There’s something special about good pancakes and something not-so-special about not-so-good pancakes. I was raised on Bisquick and that can be good, I guess. But I was also raised on corn syrup instead of maple, and that’s, well, not-so-good. So when I saw Alton Brown’s Good Eat’s episode on flap jacks, I decided to give it a try, and I think the result is good, diner-style pancakes…

If you jump to the Food Network site (link above) you can watch his whole episode on flap jacks. But one thing you won’t find there is a quick recipe. That’s because AB first talks about measuring cups, then gives us a recipe for a quick bread mix, then discusses buttermilk, then uses the quick bread mixture as an ingredient in his pancake recipe. So to do it his way you have to first mix a batch of mix (he does 6 cups), and then use 2 cups of that in the actual recipe – and store the other 4 cups of mix for later use. Don’t get me wrong, I love Good Eats and live for new episodes. And I loved learning about what’s going on inside of buttermilk. But I have to say while the two-step process might work for grandma who makes a lot of quick bread, or for a diner where they’re plopping out big batches of these things all morning long, it doesn’t work for me. I just want to make a single batch at a time, and not that often. I don’t have the storage space to keep a container of quick bread mix around. So I experimented and made a single recipe for a single batch, although I still use Alton’s methods of mixing everything together. For his technique and why I recommend watching the episode the next time you have 20 minutes to kill at work. For convenance, here’s my slight modification of his recipe:

Recipe and Process

Alton Brown Flap Jacks – Made Easier

First steps:

• Pre-heat an electric griddle to 350. Don’t combine the wet with the dry until it is preheated.
• Melt 4 tbls butter in the microwave. About 20-30 seconds should do it. Don’t do more than 30 seconds at a time without a stirring break. Set aside to cool a bit.

The Dry… combine:

• 2 cups (minus one tablespoon) all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2 to 3 tsp sugar

and whisk thoroughly

The Wet:

First separate 2 eggs into 2 containers:

• add 2 cups buttermilk and the egg whites – mix well
• add the 4 tbls melted butter and the egg yolks – mix well

Then combine the two wet parts together and whisk thoroughly.

Pour the wet mixture over the dry and whisk together for about 10 seconds.  Do not over mix.  Then scoop onto the hot griddle.

Cook one side until the edges bubble a little – about 2 to 3 minutes. Lift and edge to check for golden brown. Add optional fruit or chocolate chips to the top before flipping. Cook on the flip side about one more minute.

Modification Explanation

This isn’t rocket surgery, but the first time I made these I just followed his directions for the dry mix using 2 cups of flour. Mixed in the other dry ingredients and the only used 2 cups of final dry mixture. But then I had about 2 tablespoons of the extra dry stuff, which I had no use for and had to toss out.  I also noticed that by mixing up the dry ingredients they expanded a bit (by volume) similar to if they were sifted – by adding in air. Also, we know that 2 cups of packed flour is different than 2 cups of sifted flour- maybe by as much as 10%. Alton suggested ’shaking up’ his flour container before measuring out the cups. That would probably result in a ’split the difference’ amount by weight between taking some from a rested bag or sifting it.

Of course this minor detail is important because the thickness or consistency of the final batter could be somewhat different based on the ratio of dry to wet ingredients. AB’s recipe is already about 1 cup buttermilk short of Martha Stewart’s and tilting the ratio any more towards the dry, I think, makes the batter too thick. So my idea was to end up with closer to 2 cups of dry ingredients to go with the 2 cups of buttermilk. The solution?.. to remove a tablespoon or two of the flour. Sound food science or not?  Try them and and you be the judge.

I’m curious to know if anyone else tries this version how they come out. For me the batter is a bit thick and doesn’t seem to bubble much on the first side, but when you flip them they rise up and get thicker. Taste is good – except for the time I forgot the salt – yuk!

The holiday season is upon us. I’ve been wanting to make some kind of candy this year to contribute to the traditions. Pastry Pal’s Almond Brittle looks amazing, so I though I would give it a try. My understanding is that brittle is almost entirely about the process and technique. Normally I would go Alton Brown and get an understanding on the molecular structure of sugar and follow his approach. But Irina’s method seemed easier, so there you go.

First, you have to go to The Pastry Pal site and check out her step-by-step photos and instructions.  Next if you compare her final photos with mine above, you’ll see that they look similar but there are some differences.  But before I get to where I went wrong let’s look at her ingredients and process.

Ingredients:

2 cups (14oz or 392g) sugar
1 stick (4 oz or 112g) butter, chopped up into small dice
3 cups (about 12 oz or 350g) slivered almonds

Process (see details on her site – link above):

• Roast Nuts
• Melt Sugar (see her process)
• add Butter
• whisk until smooth

Mistakes and Learned Lessons

I list the process above so that I can share where I went wrong and what I learned this time around.

