Apple Pancakes

A week ago I ate with a few friends at Uncle Bill's Pancake House down the shore. One of my friends ordered pancakes with an apple cinnamon topping. I tried some and found it to be largely unimpressive. The apple topping was clearly from a can, and it was really quite gloppy, gloopy, and gross. I promised him that I would make him the same thing at home, and that it would be 5 times better.

To do so, I peeled an apple and cut it into small chunks like I do to make a pie. I don't do the typical large slices because I find that I enjoy is more when the apples are cooked through and give little resistance when pierced. I find that this way they are more uniform with the syrupy juices surrounding them and the whole mixture is pretty consistent and smooth. I tossed them with some sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, lemon juice and a little apple butter, and let them sit for a few minutes to extract some juices, before cooking them down with a little butter in a saucepan. I cooked down the syrup so that it glazed the apples, and it was delicious, but next time I won't reduce it as much and I'll leave the glaze less viscous to that it's more like syrup.

Meanwhile, I made the pancakes using Ruhlman's 2 part liquid, 2 part flour, 1 part egg and 1/2 part fat ratio. I didn't have any buttermilk, so I instead used a mixture of half and half and vanilla yogurt. The yogurt added some vanilla flavor and slight tang. I used a tsp of baking powder for every 5 oz of flour and melted butter for my fat. I combined the dry and wet ingredients separately then combined them, mixing as little as possible to minimize gluten formation.

Luckily (else I would've gotten really red in the face and ran out of my house) my friend liked them better than Uncle Bills! Now if I could only rent a house down the shore, spruce up the dining room, and hire some waitresses...

Beach

I'm trying to go out to eat less and less. Unless it's a nice restaurant whose food I want to experience, the only reason I go out to eat anymore is to be with company. At home I can cook my food, the way I want it, and have it be just as good, healthier, and much less expensive than anything I can get at Corner Bakery Cafe. I've been appreciating these restaurants less and less as my culinary repertoire and my interest in procuring a quality (farm fresh, local, sustainable) product grow. An Independence day-weekend trip down to the Jersey shore however, has changed my mind, at least somewhat.

I pulled into Ventnor after a long trip down the Atlantic City expressway (that's right I drove myself!) and as I drove down Ventnor Ave, I couldn't suppress a grin. I love the feel of the place, the air, the breeze, the seawater stench. I pulled up to a red light and the passenger in the car to my left looked at me awkwardly as I sat there oddly smiling to myself. Perhaps what I most admire about the town, and most of the others around Ventnor (obviously not Atlantic City) is that they're largely untainted. They're free of the ruthlessness of big business and they're unique. The pace of life feels slow and relaxed, and though I tend to get antsy when I'm not doing something productive (productive in my mind that is) I'm perfectly content staring at the water, admiring the peacefulness for hours on end, thinking about how the tide mirrors life; highs and lows come and go, and really, the only constant is change. Though they're all little towns along the Jersey coast, Margate, Ventnor, Ocean City, etc are hardly uniform, and each one has its own gems.

These gems include some of the local eateries which garner much praise from summer residents. Uncle Bills Pancake House is one of such places. It's main colors (blue and white) immediately remind me of Ihop, but the feel of the place, the ambiance, the service, has the complete opposite effect. I've said that lunch at Per Se is more experience than dinner, and I think that breakfast at Uncle Bills (a very small chain with a few places in South Jersey) is an experience in its own right. It's just plain fun to eat at Uncle Bills. If I could say the same for my local Ihop, I'd be going out to breakfast a lot more often.

My experience at Uncle Bills was not unlike my experience at other restaurants down the shore. To eat at these restaurants for me, feels like eating a big chunk of Americana. The business, the atmosphere, the style, almost makes me feel connected to generations before my own. The food at these places on the other hand, most definitely does not deserve the rave reviews it receives. I found that an omelet at a breakfast place known for their omelets was no better or worse than what I can get at similar stores places back home, and I guarantee that anyone reading this can take this recipe , throw a glob of butter on top, and have pancakes just as good, if not better than Uncle Bills'. The challenge is creating a home kitchen with the same charm, the same vibe, the same nostalgia that Uncle Bills provides.

Thinking of myself as a very objective investigative reporter on the matter, a sudden realization that I myself am not immune to this effect shocked me. As a child I always went to Ocean City, and I have my fair share of places that I regard as "the best." After not having gone there in a few years, I retried a few places that I regarded as heavenly. The fudge from one such place really was just ok and the ice cream from another was average, but eating them on the boardwalk with friends and the ocean, and the breeze made them more than worthwhile.

In the end maybe it just comes down to the fact that these places are down the shore, but the larger point remains. Food is often looked at as the most important element in a successful restaurant, and I don't disagree with this, however I don't doubt that the other elements necessary for a successful restaurant can "team up" and push the food to the back burner, or maybe just off the power burner. Great nostalgia, atmosphere, and service, working in tandem would have me eating out a lot more, even if the food stayed the same, which really is quite a basic idea that probably didn't deserve such a long post. But hey, what's wrong with a little experiment in sociology to back up a basic concept? Oh and by the way, Uncle Bill's definitely has the cutest waitresses ;)

Pancake Mix

"This is the best idea I've had in years!" I proclaimed to a few buddies in school. Their eyes widened, probably hoping I had come up with something fun for the weekend, and I, uh, kinda had, if you share my idea of fun. "I made my own pancake mix!" Their eyes drooped in disbelief. "You mean like Bisquick?" one asked. "Uh well, I guess so but I mean without the artificial ingredients and all." They shrugged unimpressed. "When I'm making them pancakes Sunday morning they'll appreciate it a little more!" I thought to myself.

To make this mix, I used the pancake recipe I always use but multiplied the dry ingredients by 5, then added them to a large jar, and shook the heck out of it. Now the reason for making your own mix is convenience, and I didn't want to have to measure out 2 1/3 C and 2 teaspoons of dry mix every time I wanted pancakes. I saw that the ratio of dry to buttermilk is almost 1:1, so I tried the recipe using 1 cup of mix and 1 cup of buttermilk, and just using 1 egg and 1 tbs butter. I know the ratios are a little off from the original recipe, but it worked great.

To try to make the pancakes just a little more tender, I tried mixing the melted butter with the flour before adding the rest of the wet ingredients. I wanted the fat to coat the flour so that the flour would develop less gluten once the other wet ingredients were added. It definitely worked. These pancakes came out very tender. My sister proclaimed them "The best pancakes I've ever had." Whenever she likes a food that I make, I see it as an accomplishment.

I made extra pancakes, then froze them in separate plastic bags so that my sisters could toast them and eat them for breakfast. Sometimes I'm just in the mood to use my cooking for the forces of good.

Pancakes in the morn

I was talking to my friend, planning a sleepover. It was a Saturday night. He told me to come over soon, but I missed that. I was already thinking about breakfast the next morning. I realized I had buttermilk in my house, and as mom and I were walking out the door, I grabbed the b-milk and my recipe booklet, ensuring a good Sunday breakfast. I slept much better that night with buttermilk fairies and thoughts of warm pancakes dancing in my head.

I always use this 101 Cookbooks, buttermilk pancake recipe.

2 cups AP Flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/4 cups buttermilk

2 beaten eggs

2 tbs melted butter

1) Combine all wet ingredients.

2) Combine all dry ingredients

3) Add wet to dry and stir until just combined (lumps will melt out later)

4) Cook in butter over medium heat until golden brown on both sides.