Dinner with Julie

Day 365: Bread Pudding Pancakes

I can’t honestly believe I just typed Day 365! Of course, thanks to leap year I still have day 366 tomorrow… I suspect tomorrow night I will be in tears and Mike will be doing a little happy jig. Or I’ll be curled up on the floor with an empty bottle of Prosecco. Except that I can’t do that, because I have to come home and write my blog post.

(As I may have mentioned, I’m not really going anywhere. Except maybe straight to bed with a book or movie on New Years’ Day night. Mike insists I take a few days off, at least. I have agonized over what to do come January 1, not wanting to lose that “real-time” appeal… I’ll decide for sure by tomorrow. I think.)

Dinner tonight was just leftover beef on a bun, carrots and spaghetti (after a months-long spaghetti famine) for W - breakfast was far more interesting. See, I need to start a breakfast blog. Mike would be thrilled.

I woke up early in a panic that I had remembered wrong and was supposed to be at CBC this morning (they did the show from Edmonton today), and couldn’t get back to sleep, so when W woke up we shared a comfy chair and ate pancakes in our PJs. Of course I could have easily stayed out of the kitchen and survived on Harvest Crunch (my choice for Christmas morning breakfast – it reminds me of staying at my Grandma’s house – she used to have us cut it with Special K because it’s so high in fat and sugar) but bread pudding pancakes have been on my to-make list for quite awhile. Plus, I am going to have to give up things like bread pudding pancakes for breakfast very soon if I want my pants to fit again. (Living in XL flannel PJs for extended periods gives one the false sense that they are not in fact wrapping themselves in a thick layer of insulating Christmas blubber.)

These are thick pancakes, with the texture of bread pudding. I want to try them with day-old cinnamon buns from IKEA. You will need to keep the heat low and perhaps even lid the pan as they cook – a too-hot pan will make them burn on the outside before they cook through to the middle. If you have bottomless pits of children, these just might fill them up. They are substantial.

You might want to top them with caramelized bananas – an easy rule of thumb is one banana to one tablespoon each of butter and sugar (white or brown) – cook them up in a skillet until they are starting to brown, but aren’t yet mush. Not that mushy bananas aren’t tasty too.

Bread Pudding Pancakes

You’ll want sturdy and/or stale bread for these – fresh sandwich bread will disintegrate with the soaking and stirring, and you’ll end up with thick, doughy pancakes that don’t much resemble bread pudding. I imagine raisin bread or leftover cinnamon buns would be pretty heroic too. Leave any crusts on.

3 thick slices of crusty bread or more of sandwich bread, torn into chunks (you’ll need about 4 cups -I mixed the lot up in one of those big Pyrex measuring cup bowls, which made it easy)
cinnamon (optional)
2 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 large eggs
3 Tbsp. melted butter or canola oil
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

In a large bowl, toss bread chunks with cinnamon and pour milk and vanilla overtop. Let stand, stirring once or twice, for about 15 minutes, until the bread has absorbed much of the milk.

In a small dish, stir together the eggs and butter or oil and stir into the bread mixture. Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and add to the wet ingredients; stir just until combined.

Preheat a heavy skillet and spray with nonstick spray or drizzle with oil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Drop about 1/4 of batter at a time onto the skillet, spreading it out a little with a spatula if it’s too thick to do it itself. Cover with a lid and cook for a few minutes, until the bottom is golden and the pancake starts to look dry and bubbly around the edges. Flip, cover and cook until the other side is golden and the pancakes are cooked through. Repeat with remaining batter, keeping pancakes warm in a 250°F oven if you need to.

Serve warm, with sauteed bananas and/or maple syrup. Makes about 6 pancakes.

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December 30 2008 | bread and breakfast | 32 Comments »