Pancake Tuesday

Happy Mardi Gras/Super Tuesday/Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Tuesday.

I had the windfall of a Tuesday free from work, since I'm picking up hours on Friday. Driving slowly home last night through some dense fog (a product of the rather sudden rise in temperature--it was 49 degrees today) I found my musings turning to food, particularly an excess of apples in need of a destiny, as well as interesting breakfast possibilities afforded by not needing to rush off to work. I could think of several things to do with the apples; among them, reworking a pie recipe from Please Don't Feed the Bears. However, resolved as I was against the prospect of having a massive Baked Thing lurking about, I began to settle on some sort of baked apple dish--the sort of thing that is simply apples, a little sugar, and maybe a daub of butter--as a possible means of dispensing with my apples. But how to make it more interesting?

As far as the second part of my musings, that is, breakfast--in honor of the day, I set upon pancakes. After thinking about all the special pancake recipes out there that I've enjoyed, I dismissed them in favor of coming up with something of my own. Why?--probably most simply because I've been cooking a lot from (fabulous) cookbooks lately, and I just needed to create something of my own. It was misty and raining when I got up, and it seemed the perfect time for Chai Pancakes with Chai-Spiced Baked Apples.


Chai-Spiced Baked Apples
yields 4 servings

4 Granny Smith apples (or other apples, if you must)
1/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup chai, brewed strong without milk
2 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Combine ingredients in baking dish. Bake at 350 F stirring occasionally for 45 minutes-1 hour, until apples are soft and liquids have reduced and become quite syrupy.



Chai Pancakes
yields 2 servings

Combine the following dry ingredients in medium mixing bowl with whisk:
1 cup spelt flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp cardamom
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1 tsp cornstarch

In a smaller bowl, whisk together following wet ingredients:
3/4 cup chai (brewed strong without milk)
1/2 cup soymilk
1 tsp canola oil
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional if using vanilla soymilk)

Preheat large nonstick pan over medium heat. Pour wet ingredients into dry. Whisk to combine. Spray pan with cooking spray. When pan is hot enough, ladle out pancakes. (I did 2 pancakes at a time, and got a total of 6 pancakes.) Cook until edges dry out and bubbles form in middle. Flip. Try not to get impatient, fiddle with the heat too much, and burn your cakes! :) Eat topped with Chai-Spiced Apples or other delicious toppings (agave nectar?).