i can't believe it's all butter!

      the food flops cometh as soon as i decide to begin writing a food blog. i'm absolutely serious: i made graham crackers that tasted like cardboard, oreo cookies that looked more like whoopie pies (but taste-wise, two thumbs up), and as of this morning, pancakes that tasted like they were made completely out of butter. now, i'm not the type of girl who's scared of things like butter, salt, sugar and shortening. but i can feel the butter oozing out of my pores and my heart beating slower trying to get the blood past the crap that's already clogging my arteries. the recipe told me that i would have tender, fluffy flapjacks; instead, they were the size of dutch babies and hard enough to be used as doorstops. this time around, i followed the recipe verbatim. i didn't try to use flax seed and water gel instead of eggs, didn't mix wheat bran into the flour, didn't throw any honey or berries into the batter before pouring it onto the pan. i didn't think to take pictures (common sense rarely kicks in before my standard cup o' joe), but i'm including the recipe, with notes. like any stubborn girl, i'm determined to try all of these recipes again: more sugar for the graham crackers, actually following the oreo cookie recipe by doling out TEAspoonfuls of dough onto the cookie sheet rather than TABLEspoonfuls (whoops), and a little more milk to thin out the pancake batter (and less butter!). stay tuned for breakfast and baked goods: the remix :)


from Dave Lieberman's Young and Hungry (this is food porn. the man can cook and is beautiful to boot. don't let this recipe steer you away from the book altogether, his mini fudgey chocolate cakes are delicious as sin... not unlike their creator):

Hot Off the Griddle: Pancakes

• Ingredients
  
  • 1 cup milk (i'd add an extra 1/4 cup to thin it out... it should still be fluffy-ish)
    
  • 1 large egg
    
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted, plus unmelted butter for greasing the pan (next time, i'm going to try to omit the initial 2 tablespoons of butter... i mean honestly you'll already be putting close to half a stick in the pan, a little butter between each new pancake, to make sure you don't burn the batter)
    
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
    
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    
  • 2 pinches of salt
    
  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
    
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda (is this actually necessary? thoughts?)
    
  
  
• Directions
  
  1. beat the milk, egg, 2 tablespoons of butter, sugar, vanilla and salt together.
     
  2. add the flour and baking soda in gently until fully incorporated and batter is smooth. let rest for 10 minutes.
     
  3. heat the skillet for about 3 minutes over medium heat (medium heat burned the butter, so i just did low). test to make sure the pan is the right temperature by dropping a drop or two of water into the pan. it should sizzle and evaporate in about three seconds.
     
  4. add a couple tablespoons of butter to the pan and melt until the butter covers the bottom (this totally depends on how big your pan is. i needed mayyybe a teaspoon of butter to coat the entire bottom).
     
  5. use a 1/3 cup measure to scoop the batter for medium-size pancakes. butter the pan again before making a new batch.
     
  6. let the pancakes cook until small bubble pop through the surface and the bottoms are golden brown, about 4 or 5 minutes.
     
  7. flip each pancake with a spatula and cook the other side for another few minutes, until golden brown.