Favorite toppings on pancakes?

[pdswife]

Peanut butter and MIL's home made strawberry jam.

 

[Alix]

Are you messing with me about how much syrup costs DC? Its not really that much is it?

 

[fried fish]

hey fried fish, no embarassment at all-- I'm actually the expert pancake lover lol.. years ago I wouldn't eat pancakes, I felt they were too heavy & used to prefer crepes.. lately I played with recipes, added fresh berries, used different glazes, jams & fresh berries ontop.. then all of a sudden, I can't pass a day without pancakes!!! lol.. No seriously I love them!!!
My favorites are..
Berry pancakes with real butter
Plain pancakes with mixed berry syrup
Banana or Apple pancakes with cinnamon-honey-walnut-butter topping
last but not least-- plain & maple syrup (when I'm in a simpler mood)

What about yours fried fish?

I like apple pancakes with burnt sugar syrup or honey butter. On regular pancakes, just about anything.... berry syrup, just plain butter with alittle cinnamon sugar, good maple syrup, sliced bananas with warm strawberry sauce... I'm getting hungry now. Not a good thing at this time of night!

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

OK guys...now I am craving pancakes for dinner and the ribs are a brewing as we speak. PHOOEY!!

OK, questions here. Um, is there no real maple syrup in the US? Why is Canadian maple syrup so prized? Maybe I am jaded since it is all I have ever had.

And kitchenelf, what is European butter? And have you tasted Amarula? Try a little of that instead of your Kahlua. You will LOVE it.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

...OK, questions here. Um, is there no real maple syrup in the US? Why is Canadian maple syrup so prized? Maybe I am jaded since it is all I have ever had.

And kitchenelf, what is European butter? And have you tasted Amarula? Try a little of that instead of your Kahlua. You will LOVE it.

I'm not surte how I managed to post a "no-reply", but I obviously did it. So here's my reply. Maple syrup, of course comes from sugar maple trees. They are found all over Canada and from Northern Wisconson to Vermont. To get really good syrup, the nights must be cold, with warm/sunny days following to get the sap running profusely in the trees. Syrup flavor wil vary depending on weather conditions, soil, how long the sap is boiled, etc.

I have made maple syrup by tapping trees in my neighborhood. It came out wonderfully rich and flavorful. There are several areas withing a 100 mile radius that comercially produce maple syrup that is as good as any I've tried from Canada.

I have a freind in Ontario (St. Joseph's Island) that makes syrup every year, from trees on his land. The flavor varies from year to year due to weather conditions.

Obviously, there are areas that get just the right weather conditions more frequently than others. Uppper-[eninsula Michigan get that kind of weather, but there is no real industry here for making large quantities of syrup. We have the trees and climate, but for whatever reaason, few people do it.

Wisconsin can say the same thing, as can Minnesota, especially the Northern parts.

Vermont turned syrup making into an industry and is famous for the quantity and quality of their syrup. They are also know as cheese artisans, especially cheddar. The people who settled the state were agriculturally minded. Their main state buisness wasn't cars or other industry. It was farming and producing food.

Much of Canada is rural and forested with Sugar Maple trees. And their are many more people there willing to take on the time and labor intensive job of making maple syrup. And the high cost is because, if I remember correctly, it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. And all of that extra moisture has to be boiled away. That takes a lot of sap hauling, wood cutting of specific hardwoods such as tamarack, or white-oak, or maple for fuel.

Of course in a more industrial setup, natural gas is probably used to heat the evaporators.

I've see syrup go for anything from $15 - $25 bucks per gallon. The stuff is truly liquid gold. But it doesn't come easy.

I too love real maple syrup, as well as maple sugar (sap cooked down until it resembles brown sugar), and maple flavored products, such as maple nut ice cream.

Of course this has to be a rare and small treat for me, just like all other sugar based sweets. But that occasional little taste helps make life worth living.

In decades past, maple used to be the primary sweetening agent from the Great lakes to the northern east coast. Now we just get the cheaper stuff.

And baked beans, well you can guess how they were originally made; with maple syrup of course.

Hope this answers one of your questions.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[crewsk]

I like fresh blueberries with fresh whipped cream on mine when I can get it. If not, maple syrup & butter are just fine, but I dip my pancakes in the syrup rather than pouring it on. I don't like 'em soggy!

 

[Raine]

Like them with butter, and maple syrup or blueberry, blacberry or muscadine syrup. Like pecan and buckwheat pancakes too.

Husband sometimes makes the pancake batter from scratch. At competitions we fix pancakes a good bit. They are quick and easy and don't cost a lot to make.

 

[buckytom]

butter and vermont maple syrup, the darkest grade available. or whipped cream, sliced bananas, and walnuts with just a drizzle of lighter grade vermont maple syrup.