Roasted Nuts

I bought slivered almonds from Whole Foods and they did need to be roasted.  I set the over to 350 and put them on two cookie sheets, one on each tray.  About 10 minutes in I decided to rotate them, swapping the bottom and top tray. But by that point the bottom tray was already burned a bit. So I took both trays out and salvaged what I could, losing about 1/4 to 1/3 of the almonds.

Certainly I learned that my oven’s temperature is very uneven from tray to tray. The bottom tray is of course closer to the fire and those almonds roasted too quickly. I know I’m no expert at roasting. The upper tray’s nuts were under-done and the bottom tray’s nuts were over done. It’s a lesson for next time to rotate the trays earlier and also to keep a closer eye on items on that lower tray.

Noticing that her recipe has no salt, and knowing that my almonds were unsalted, I added some table salt to my batch of almonds to give the brittle a little of that salty-sweet mixture. Which I think worked well in the final result.

Melting the Sugar

During my first attempt I used a deeper pan and had problems with even heat distribution. I recognized right away that the sugar was melting first in a ring on the pan above the actual fire. I tried to even out the heat by placing the pan on another pan. I made a couple of mistakes on that round ending in me tossing the first batch of sugar and butter. I don’t have a photo of it but the sugar ended up clumping and not melting enough. I tried adding in the butter early and that of course changed the consistency of the sugar and there was no turning back. So I tossed that disaster out and tried again.

On my second attempt I used a sauce pan which was large enough to hold everything but not really large enough for the whole process (I’ll get to that mistake in a minute). The sugar did melt better in the bigger pan and got brown very quickly. I used a wooden spoon this time instead of a metal one, and did get the sugar all melted and the whole thing was liquid. So my second attempt there was better, but a larger pan would be even better.

One issue with her dry method is that the sugar clumps on whatever spoon you’re using (wooden or metal). So be ready for clumping. I was able to scrape off the big chunks and they eventually melted into the goo.

Adding Butter

Wow she wasn’t kidding, it does sizzle and splash.

In my first attempt, when I saw the sugar was clumping too much I tried adding the butter early thinking that it being basically a liquid it would maybe help melt the sugar. NO! That’s impossible. First off the butter just coated the clumps, and second, the butter would burn at whatever temperature the sugar would have to get to melt. So lesson one about the butter is don’t add it early.

The second attempt I had a thought: what would alton brown do? Knowing how much the butter sizzled, what would I do to ease that? When adding the butter, it has to melt in, but the temperature of the sugar is quite high, so it sizzles. So this time I first melted the butter in the microwave, about 20 seconds at a time until it was liquid. Then had that on hand ready to add in once the sugar was a liquid. I still don’t know if this was a good move or not. Whisking in solid butter AS it melts might be an easier way to incorporate the butter than whisking in liquid butter. It might not matter. Either way there were more mistakes…

If you compare my finished photo above with her finished photo, you’ll see two important differences. First is that the brittle in my photo is oily and there is a whole glop of butter along the edge. The second is that the consistency of the brittle looks different. Hers is smoother, maybe you could call it creamier. The clue to why is in the photo of her batch before she adds the nuts. In hers there is no oil resting on the surface, it’s all been whisked in until smooth. This was even mentioned in her directions, which I failed to read thoroughly enough to understand. But now I know.

When I added my butter boy did it sizzle. I immediately began whisking and since my pan was a little bit too small for the task, some oil and melted butter splashed out, and of course the butter ignited and flared up. I only considered the extinguisher for a moment as the flair up didn’t last long. But the excitement did cause me to add the nuts before the batter was whisked enough to be smooth. I was also worried that the batter would get too brown if I didn’t get it off the stove. This mistake was in not fulling knowing the process before I started.

When you’re in the thick of this you can’t stop to read directions or you’ll burn something (or worse). I think the lesson here is still that I need a larger pan. In order to be able to wisk enough to get it smooth, you also need to put some vigor in it, but you don’t want to splash it. Probably if I did it again I could do it better even without a different pan, but the larger pan would help.

Final result

I think I did ok with adding the nuts and spreading it out. It is important to know that once you add the nuts you have to work fast. The nuts draw out a lot of heat and the whole thing starts to set up.

The main problem in the final result was the oiliness and now I know why that happened (not whisking it thoroughly enough before adding the nuts). After it cooled and was broken apart, there was still a coating of oil over everything. I managed to pat a lot of it dry with paper towels, but it’s there. You can’t get rid of it completely. But the flavor is good despite the consistency and oiliness.

Conclusion

I will try to make this again, probably fairly soon, and next time I won’t make the same mistakes.  I’ll watch the almonds closer on roasting, probably acquire a larger pan, I’ll add the butter carefully, and I’ll whisk it until it’s smooth before adding the nuts. In the mean time, I’ve got some fairly decent brittle to eat.

