Week 4 - It's Peanut Butter, Jelly time!

10/20/12 - Who doesn't love a PB&J sandwich?  So why not try it as a pancake?  At first I thought about putting peanut butter and jelly into a pancake but then that may be too much liquid for a pancake or you may just end up with just a hint of PB and jelly flavor.  And if I'm going to have PB&J for breakfast, I want to know it!  You know?

So, the idea came to make peanut butter pancakes with a jelly or berry syrup sandwiched between the pancakes.  Now I could just go the lazy route (and honestly there's nothing wrong with that) and slather on some store-bought jelly and call it a day.  But, I'm only 4 weeks in to this and still have the energy and drive to go all out for these weekend breakfasts.  

I turned to the trusty internet for recipes and what do you know, other people have thought of this breakfast concoction as well (insert not so shocked face here)!  I'm pretty sure no matter what pancake idea I come up with during this journey, someone else has already dreamed about it as well and created a recipe for it.  But that's okay, I like tweaking recipes and making them my own.  So that's what I've done here.  I found a ton of different peanut butter pancake recipes and liked this one the best because it seemed to use the most peanut butter.  Remember what I said earlier about really wanting to know I'm eating peanut butter?  Plus, I have an industrial-sized tub of peanut butter from Costco that I want to use up.     

Turns out, you may just be able to have too much peanut butter.  The batter was incredibly thick so I added some extra milk as the recipe had suggested.  My first batch of 3 pancakes were very dense and dry, so I added even more milk and an extra tablespoon of oil.  It was actually thick enough to hold up as a piece of bread.  SO I guess you could leave the recipe as is and layer on some jelly to make a true sandwich.  No batter should be able to maintain it's shape and form the way this did.  I also noticed that as the batter cooks it doesn't bubble up and dry around the edges as most batters do.  You really need to keep an eye on the pancakes and check for when to flip.  And when you do flip, make sure to push down to flatten out the pancakes.

Most of the PB&J pancake recipes didn't have the syrup-y component to the jelly part of the sandwich, so I searched for a separate recipe to make my own raspberry syrup.  It was surprisingly easy, but be warned, you really do have to stir constantly to prevent the syrup from bubbling over. 

 
Pancake recipe

Ingredients: 

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons sugar

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk, plus extra for thinning batter

1 cup creamy peanut butter, melted briefly in the microwave

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

butter, for coating pan 

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix together the flours, baking powder, salt, and sugar.

2. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, peanut butter, and vegetable oil.

3. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.  If batter feels too thick, add a little extra milk.

4. Heat a large non-stick pan or griddle over medium-low heat and melt a pat of butter in it. 

 5. Ladle the batter into the pan and cook until it starts to dry and bubble around the edges.  Then flip.  They won't bubble like regular pancakes due to the peanut butter. 

6.  Top with raspberry syrup (see recipe below) or spread jelly on pancakes.

Raspberry syrup recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh raspberries

1 1/2 cups sugar, plus 2 tablespoons

1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Directions:

1. Combine berries, 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 cup water in a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until berries begin to break down and release their juices, about 4 minutes.

2. Add 1 1/2 cups cold water and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, then immediately turn down to a simmer and skim off any foam that bubbles to top. Cook for 15 minutes.

3. Strain into bowl through cheesecloth-lined strainer, pressing on fruit to squeeze out juices. Return the liquid to the pan and add 1 1/2 cups sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.