 

[norgeskog]

My favorite are blueberries mixed with melted non salted butter. I like my pancakes burnt though. :? Am I alone on this? Is it WRONG to love over cooked cakes? I like the texture better. And its adds more personality to the flavor.

Go ahead DC, if you want your pancakes carmelized, go for it.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Pancake and Mudbug; Thanks for the compliments on the pancake recipe.

And as for the question of making syrup, if you have the sugar maple trees to get 40 gallons of syrup from, then you have to do it, at least once. It's done in March, when the days just start warming up a bit, and there's still three feet of snow on the ground.

And if you do make it, do it outside as the steam will carry some of the sugar into the air and make a sticky mess of everything. Also, if the sap threatens to boil over, pour in a bit of cream to settle the seething sap.

If you don't have sugar maples, black birch trees can also be tapped, but the flavor is much different, with a hint of wintergreen flavor.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[mish]

Butter & maple syrup, or strawberries/blueberries & whipped cream. Sometimes I add ingredients to the batter, chocolate chips, egg nog, or walnuts. Anyone tried adding pumpkin?

Had to share these with you all:

http://www.mrbreakfast.com/superdisplay.asp?recipeid=545
(The banana split sounds oh so good.)

http://www.ihop.com/

I'll have this one. How about U?

Caramel-Apple Fruit Pocket Pancakes are drizzled with sweet caramel sauce and crowned with a gentle dash of powdered sugar. On the inside you will find warm cinnamon apples.

 

[jpmcgrew]

I like them every way described and some times they are good with some fresh fruit and a container of your favorite fruit yogurt dumped on top.
Also has anyone ever had a dutch baby pancake?

 

[norgeskog]

I like them every way described and some times they are good with some fresh fruit and a container of your favorite fruit yogurt dumped on top.
Also has anyone ever had a dutch baby pancake?

Have never heard of it jmpcgrew, what is it?

 

[jpmcgrew]

You make a batter very much like popovers but maybe more eggs put it in a pan preheated in oven with butter it rises up the sides and gets really puffy it gets a bowl shape then you can put fresh berries and whipped cream apples sauteed in brown sugar,cinnamon and butter inside.Also you squeeze fresh lemon juice from lemon wedges on them.It has a very eggy texture to it and is really tasty.

 

[norgeskog]

You make a batter very much like popovers but maybe more eggs put it in a pan preheated in oven with butter it rises up the sides and gets really puffy it gets a bowl shape then you can put fresh berries and whipped cream apples sauteed in brown sugar,cinnamon and butter inside.Also you squeeze fresh lemon juice from lemon wedges on them.It has a very eggy texture to it and is really tasty.

thanks jpmcgrew, sounds like the outside of elcairs or cream puffs. I like them stuffed with cheese mixture

 

[luvs]

i like hot fruit sauces. strawberries, especially, and real whipped cream.
(simmer together fruit and water and white sugar, add a cornstarch slurry, cook till clear. add almond extract if you'd like, especially to cherry topping. blueberries are good.
for whipped cream, pour whipping cream and a little vanilla into a glass or metal 1-qt. measure and whisk till peaks form. whisk in sugar to taste.
real maple syrup is delicious, too.

 

[Hungry]

Pancake Fixens

Surprise!
All these post and no one uses Honey!

I mix honey with butter, heat it up and pour it on!

Some times I will put a gob of Blueberry jam on the side. It goes good with the honey and butter.

I use Goodweed's recipe and have a question.

My grill holds 8 - 3-4" pacakes. By the time they cook, the remaining batter is very thick, too thick to pour. I added a little water, MISTAKE!! It killed the next batch of pancakes. They tasted O.K. but did not rise.

How should this thicking be handeled?
Get a bigger grill and cook then all at one time.

Charlie

Charlie

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

When the batter becomes too thick to pour, spoon it onto the griddle and spread with the back of the spoon. Also, make sure to use double-acting baking powder as one part of the leavening happens when moisture is added. The other takes place when heat is applied. I suspect that your thinner batter didn't rise as the chemical reaction of the baking powder was used up, and when you added extra water, you released the trapped carbon dioxide. The double action would solve the problem if that is the case.

Two brands of baking powder that work well for me are Clabber Girl, and Calumet.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[Haggis]

I love pancakes, but they take so long to do a whole batch of batter (I am only doing one at a time mind).

I have been switching more and more to making crepes, much quicker.

 

[karaburun]

Hi,

I like a mix from sugar-cinnamon on apple pancakes.
Or Nutella (you know? It´s a chokolate cream for bread) on normal pancakes.
I love on hot pancakes vanillia ice-cream with whipped cream.
Or vanillia sauce, chocolat sauce, cointreau, Eggliquer (verpoorten or made by my self).
Bakedapplemarmelade, mulled wíne jelly.

You can put cherrys on it, ..................................................

lg Tanja