I don't know what spawned the idea to make homemade cupcakes, but I wanted to. Pancakes, to me at least, usually come out of a box and you add milk to them. But I believe in doing things from scratch. So I searched for a recipe that did not include buttermilk, since I didn't have any on hand. I found one
here, and added a bit to the recipe to add some fun! I added the vanilla extract because everything just sounded so plain.
Information:
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Makes: 8 regular pancakes or 4 large pancakes
Ingredients:
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/4 C milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
3 tbsp butter, melted
Directions:
1. Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, milk, vanilla, egg, and butter in a bowl until completely incorporated and major lumps are smoothed out.
2. Preheat a griddle or non-stick skillet on a medium-low heat. (If you don't have non-stick, use a bit of butter to grease the pan.)
3. Pour 1/3 cup of batter into the center of the pan. (This is for a small pancake, for a large pancake use 2/3 C.)
4. Cook on medium-low until the edges are baked, and the bottom of the pancake is a golden brown.
5. Flip the pancake and cook for 1-2 minutes, or until the new bottom is a golden brown. If you want to make a small slit on the top of the pancake to make sure all the batter is cooked through, that's fine. Nobody likes a wet pancake!
Some Tips:
-- An easy way to tell when the pancake is ready to be flipped: throughout the cooking, little bubbles will appear and pop on the surface of the pancake. When the holes from the bubble stays at the top of the pancake and doesn't get covered by batter, it's usually done.
-- Sometimes it takes too long to make the pancakes, and the final product may get cold. In this case, what I do is heat the oven to the lowest temperature and put a Pyrex dish in the oven and add the pancakes to the dish as they come off the stove. This keeps the pancakes warm but does not cook them anymore.
-- I took a small amount of batter and with 3 drops of green food dye, turned the whole pancake green and used a shamrock cookie butter to make a four-leaf clover! It's the only cookie cutter I have (for now!), but you could theoretically do this with any color and shape: red - heart, yellow - sun, etc. I thought it would be a lot of fun to do with kids... Or adults! :)
For a while now, I've been wanting to go out of my comfort zone when baking, to try new recipes, or crazy ideas. This is one of them. I have heard of some people who drink hot chocolate with chili powder. I searched and searched and found a recipe that could have chipotle in the cupcake. I eventually found it here. The recipe calls for boxed cake (a part of me died inside!!) and other ingredients. Since I absolutely DO NOT use boxed cakes, I decided to use my own chocolate cupcake recipe. I've always said that I like to add my own twist to a recipe! I wasn't gutsy enough to try the cupcake, but my husband, brother-in-law, and one of my best friends tried the cupcakes and liked them! I added a cinnamon cream cheese frosting to cool the palate after the spiciness. I've told several people about this recipe, and every single person wants to try one! I'll definitely be making this recipe again.
