Beer Pancakes

Yep, you heard right. Breakfast of champions!

I recently checked out the Student's Vegetarian Cookbook by Carole Raymond. The idea what that this might be a great present for my friend, but I wanted to look it over first. So far, this might actually go on my shelf instead. All the recipes are simple and hardly involve what I would call cooking, but it's very inspiring. Things like the humble zucchini and pita bread are called to action with recipes that I've sure never seen before. I've bookmarked most of the book already, so I figured I'd start with the recipe that first caught my attention. Beer pancakes.

Actually, this is a rather ingenious idea. Because of the carbonation, if you stir carefully (instead of whisk to hell like I did), you will come out with nice fluffy pancakes. It's also perfect for someone like me. I rarely buy milk and am not crazy about using water or dried milk in my pancake mix. However, I do love my beer. Since I drink so rarely at home, I'll usually have a few bottles on hand instead of the dairy.

For this recipe, I used a small brew lager. I was afraid that it might be too dark, but it worked out beautifully. You can't taste the beer, but it gives it such a depth of flavor that it's amazing! These are honestly the best pancakes I've ever had. This is going in my favorites. It's good enough that I might actually want to eat pancakes for breakfast. A light pilsner would work just as well, but I would probably stay away from anything darker than lager unless you just want to experiment. I thought the flour was out of whack because it was way thin, so this recipe includes my measurements.

Beer Pancakes

Says 2-3 servings, but gave me about 5 with the way I eat them.

2 c flour, sifted (calls for whole wheat, but I used all-purpose)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking salt
1 egg
3 T oil
1 T honey
12 oz beer

Whisk together dry ingredients and then the first 3 wet ingredients in separate bowls.

Carefully stir the wet mix and beer into the dry mix. It'll be a little lumpy. Cook as normal.