PB& J!!

Hell YES peanut butter and jelly pancakes! I had a pb&j souffle dessert in New York that was awesome so I am all over these pancakes. Trying to figure out how I can SB them up. . . I'm thinking SB baking mix like Carbquik; and sugar free jelly/jam oughta do it.

Looks like a couple of our FN faves are into it.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/pb-and-j-pancakes/25066.html
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sandra-lee/peanut-butter-and-jelly-pancakes-recipe/index.html

Here's Sandra's:

PB&J Pancakes!
1 cup grape jelly
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

1 1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup peanut butter
2 1/2 cups baking mix
2 eggs
Canola cooking spray

For Syrup:

To make the syrup, heat the grape jelly in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Dissolve the cornstarch in 2 tablespoons water in a small bowl. When the jelly has become liquid, stir in the cornstarch mixture. Simmer until a syrup consistency is reached, about 5 to 10 minutes.

For Pancakes:

In a small saucepan warm the milk over low heat. Whisk in the peanut butter and combine until completely smooth, then remove from the heat.

In a large mixing bowl add the baking mix. Stir in the eggs and milk mixture and combine until just incorporated.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.

Put a large cast iron or nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray it with cooking spray. Put 1/4 cup of pancake batter in the center of the skillet and cook until golden brown. About 1 to 2 minutes per side. When bubbles in the center of the pancake have deflated, flip over and cook the other side. Store on a sheet tray in the preheated oven to keep warm while making the rest of the pancakes.

Transfer the pancakes to a large serving platter and serve with warm grape syrup.

I still want to try a PB&J ice cream, but I bet I can do a SB pop for that too. . .

Take one generic vanilla recipe, doctor up with natural, no sugar added PB and sugar free jelly. Easy peasy. Patrick had a great suggestion for turning our fave peanut butter cup SB dessert into pops. I'm sure I can just add a swirl of jelly to that and be in business. I don't have an ice cream maker, so hopefully I can take a page from this previous ice cream entry and go from there.

Blueberry Pancakes

Few things make me jump around excitedly in the morning. Blueberry pancakes (or Burberry pancakes if you're lucky enough) are one of those things. I was thrilled that the beanheads over at America's Test Kitchen put a link to a video for perfect blueberry pancakes in today's email. (Beanheads because if they send me ONE MORE of those damn cook books I might burn their offices down).
So, with full credit to them for coming up with the recipe, and full credit to me for scribbling it down and typing it into my blog. . . and you know me - this recipe will not even closely resemble the original when I'm done making it. Between whole wheat flour, skim milk, Splenda and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, I have no idea what these will be like once they're South Beached up. But as soon as I can try it, I'll be sure to let you know. Perhaps we'll do a side by side test comparison to see if they're tolerable in "diet" format. Those beanheads seem to be rubbing off on me.

Blueberry Pancakes

• Frozen blueberries - Seems they prefer Wyman's frozen blueberries based on their rigorous testing procedures, so I'll trust them, but whichever frozen blues you have are fine I'm sure.
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 c whole milk
• 2 c unbleached all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp melted butter
• 1 tsp + of oil

Thaw, rinse and drain the berries on papertowels. Set aside.
Whisk the lemon juice into the milk and let sit to thicken.
In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
Whisk egg and melted butter into the milk mixture.
Pour the liquid into the dry and whisk - be sure not to overmix! Leaving some clumps of unmixed flour is not only okay, it's preferable to ensure that your cakes don't get rubbery.

Heat a nonstick skillet on medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add 1 tsp of oil and try a small sacrificial pancake (1 heaping tbsp or so) to make sure the pan is ready.
Create cakes using heaping 1/4 c scoops of batter - the size of your pan will dictate how many you can fit, but you don't want them to touch. Once you see bubbles forming and it looks like the cake is firming up, sprinkle 1 tbsp of blueberries onto the cake. Flip when ready (approx 1 1/2 to 2 minutes per side, but it's more important to look for color and doneness than to rely on time alone, so keep an eye on them).

Serve with REAL Vermont maple syrup if you don't want to hear about it, or eat alone - given the butter and sugar in the batter, they don't actually need anything additional. Or so they say. Syrup I say!

Oh, and crispy bacon. Crispy bacon would be nice too. Or maybe turkey sausage - the patty kind because it's better. Yum!