, half the ingredients.
MArgie’s Pancakes
Mix it
- 4 eggs (we substituted with 12 ice cubes of aqua fava due to egg allergies)
- 4 1/2 liquids: we used half unsweetened almond milk and half milk and it turned out amazing
- 4 Tbsp oil
- 4 cups flour: this time we used white unbleached, but we usually mix in some whole wheat and oats
- 2-4 Tbsp sugar: this time we used 4
- 4 tsp baking soda: can be omitted if you don’t care about fluffiness
- 1 tsp salt
- a splash of vanilla
Cook it
- Mix wet ingredients
- Add dry ingredients and mix well, but not too smoothly
- Use a 1/2 cup measuring cup to pour over a hot griddle (about 350f), or a hot frying pan lightly oiled.
- Wait for bubbles to spread across the top and turn over
- Cook until underside is light brown.
Eat It
Enjoy with your favourite syrup or jam.
I love your views on pancakes versus crêpes! I learned how to make crêpes properly at a French culinary school and no one messes with me on that! I am partial to pancakes though
Right? I used to work at a crêperie many years ago and we had a machine that produced perfect crêpes every time. I love the freedom in making pancakes, but I love to eat both 🙂
Oh wow! That’s so cool about the crêpe machine! I hope I can try using it sometime
Glad to see there was a payoff with the syrup. Your division of labor got me thinking about the roles my wife and I have adopted. Most of these things just kind of evolve without any discussion. While I’m better at math than her, my wife gets things done and doesn’t procrastinate the way I can. Hence, she became the billpayer in the family.
Yeah, things evolve naturally with us as well, partly based on skills and affinity, and partly based on availability of time. When I started working full time outside of the house, Tony picked up a lot of the things that I did because he was working from home most days. I am sure things will change yet again once we retire. I will still be doing the laundry though 🙂
Nobody can do laundry like you.😊
Beautiful! So glad it all turned out so yummy 😋
Thanks, Linda, we’ll try and save some for you, but I can’t promise 🙂
This post made me so hungry. I am having pancakes for dinner tonight.
Haha, I’m glad this inspired you 🙂
😊
Sounds like a great way to enjoy the fruits (or rather syrup) of your labour. Looks delicious!
Haha, good one 🙂 It sure was delicious!
Yum! Looks delicious. Homemade pancakes are also a favourite at our house. We enjoy them even more when we get to scoop free maple syrup from my stepson. Crossing my fingers that we’ll get to go to Ontario this year or we will not have any to enjoy. Hopefully you will get the weather for more syrup. Homemade crepes to go with it would also be delicious.
I hope you get to go and not just for the maple syrup! I was hoping that we’ll be able to cross province lines this summer, but I don’t know…
Fingers crossed!
Let me know if you’re coming our way 🙂
Will do!
Terrific recipe, thanks for sharing and love the homemade syrup!
Thanks, John! So glad you enjoyed it!
Great article! We have an American style pancake diner here in Belgrade. Think it’s about time we went back.
Thanks! I hope you enjoy your Belgradian pancakes 🙂
In my previous Canadian company we had pancakes for St Patrick’s Day, with maple syrup of course. Nothing like that in France.
It’s nice when companies do special things for employees! Did you move already?
Yes, working in Paris now, and today the canteen had a special Saint Patrick menu.
Haha, that’s amazing!
Nice to sample the fruits of your labours. When we travelled through Quebec, we were told to always choose the lighter coloured maple syrup, as it was the best. They were right. Cheers. Allan
Yes, the lighter coloured syrup is more delicate, while the darker has the strongest taste! The lighter colour is from trees that are tapped earlier in the season, so I suspect ours will turn darker as we go.
Pancakes for dinner?? Oh my…pancakes are delicious, especially those with chocolate chips (my favorite) and to add homemade syrup to it makes it all the more scrumptious. Enjoy your lovely meal!
Thanks, Rebecca! It was a good meal, and yes, chocolate chips would have added a lot to this decadent meal of ours 🙂
we just had pancakes for dinner the other night as well – but nothing like these! I’m glad the syrup turned out so well…
I’m sure your pancakes were great 🙂
they were tasty, and easy to make; just add water… 🙂
🙂