The Pancake Experiment

[davidn]

I am nothing in the kitchen if not a great experimenter. Well, an experimenter, anyway. Just ask the several people who have enjoyed my cooking without any trace of personal injury. And when wolfekko sent me an isolated outtake from Mystery Science Theater 3000 last night, I was so utterly exhausted that I didn't even realize that the idea behind the clip was that he was holding a stack of waffles - so I was suddenly infused with a desire to make square pancakes.

When I came downstairs this morning, I realized that I had no idea how I might go about making square pancakes. Qualifications thus in place, I started searching for something non-flammable that might be able to act as a template.


Ah, this'll do.


After washing the lid off, the theory was simple - it's the same dropped scone mixture as normal, only poured into a well-oiled flour tin lid on top of the normal griddle.


Turning it over, however, is a tricky manoeuvre - and one that I realized I hadn't planned sufficiently for when it was time to turn the newly appointed pancake-basket over. In the end, I did it by using a spatula to sort of catapult it over, with a pair of tongs to anchor one side in place. Getting the pancake out of its case is a bit more difficult, requiring the use of an oven glove and the induction of a hand spasm.


And there they are. I admit the bottom one went a bit strange, but there's an odd novelty to them (they look rather like French toast).

It was an enjoyable experiment, and the way that the pancake is restricted in sideways growth meant that it produced some fluffy, beautifully risen end results, but the process is a bit of a hassle - you have to rely on intuition as to when to turn them, because you can't see the bottom of the pancake, and the time taken in bashing them out during the upending process means that they're a little more well-fired than I would ideally like. And you have to clean the template out and re-oil it between each one to make sure separation is... possible, so overall it's a bit more trouble than pancakes are really worth to remain appealing.

If it were just a square metal band, though...

Comments

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

The bottom one is GORGEOUS!

And shoot, yeah :) My grandmother makes amazingly fluffy pancakes.... they're literally as thick as two normal ones, I'm not sure what the secret is. (She was going to show me one time, but there was a scheduling conflict!)

There must be bottomless moulds you can use, though! I'm almost tempted to suggest cookie cutters or something...

[tamakun.livejournal.com]

I've always found that a good whipping of the batter helps it make that puffy consistency. This seems to work with scarmbled eggs, too. If you're making them from scratch, the baking soda/powder that you use should be fairly fresh, or else it won't have as strong an effect in lift.

[pamela newton (from livejournal.com)]

You can get fried egg shapers in Britian, you must be able to get them in America too (like http://www.squidoo.com/egg-shappers). I wouldn't use a cookie cutter, partially because it scratches the pan if you hold it down and it also burns your fingers when you try to hold it down, and if you don't hold it down it all oozes out the sides...

[tamakun.livejournal.com]

You might be able to even find some cheap metal cookie cutters if you want something shaped -- though they also have circular shapes as well. Just make sure it has a handle so that you can pick it up with tongs and not your fingers!

I haven't tried this myself, but I may recommend that if you go with the metal-object-in-the-pan method, place them in the heating pan prior to adding the batter, to give it time to warm up. That way, when the batter hits the shaper, the heat from the shaper will immediately create that "skin" on the pancake and prevent it from leaking out! :)