- Jas
Give Me S'More of These Pancakes
This is going to come as a surprise, but I actually hate S'mores.
I love bonfires, I love fall, I even like camping. I hate Smore's.
It's the marshmallows. When we talked about the Marshmallow Test, in one of my professional success classes in college, the professor guessed that I would have made it through the marshmallow test as a kid. That I would have had the discipline to wait a whole minute in order to have two marshmallows instead of one.
I told him I don't know if that would be a fair test because I don't like marshmallows, and I wouldn't even want the first one. I think it's a mix of the texture, and the fact that they're just sugar, but I'm not a fan.
So how did we end up with s'mores pancakes on our master list of things to try?
Well for one, most people do like s'mores, and two, I was hoping that with the pancake base I could find the right balance of ingredients that the marshmallows didn't ruin it for me.
I don't mean to brag but I think we did it! These pancakes were yummy; the marshmallow taste wasn't too sugary, and it didn't feel weird on my teeth. So it felt like we addressed the two things that I think make me not like marshmallows
Aside from the pancake base we've been using, we didn't spend much on extras to make these s'mores pancakes. Honey graham crakers, not cinnamon, and marshmallow fluff. We already had the mini chocolate chips at home.
We adjusted the base to swap some of the flour for crushed graham crackers, and we crushed extra graham crackers to sprinkle on top with the mini chocolate chips as we're flipping the pancakes. You could also just use regular chocolate chips, minis is just what we had on hand, but I like to think with the minis you get a more even spread of the chocolatey goodness in each bite.
The real puzzle to the pancakes was the marshmallow glaze. I didn't want to throw all of the toppings onto the pancake, that seemed too easy. Plus, incase I still didn't like the marshmallow flavor, I wanted to be able to avoid it in the pancakes.
If we were to melt the marshmallows the way you would for rice krispies treats, I would be worried about how quickly it would cool. Instead we got a jar of marshmallow fluff, and beat it with a whisk and some milk. It was weird and lumpy at first; just a blob of marshmallow fluff sitting in a bowl of skim milk, but we persisted and it turned into a really nice glaze that we could pour over the pancakes.
Just look at the marshmallow goodness flow down the mountain of pancakes and form a moat around the sugary s'mores castle.
Wow, you'd think I might have done a 180 and completely fallen in love with s'mores with that kind of description.
So how can you make these breakfast s'mores?
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup crushed honey graham crackers, plus extra for topping pancakes
2 eggs, seperated
1 1/2 cups skim milk, plus additional for marshmallow glaze
1 Tbsp low fat butter
Mini chocolate chips
Marshmallow fluff
Directions:
1. Mix together flour, 1/2 cup of crushed graham crackers, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
2. Melt butter, and combine with milk, egg yolks, and dry ingredients in bowl. Stir until incorporated, batter does not need to be smooth.
3. Fold in egg whites.
4. Heat non-stick pan to medium, medium-high heat. Spray a little PAM before pouring about 1/3 cup of batter for each pancake.
5. Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips and crushed graham crackers.
6. When the edges of the pancake start to firm, and there are a few air pockets forming, flip pancake, and cook for about another minute.
7. For the glaze, add 1-2 large spoonfuls of marshmallow fluff to a small bowl.
8. Using a whisk, combine the marshmallow fluff with about 1/2 cup of skim milk, beating until smooth. You can adjust the amount of skim milk to get the sauce to your desired thickness.
9. Drizzle your stack of pancakes with the marshmallow glaze, and sprinkle with more mini chocolate chips and crushed graham crackers.
10. Enjoy!
Note that every stove is a little different, and you may need to adjust the heat in the pan according to your burner. We have one burner that for some reason is hotter on it's lowest setting than some of the other burners on their highest.
If you can't curl up next to a fire in your living room this cold January winter, I hope these pancakes transport you to a warm fall bonfire!