Gingerbread Pancakes...for the love of spice!

Today is Saint Nicholas Day!!! As long as I can remember my family has always celebrated this feast day. Traditionally you are to leave your left shoe outside your door so when Saint Nicholas stops by he will fill your shoe with either treats or coal. I come from a very large extended family, and my mom has always sent decorated treat bags full of something to all our relatives and friends. Quite a task, and I am impressed that she has continued to do it even though the family has grown so large...not as in gaining weight, but as in many bodies. Although Saint Nicholas is from Myra, also known as modern day Turkey, many other countries celebrate his Feast day. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of Sailors, merchants...ironically, archers, children, and students.

Traditionally "Speculaas" cookies are served on Saint Nicholas day. These are Dutch spice cookies very similar to a ginger snap. I have made these cookies and they are very good, but I didn't have the time to make them this year. Instead I opted to make a different spice filled item...Gingerbread pancakes. I liked them so much that I had them for dinner and dessert one day, and then used the rest of the batter to make some more in the morning. I was surprised to find that I much preferred the taste of the pancakes that I made for breakfast after the batter had been in the fridge overnight. The flavors and spices had a chance to really meld together and the result was a rich spicy pancake. I looked at a few recipes for inspiration and then added and changed some things. I really like deep, rich, molasses filled things when it comes to anything spice related...as in cinnamon, cloves, ginger, etc...
Gingerbread Pancakes
BY MOI

SIFT together in small bowl:
1 cup all purpose unbleached flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves

Whisk together in medium bowl:
4 TBS molasses
3 TBS agave,honey, or brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt, or sour cream
2 TBS melted butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Mix dry into wet ingredients until combined. Pour onto hot buttered griddle. Wait until bubbles form on surface before flipping. Serve with warm maple syrup...or with warm maple pecan syrup...which is just maple syrup heated up with some butter and then add chopped pecans to it....so good.

*If you like a spicier pancake add 1 tsp fresh ginger chopped really small.
*You can make the batter the night before and store it in the fridge...easy breakfast!
*I added chocolate chips to some of the batter...also tres awesome!
*This recipe should make enough pancakes for 3-4 people...it all depends on what size the pancakes are and what size the people are : )
*Contrary to popular belief pancakes are not just a breakfast food...If I have my own family one day I plan on having pancake Wednesdays...we will have pancakes every Wednesday for dinner...how cool am I? : )

How to find a recipe...

It is snowing here in Texas. I must not be a true Texan because I am not freaking out over a few snowflakes. I am however craving tomato soup. I used to hate tomato soup, but then I had Panera's tomato soup and it was love at first bite. That will be my food project for the weekend - finding and making a yummy tomato soup. Usually when I decide I want to make something I search online for a recipe. Here are the websites I use and pull recipes from...

http://foodblogsearch.com/

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes

And of course check the food blogs that I follow...Smitten Kitchen, Eat Make Read, etc...

I used to check the food network website regularly, but wasn't having too much luck with those recipes. I do like the Barefoot Contessa recipes, Michael Charillo, and Alton Brown.

Maple Pecan Pie

One holiday down...three to go. I usually gage how good my Thanksgiving was by how tight my jeans are the next day. I was able to zip them up the day after, but then after we spent the next day eating the leftovers I opted for my sweat pants instead. When we travel for Thanksgiving I usually don't contribute too much to the meal. This year I made a bunch of pies, but nothing else. My favorite out of the 6 pies we made was the maple syrup pecan pie. Most pecan pies call for corn syrup, but I really wanted to avoid that if at all possible. The result was nice...sweet...and delicious. This pie will be making more appearances at our house. I recently quit my office job and am now working full time at a bakery, so...this will hopefully free up some of my time and I can test more recipes. My next venture is sweet potato bread pudding which should be served as a breakfast item with maple syrup...can't wait to make it!!

Here is the link for the maple pecan pie, thank you Williams and Sonoma!

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/maple-pecan-pie.html

My winter bird cake...isn't it cute? : )

Pie that I will be making...

Pie has never been something that I make on a regular basis. I think since it only makes sparatic appearances 2-3 times a year I have never spent much time searching for the perfect recipes. Making pie crust always seemed like it was scary and such a daunting task...but then I learned that it was not. After taking my cookies, pies, and tarts class I grew wicked confident about making pie and tart crusts. Now that I have cleared that hurdle the height doesn't seem so bad anymore. My now go to crust is posted below...I also like making this pat in pan crust from America's Test Kitchen...for those of you who dread the rolling pin that is a perfect recipe for you. I am currently in the mid-pie making process. My doughs are made and in their pans, my filling is chilling, and my decorations are set. Pie dough can be made weeks or even a month ahead of time. Simply make your doughs, roll out, and place in pans....be sure not to roll into glass pans if you are making ahead of time. Then cover the prepped pans lined with dough with plastic wrap and place in the freezer. When pie making day comes simply remove from the freezer, fill, and bake accordingly. You can freeze pies after they are baked with some recipes, but for best results wait until the day before to bake your pies. I wish I could share some of my favorite recipes, but since I don't really have any here are the ones that I am making this year...

Pecan:
Corn syrup free version from my teacher: http://www.eddyvandammeusa.com/2009/10/pecan-pie-corn-syrup-free/

Maple pecan pie: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/maple-pecan-pie.html?cm_src=oldlink

Pumpkin: http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/11/silky-smooth-pumpkin-pie/

Butternut Squash Pie: http://southernfood.about.com/od/pierecipes/r/r71128d.htm

Enjoy!

Pie in the sky,
Pie in the store I wouldn't buy,
Pie in my oven,
That's what I'll be lovin.

