De Baking Psychopath

" Would you like a crumpet? " It almost sounds like a line from a BBC miniseries, or it may remind you (at least it did for me) of Mrs. Judson's famous cheese crumpets in The Great Mouse Detective ! I was absolutely delighted to find that making crumpet batter is easier to put together than pancake batter when one has excess sourdough starter to play with! (And don't worry, you can make them even without starter! See below recipe for the link.) What do they taste like? They're like a cross between a pancake and a nice chewy, pillowy, yeasty flatbread. Definitely more of the savory category by themselves but were superb with sweet toppings too! We've enjoyed them with a fried egg on top, or with lovely marmalade, and of course Michael had to spread one with Nutella. It was a novel and exciting way to change up our weekend brunch routine, and the best thing is they're so easy to make and easily stockpiled in the freezer for weekday breakfast...

I love ricotta! Ricotta pancakes have been all the rage on the Interwebs lately, so I decided to give them a shot one recent weekend. These lemon ricotta pancakes were moist, fluffy, springy, and fragrant. I used the recipe found on this fellow blogger's site verbatim. The cake flour in the recipe gives the pancake a fine, tender crumb, and the ricotta keeps it very moist. Instead of a blueberry sauce, though, we made a quick Nutella ganache by combining hot cream and Nutella in a roughly 2:1 ratio and whisking until smooth. An easy way to elevate your routine weekend brunch to new elegant heights. Yum!

Previously on this blog, I have revealed my go-to buttermilk pancake recipe . It has stood the test of time and trials of other recipes, emerging yet victorious again with my latest innovation-- replacing the buttermilk for Greek-style yogurt! When asked for descriptors for this new version, I got these responses: "Fluffy...Good crunch on outside...moist...holds shape well." Which are actually a good demonstration of exactly what was lacking in the previous version: heft and structure. The original recipe was moist and tender to almost the point where there was some collapse of the crumb, which sometimes comes across as being mushy instead of moist. I've been on a Greek-style yogurt kick lately. It is thick and goes well with many sorts of jams and cereals/nuts, I can get non-fat versions in bulk on my normal grocery shopping runs to Costco. Here, they boost the protein content, with twice as much protein as normal yogurt or buttermilk. I like the sturdiness ...

I love lazy weekend mornings. But even more so, I love lazy weekend morning brunches: Pancakes, waffles, French toast, herbed scrambled eggs, muffins, eggs over easy, sausage with maple syrup, cafe au lait, omlettes, donuts, biscuits, cinnamon buns....and on and on... Homemade brunch enjoyed slowly over a lazy morning. Yum. I've discussed pancakes before on this blog, but when I found these Oatmeal Pancakes on the blog Orangette , I knew it was time to switch up the usual pancake routine a bit. First there is an overnight soak of 2 cups of oats in 2 cups of buttermilk, to which you add 2 large eggs and 1/2 cup of melted unsalted butter/margarine the next morning. Whisk to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Then add the dry to the wet ingredients and whisk to combine. The batter will start bubbling and poofing, so hurry up and start cooking! Heat your nonstick sk...

I've been making this buttermilk pancake recipe from Martha Stewart for years, and it's always been the favorite of my family. The full recipe asks for 3 cups of buttermilk, but since I only had one cup left to use up today, I scaled down the recipe to a third of the original. Unfortunately, the full recipe also asked for 2 eggs, and 2/3 of an egg is quite hard to measure, so I just used a full egg. The resultant pancake was a little different than usual--lighter and fluffy and spongy, as opposed to the more tender and moist and delicate like the original recipe. Michael really, really enjoyed the new version, best he's ever had in fact , so I thought I'd share the modified recipe. 2/3 cup all-purpose flour 2/3 tsp baking powder 1/3 tsp baking soda 1/6 tsp salt 1 tbsp granulated sugar 1 large egg 1 cup buttermilk 1 1/3 tbsp melted and cooled butter Combine all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together all the wet ingredients, pour into dry i...