In 2003 I worked on a show called The Restaurant and the dish that was famous on that show was Rocco’s mama’s meatballs.  While I never had the pleasure of partaking in those particular balls, from then on I really wanted to learn how to make awesome meatballs.  Zoom forward about 6 years and I saw an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay where he challenged Mike Maroni to a meatball throwdown (and lost).  Six years was a long time to wait, but thanks to the Maroni’s making their recipe available on Foodnetwork.com, I too can now make some slammin balls of meat. (Better than Rocco’s from what I hear).

There are a couple of things I like about the Maroni recipe.  First is that it calls for ground chuck and no veal, which makes it a little easier on the old conscious about “killing-baby-cows-who-live-their-entire-short-lives-in-a-wooden-box.”  (But hey, they do taste good.)  Second is that they’re loaded with romano cheese and third is that they are super moist and tender.  Shannon loves the morning after, having a dish of eggs and meatballs.  The only downside to them is that they’re a little pricy to make, because of the pecorino cheese.  But well worth it.

The Recipe

As found on foodnetwork.com:

Ingredients
1 pound ground chuck
4 ounces dried bread crumbs
4 large eggs
4 ounces whole milk
6 ounces grated Pecorino Romano
3 ounces grated Spanish onion
2 ounces finely diced fresh garlic
2 ounces finely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
2 ounces finely chopped fresh basil leaves

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray.

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in large bowl. If mixture seems a little loose add more bread crumbs.

Roll meatballs loosely about the size of a golf ball and place on baking sheet. Place into preheated oven for approximately 35 to 40 minutes

The Process

The first time I made this I read all of the comments on food network’s site and many people complained about all the cheese and also wondered ‘is it by weight or by volume?’  Here’s the deal, it sort of doesn’t matter but it’s by weight.  I go by weight using a digital scale, but I’m also not to the ounce on anything.  The important part to these meatballs is there’s a LOT of liquid with the 4 eggs and the milk, and then there’s a lot of bread crumbs and cheese to soak it up.  I think most recipes out there only call for one egg, but using 4 makes these meatballs very tender.

Making breadcrumbs in a food processor is cheaper than buying panko.  They’re not dried, but it hasn’t mattered much.  Even though I add them last, I just grind them up first to give them a chance to dry out in the vegas air.  I’ve tried both sourdough and wheat and it doesn’t seem to effect the flavor much.  It takes about 1 slice of bread per ounce, so 4 for this.  Break up the slices into smaller pieces and blast for about 10-15 seconds and you’ll have tiny crumbs.

For this ingredient I do weigh them to get 4 ounces and then discard the rest.  But for now set them aside.

Next chop up the garlic, fresh basil and Italian parsley leaves as finely as possible. I think that 2 ounces of each (by weight) is a lot because leaves don’t weigh much. I’ve found the parsley to be quite pungent, so I started using a lot less of it.  I’ve been just winging it on the amounts, using about a small handful of each.

Next shred up an onion.  What I’ve been doing is using the shredder plate on the food processor, and putting chunks of onion in there.  Then I pull out any large pieces that didn’t shred well.  Use 3 or 4 ounces (by weight) and freeze the rest for later cooking.  When you shred an onion in a food processor it creates a lot of liquid (onion juice). This doesn’t bother me for use in the meatballs, but the extra if left gloppy is a mess to freeze.

In a bowl put the 1/2 cup whole milk, the garlic, the onion, the basil (on the left) and the parsley.  Then add the ground chuck and the 4 eggs…

Next, watch those knuckles as you grate the pecorino.  Albertson’s has wedges of the cheese for about $10, so it’s not cheap. At other places, like whole foods, it’s even more expensive.  I think this is the key ingredient so don’t skimp here. Eventually I’ll probably try doing half pecorino and half fresh parmesan. I’ve not been using the whole 6 oz in the mix, but usually only 4 or 5 oz, and then save the rest to sprinkle on my meal.

Toss the bread crumbs and the cheese over the rest and mix it up.  I use my (very clean) hands and try to not over mix it.  Just making sure that each ball is going to have a fairly uniform amount of ingredients.

Maroni recommended large golf-ball sized meatballs and I tend to agree.  Again formed by hand. Here are mine just placed in the 350 degree oven.  This time I got 22.

I’ve been pulling mine out at around 25 to 30 minutes scared that they’ll burn.  I think next time I’ll try going the full 35 minutes as he suggests.

Notice that some of the cheese does ooze out.  This has happened every time I’ve made these and it doesn’t bother me.  I just eat it.  YUM!

And here it is again on the plate.  For this sauce I used a jar of 4 cheese, and heated it on the stove adding a little extra garlic, some basil leaves, and a little milk.  Timing wise, when I put the meatballs in the oven is when I start my water boiling.  Then the pasta is done about the same time as the meatballs.

Modifications

• Going a little easier on the cheese.  Some of it does ooze out so less might get about the same result.
• Trying half and half between pecorino romano and parmesan.
• Going easy on the Italian Parsley since it’s strong stuff.