Thursday, May 2, 2013

Pile-on-Tops

My boys this morning came in asking for surprise surprise "flat pancakes." In an effort to change things up a bit, I made a rendition of a dish my Mom used to make for me when I was a kid. "Pile-on-Tops." They are a fun take on the basic "flat pancake." Needless to say, the boys liked them. My little on told me between overflowing mouthfuls, "Mom these are good." To me that's all that matters. Happy boys and full bellies :).

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Pile-on-Tops

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups milk

2 Tbsp melted butter

2 Tbsp honey

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 Tbsp butter in wrapper

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

In a small bowl combine the cinnamon and sugar to make your sprinkle. I use a flour/sugar shaker I use but you can use a spoon if you don't have one.

Preheat a non-stick skillet or two over medium heat. (I use two pans to speed up the process that way I have 2 pancakes cooking at once.)

In a separate mixing bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Add the milk, eggs, butter and honey. I like to dip my Tablespoon in the melted butter before I measure the honey so it just slips right out. Whisk all the ingredients together until the all the flour is incorporated and there are lots of little bubbles. If your butter forms little chunks in the batter, don't worry about it, it will still work fine.

Spray the pans with non-stick spray and pour the batter into the center of each pan. Tilt the pan swirling your wrist until the batter completely fills the bottom of the pan in a thin even layer.

Cook for about a minute until there are bubbles around the entire surface of the pancake and the bottom is starting to brown. Turn and cook and additional 30 seconds or so until the edges start to curl in and the bottom is also brown.

Transfer it to a serving plate. You shouldn't need to spray the pans again. Stir the batter with a whisk to mix in anything that settled on the bottom, and repeat with remaining batter.

If making two at a time you may want to get out two plates. One to transfer the cooked pancakes and the other to assemble the pile-on-tops. So once a pancake is done place it in the center of the serving plate. Using the butter that is still in the wrapper, expose a little pulling back the edges of the paper and rub over the surface of the pancake.

Lightly sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Place the next pancake on top, spread with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Repeat until all the pancakes are piled on.

Cut into slices and serve.

It works out pretty well. Usually about the time I have the two pancakes prepared with butter and cinnamon the two in the pans are ready to flip.

My Mom when I was little would sometimes alternate powdered sugar and cinnamon sugar for each layer, that is yummy too :) I used less than 1 Tbsp of butter for all the layers and less than the 1/4 cup of cinnamon sugar, that's why I like to use semi-cold butter in the wrapper and the flour/sugar shaker. It is really easy to add lots of the good stuff. Feel free to add as much as you like.