BEST pie crust ever...

BEST pie crust ever...
yield 3 single crusts
from On Baking

1 lb cold diced butter
1 lb 5 oz all purpose or pastry flour
1 TBS vanilla
4 oz buttermilk
2 tsp. salt
1 TBS sugar

The key to this recipe is to use super cold ingredients, and to not over mix. I make mine in a mixer because it is easier.

Chill mixing bowl and paddle attachment in fridge. Sift flour. Cut butter into small even square pieces, the size of peas. Place sifted flour into chilled bowl and start mixer. Throw butter piece by piece into flour until thoroughly combined and coarse like. In separate small bowl mix vanilla, buttermilk, salt, and sugar. Pour into the flour butter mixture...Mix for only 12-20 seconds until dough comes together. DO NOT OVER MIX! Remove dough from bowl and roll dough into a ball. Separate into three even portions. Cover with plastic wrap and chill thoroughly. When chilled roll out and press into pie pan.

corn syrup free walnut pie



This is what happens when pie is left unsupervised at my house...that is how good the crust is

The history of pie...did it fall from the sky?

I was curious about the origin of pie...I mean come on...do you really believe it fell from the sky? I think it is cool to see where the original ideas for food came from. I guess the cave men could have invented pie, I mean they did invent fire and the wheel, so I wouldn't put it past them to invent pie. I did some googling and came up with the following which is a paraphrasing of this article:

http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/PieHistory.htm

Guess what?

The first pies were called "coffins" or "coffyns". Isn't that ironic that pie season starts with the holiday of the dead in October...coincidence I think not. These pies were filled with savory meat and their crusts were tall, straight-sided and with sealed-on floors and lids. Open-crust pastry were known as "traps." Now in days this is referred to as a single crust pie. These meat pies had the crust itself as the pan, and it was tough and inedible. Man, were they missing out, I think the crust is the best part! The purpose of a pastry shell was mainly to serve as a storage container and serving vessel, and these are often too hard to actually eat. A small pie was known as a tartlet and a tart was a large, shallow open pie (this is still the definition in England).

Here is a recipe for how to make pie from back when your grandparents weren't even close to being born...

To Make Short Paest for Tarte - Take fyne floure and a cursey of fayre water and a dysche of swete butter and a lyttel saffron, and the yolckes of two egges and make it thynne and as tender as ye maye. (year 1545)

Say what?

Historians have recorded that the roots of pie can loosely be traced back to the ancient Egyptians. The bakers to the pharaohs incorporated nuts, honey, and fruits in bread dough, a primitive form of pastry. However, Historians believe that the Greeks actually originated pie pastry. The pies during this period were made by a flour-water paste wrapped around meat; this served to cook the meat and seal in the juices.

Nice marketing skills Mr. Cato, its all about the name, hello...

The Roman statesman, Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 B.C.), also know as Cato the Elder, wrote a treatise on agriculture called De Agricultura. He loved delicacies and recorded a recipe for his era's most popular pie/cake called Placenta. They were also called libum by the Romans, and were primarily used as an offering to their gods. Placenta was more like a cheesecake, baked on a pastry base, or sometimes inside a pastry case.

And I thought Mincemeat was sick...

13th Century recipe for pie: Tortoise or Mullet Pie - Simmer the tortoises lightly in water with salt, then remove from the water and take a little murri, pepper, cinnamon, a little oil, onion juice, cilantro and a little saffron; beat it all with eggs and arrange the tortoises and the mullets in the pie and throw over it the filling. The pastry for the pie should be kneaded strongly, and kneaded with some pepper and oil, and greased, when it is done, with the eggs and saffron.

...what is a mullet and a murri you ask? A mullet is a boney fish with a stout body...and a murri is a thick saltly soy sauce like sauce used to flavor dishes.

This is funny...

1626 - Jeffrey Hudson (1619-1682), famous 17th century dwarf, was served up in a cold pie as a child. England's King Charles I (1600-1649) and 15-year old Queen Henrietta Maria (1609–1669) had a party and at the dinner, an enormous crust-covered pie was brought before the royal couple. Before the Queen could cut into the pie, the crust began to rise and from the pie emerged a tiny man, perfectly proportioned boy, but only 18 inches tall named Jeffrey Hudson. Hudson, seven years old the smallest human being that anyone had ever seen, was dressed in a suit of miniature armor climbed out of a gilded pastry pie stood shyly on the table in front of the Queen and bowed low. Hudson was later dubbed Lord Minimus.

I think I might try this one this year...

RECIPE FOR NEW ENGLISH PIE - To make this excellent breakfast dish, proceed as follows: Take a sufficiency of water and a sufficiency of flour, and construct a bullet-proof dough. Work this into the form of a disk, with the edges turned up some three-fourths of an inch. Toughen and kiln-dry in a couple days in a mild but unvarying temperature. Construct a cover for this redoubt in the same way and of the same material. Fill with stewed dried apples; aggravate with cloves, lemon-peel, and slabs of citron; add two portions of New Orleans sugars, then solder on the lid and set in a safe place till it petrifies. Serve cold at breakfast and invite your enemy.

TaDa...the abridged version of pie History!

FYI-I plan on making pie this weekend, I also plan on posting a pie recipe...but as we all know the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray...good thing I'm not a mouse or a man : )

1,000 hits!

1,000 hits on my blog! Congratulations to me! I guess some people do read my blog even though they aren't very good at leaving comments... : ) I love food, cooking, and more importantly - Baking. I hope my little blog inspires some of you to get in the kitchen and make the world a better place...one cookie at a time.

Thanks for reading!
Dagny