Apple Pie Pancakes

Apple Pie Pancakes

It’s no mis­take that we have a week themed around com­fort foods. I’m a fan of most dishes cat­e­go­rized as comfort–foods like mac and cheese, pan­cakes, tuna casse­role, apple pie or grilled cheese. These meals are like my jeans from 2006 that slouch in the per­fect spots (read: over­sized giv­ing the illu­sion of weight loss) or my Zac Posen for Tar­get cot­ton “var­sity” pullover that has the two, dime-size holes over the left boob. (Seri­ously, a tank top works under­neath.) And, unlike these worn and over rotated items in my closet, my fam­ily (or myself) never tire of these dishes. (You’re not wear­ing that pullover out are you?) Com­fort foods can be any­thing to any­one as they are the meals from your life that are nos­tal­gic and sentimental–bringing back all those warm and fuzzy mem­o­ries of the Sum­mer you worked as a coun­sel­lor at a sleep away camp in the Catskills eat­ing cold, processed grilled cheese sand­wiches with canned tomato soup as 20 8-year olds fought, cried and whined around you at the table. Ok, not that one, but you get what I mean.

For me, my true com­fort dish is pan­cakes. I grew up eat­ing them as often as my mother would allow, they were the first dish I learned to cook and my fam­ily never gath­ers with­out hav­ing a meal that includes them. We’ve tried every recipe, made every addi­tion and shown a few box brands the door. So there was no way I was going to trot out any recipe other than cak­ers this week, but I needed some­thing new.

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There is noth­ing excep­tional about apple pan­cakes. But apple pie pan­cakes? That idea sounded good. Besides apple pie is another great com­fort food, and it’s also the ulti­mate Amer­i­can dish. As an Amer­i­can liv­ing in Canada, it some­times a lit­tle annoy­ing to me that my daugh­ter hears ‘Oh Canada’ every morn­ing dur­ing her school announce­ment. It’s not because I don’t love Canada (I love Canada, Ok. Don’t get upset.) but more because I really love my coun­try too and I don’t want its tra­di­tions lost on her. So we sing it at home and eat apple pie pan­cakes. Not a bad deal really. The only draw­back is that I couldn’t find a way to pack a but­tery crust into the recipe too.

What I did man­age to do with this recipe is achieve the per­fect pan­cake. No kid­ding. My hus­band is always talk­ing about how my pan­cakes are too dense, too thick but not these babies. They’re light and airy and just the right size. Every Sat­ur­day we visit a lit­tle cafe that serves the most amaz­ing pancakes–light, fluffy and with a super taste that I always wanted to repli­cate. So when I made-up this recipe and served them to Scar­lett she con­firmed what I’d been hop­ing for: they tasted exactly the same.  The addi­tion of brown sugar, cin­na­mon and nut­meg give them their apple pie fla­vor and the but­ter­milk gives them their airy tex­ture. If you opt in for the carmelized apple top­ping then you really feel like you’ve cut your­self a slice of a deca­dent pie. So if you’re look­ing for a brunch recipe this week­end or just want a way to put a smile on your family’s faces give these a try. I promise they won’t dis­ap­point and will taste a whole lot bet­ter than that other dish the American’s made famous–the Big Mac.

Apple Pie Pancakes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup spelt flour
  • 1 cup oat flour
  • 2 tea­spoons bak­ing pow­der
  • 1/2 tea­spoon bak­ing soda
  • 2 table­spoons brown sugar
  • 1 tea­spoon cin­na­mon
  • 1/4 tea­spoon nut­meg
  • 1/4 tea­spoon salt
  • 1 cup but­ter­milk
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup apple­sauce
  • 2 table­spoons but­ter, melted
  • 1 tea­spoon vanilla extract
  • Top­ping (optional)
  • 1 Gala apple, peeled and cut into thin, even slices
  • 2 table­spoons but­ter
  • 1 table­spoon brown sugar
  • 1/2 tea­spoon cinnamon

Method

In a large bowl, whisk flours, bak­ing pow­der, soda, brown sugar, cin­na­mon, nut­meg and salt.

In a medium size bowl, whisk milk, but­ter­milk, egg, apple­sauce, but­ter and vanilla extract.

Com­bine wet ingre­di­ents into flour mix­ture and stir until just com­bined.

(Don't over mix the bat­ter, in other words you can leave some lumps, since over­work­ing it will cause the gluten in the flour to be released caus­ing chewy pan­cakes.)

Let your bat­ter rest in the refrig­er­a­tor for a few minutes.

Mean­while, add a table­spoon of but­ter into a skil­let over medium heat.

Allow but­ter to melt and for the pan to get nice and hot.

Remove bat­ter from the refrig­er­a­tor.

Work­ing in batches, ladle bat­ter into skil­let and cook pan­cakes until bub­bles appear on sur­face.

Flip and cook another minute or two.

Remove from skil­let and keep warm in the oven. Repeat until you've used the batter.

In a sep­a­rate skil­let, melt the but­ter over medium-low heat and mix in the sugar.

Add the apples and sprin­kle with the cin­na­mon.

Cook the apples until they are ten­der crisp, about 4 minutes.

Plate the pan­cakes and serve with a table­spoon of the apple top­ping with a side of maple syrup

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