Simple Beer Pancakes

In theory, neither making pancakes or blogging is difficult. In reality, I am absurdly lazy...so neither ever really gets done. 2 weeks ago, while visiting Carolyn, I decided to do something about this: I made beer pancakes! Unfortunately, it has taken me 2 weeks to get around to posting this, but I guess that's better than never.


These pancakes are the original way that I made beer pancakes and are by far the easiest way to add beer to your breakfast. I just bought some instant pancake mix and instead of adding water, I add beer. No one can mess this up.

Ok, so here is one way you can mess this up: not having a griddle or any pans suitable for pancake making. This saucepan made flipping a little more difficult than expected (Carolyn and I were not in either of our home kitchens and had to make due).

Thank goodness I am a flipping master! I dug my spatula in there and got it under that pancake.

Once you can pick it up with the spatula, the flipping part isn't very difficult.

Carolyn made some nice apple wedges for the pancakes using apples, sugar, butter and cinnamon. Steps: melt butter; add apples, cook for a bit; add sugar and cinnamon...do not burn. At least, we think that's what we did...maybe next time we will take notes.

My plating/garnishing skills leave a little to be desired, but you get the idea.

Cheers!

"Deathly Hallows" Butterbeer

If you know me, you know that I am a big nerd. I can't wash a beer glass without thinking about surface chemistry, looking at carbonation in a beer reminds me of nucleation and growth. I can't be at a wedding and here "this ring" without thinking "precious!" I also own an English to Klingon dictionary. I am a big nerd.

It should not surprise you that I am also a Harry Potter fan. To get ready for the release of the next movie, "Deathly Hallows" I am working on a recipe for "Deathly Hallows Butterbeer."

I modified a recipe that is supposedly "historically accurate" (if its on the internet, it must be true!) that I found here. The beer I used was Dead Reckoning, a hoppy porter from Troegs. I thought it fit very well with the dark tone of the book as well as the name has "dead" in it. It is also a great beer by itself.

Here is what I did.

Heated up 3 bottle of the beer with the spices over medium heat (cinamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg). While that came to a boil, I beat 5 egg yolks with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 1 tablespoon of white sugar (big deviation from the original recipe, but I didnt have 500 g of sugar). To avoid curdling the eggs, I beat them over a double boiler and slowly added in the hot beer mixture while whisking vigorously. Continuing to whisk, I added a stick of butter, small pieces at a time, waiting for a piece to fully melt before adding the next. The internet recipe says you can cut the beer but up to half using hot milk, but I only added a little bit (not sure of the exact amount).

I really enjoyed it (a non beer drinker complained that it tasted too much like beer) but I think a better cook could play with the spicing and make it better. At any rate, it is a good, beer centered replacement for egg nog come christmas time. And don't forget, when ordering a butter beer, say "Accio Butterbeer!"