Apple Cider Pancakes

This is one of those recipes that has been spreading around Pinterest like wildfire.

In an effort to inject some sort of normalcy back into our lives, we've dedicated one weekend morning to making pancakes the past few weeks. Last week, we busted out pumpkin pancakes. And let me tell you--those are still my favorite, and Nora LOVED them. I still highly recommend.

But, when I saw this recipe for apple cider pancakes, I knew that we had to give these a shot, too. It's a cold and rainy fall weekend in these parts, and we woke up Saturday morning with a plan to make a nice, hot breakfast.

And, well, these were good. But in my opinion, they weren't GREAT. Would I make them again? I guess. It's not like they tasted bad. But will I make them again? I don't know, because there are other pancake recipes I like better, and if I'm going to go through the effort, I might be more inclined to pick one of those.

A few things that contributed to this recipe's so-so review: The recipe itself is weird. I don't understand the whole "make a batch of pancake mix" thing. Why? Why do I need to have a bunch of extra pancake mix on hand (that I now need to store separately from everything else)? When writing a recipe, why not just provide the measurements for exactly the amount of dry ingredients I need to make it? We like to have extras on hand (we refrigerate and/or freeze the leftovers and pop them in the toaster for easy breakfasts), so after making the pancake mix, I tripled the ingredients for the remainder of the recipe (in other words, I used 3 cups of pancake mix, and 3x the amount of everything else, too). After that, it made what I would consider to be a standard amount of pancakes, but I still had a lot of pancake mix leftover. Annoying.

In addition to the weird pancake mix part, the recipe was sort of a pain in the ass. Separate the eggs? Whyyyy? I'm sure there's probably some culinary reason to do so, but damn. There were so many steps and dishes and... blahhhh. I just wanted to make the batter and make the damn pancakes, you know?

As far as the finished product is concerned, I just couldn't taste enough apple cider to make these things worth my while. There was also a somewhat tangy aftertaste that I attribute to the yogurt. In the end, these weren't a winner in my book. Which sucks, because the photos on Pinterest made them look oh.so.fabulous. On a side note, I do like this woman's blog, so at least I was able to "discover" her through these pancakes. Look at that, a shiny bright side! :)

Apple Cider Pancakes
(Source: Tokyo Terrace)

*This recipe makes a large batch. If you are making these for 2 or 3 people, just save the extra dry mix as I’ve indicated below. This way you’ll have plenty for the next time you decide to make pancakes! If you’d prefer not to use whole wheat flour, use white flour instead.

Pancake Mix:
- 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 3 cups white flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon salt

Place ingredients in an airtight container and store until ready to use. Or continue with the recipe below, which makes  nice amount of pancakes for 2 very hungry people or 4 not so hungry people:

To make pancakes:
- 1 cups dry pancake mix
- 1 egg, separated
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/4 cup buttermilk (or buttermilk substitute)
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt
- 1 teaspoons honey
- 1/2 cup apple cider (or apple juice if you can’t find cider)
- Unsalted Butter (both for cooking the pancakes and topping them when they are finished)
- 3 Tablespoons sugar + 1 1/2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon

Place the 1 cup of dry mix in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk the egg white, buttermilk, yogurt, honey and cider. In another small bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and olive oil. Whisk the wet ingredients in one bowl until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry mix and stir until just combined. Lumps are good! Don’t get rid of them!

Heat 1 tablespoon of butter or vegetable oil in a medium pan. Measure 1/3 cup of the batter and pour into the pan. When you start to see small bubbles on the top of the pancakes and the edges are beginning to cook, flip the pancake. Be sure to add more butter or oil as needed so the pancakes don’t stick.

While the pancakes are still warm, top with some butter and allow it to melt over the top of the pancakes. Sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar mixture and eat!