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.

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.

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