Syrups-The Good, The Bad, The Disgusting

Do you ever wonder what exactly you are pouring on top of your pancakes?

Chances are if you knew, you wouldn't eat it. You might even gag. Almost all pancake syrups on the grocery store shelf contain high fructose corn syrup. I'm sure you have seen all the advertisements on t.v. stating "Rather it's cane sugar or corn sugar, sugar is sugar." I can tell you from personal experience corn sugar and cane sugar are NOT the same.

To make a long story short, 3 years ago I thought I was going to have my gallbladder out but a bunch of tests and various doctors and specialist visits, I was finally told that chemically altered food was causing liver failure. Although nobody has been able to explain why my liver, the organ with NO NERVES, was generating so much pain.

I am human and I show moments of weakness, I stuff my face with junk that I shouldn't from time to time. Then I pay for it. I spend the next 24-48 hours with sharp, stabbing pains in my side. It is SO NOT worth it.

But I digress from my topic.

The average store shelves are stocked with a massive amounts of syrup. Pure Maple, Butter Flavored, Maple Flavored, Lite, Sugar Free, and a variety of fruit flavors. You're faced with a lot of choices. So what do you pick?

Pure Maple is obviously the most natural choice. It has 1 ingredient. Maple syrup. It also has the highest price tag. In this economy it isn't a practical buy. There are never coupons, it's rarely on sale, and it comes in rather small bottles.

Then there are the most popular brands. Log Cabin, Eggo, Hungry Jack, Aunt Jemima...the list goes on and on. They come in "original", "butter", "lite", and "sugar free". Login Cabin, according to their website, has changed it's formula to remove the high fructose corn syrup, however upon inspection of the ingredients, the first one is still corn syrup. The first ingredient in Eggo syrup is high fructose corn syrup. The first in Hungry Jack, and Aunt Jemima is corn syrup, then comes the high fructose corn syrup.  These taste acceptable and most importantly they are cheap. If you get the store brand, it is even cheaper. However, what are you putting into your body?

High fructose corn syrup is made from corn. That sounds safe right? Corn is a yummy vegetable, what could possibly be wrong with that? A LOT. Thats whats wrong with it. Factories start with corn, then the process includes the use of caustic soda, hydrochloric acid (the stuff in high school chemistry class that would eat through your skin if you got the tiniest drop on you), calcium chloride (a type of salt used to melt ice and found in fabric softeners), caustic soda, and other chemicals. If that doesn't sound disgusting enough, caustic soda and hydrochloric acid are also known to contain mercury. All those chemicals are used to break down the kernels of corn to release the starch that is then processed even further to make the syrup.

Then you have syrups made with a cane sugar base. These are better health-wise for your body. A can sugar syrup base is made by taking sugar and water, cooking it until is browns and then adding more water and flavoring. However these do not have the traditional "pancake syrup" flavor. Alaga is the only cane syrup that comes to mind in this category. It is made with corn syrup (at least not high fructose), cane syrup, water, and potassium sorbate. It, however, has a mild molasses-like flavor.

Cane sugar is the sugar you get in the 5lb bags at the store. You simply call it sugar. Sugar is made by taking Sugar Cane (a plant), cutting it down, smashing it with rollers to extract the juice, allowing the water in that juice to evaporate with the aid of a compound called slaked lime, and boiling the remaining substance to remove additional liquid so that the conditions are right for crystals to grow. There is also limited waste because the by-product of sugar creation is molasses, which we use in baking. The remaining parts of the sugar cane stalks is burned by the plant to create the energy and heat used in the evaporation process. The CO2 created from burning is absorbed by the growing of new sugar cane.

Now that you know the process, which would you rather be in your syrup? I believe I prefer sugar based syrup, however there are very limited number of them on the market. My ultimate decision, I will be making a lot of my own syrups from real sugar, fruits, real fruit juices, and water. Look forward to a lot of new recipes!

Carrot Cake Pancakes

Yesterday was one of those abnormally chilly days. I spent the day with multiple cups of hot tea and a good book, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Something about masturbating dwarfs caught my attention and well, yeah, I sat cuddled up on the couch all day with it. I suggest reading it, I haven't seen the movie yet but I bet they leave out the masturbating dwarf.....

Anywho, this morning's breakfast was one of those recipes I found on some blog site, several years ago and like to make every few months. It's healthy and yummy. Well at least it was healthy until I smothered it in maple syrup.

Carrot Cake Pancakes

(upon a few minutes of searching, I have not been able to remember where I got the recipe, but I'm fairly certain I got it from somebody who got it from Joy The Baker, however I cannot find the recipe on her blog. :/ )

1/2 C All-Purpose Flour

1/2 C Whole Wheat Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg

1 Egg

1 C Buttermilk

1/3 C Raisins

1/2 C Finely Grated Carrot

1/4 C Chopped Pecans

In a medium bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Stir in egg and buttermilk.

Fold in raisins, carrots, and pecans.

**Note: Plump, juicy raisins are a must. If your raisins look and feel like rocks cover them with water, stick them in the microwave for a minute or so until the water heats up and then let them set for 10 minutes or so until they are soft.**

Allow the batter to rest for 10-15 minutes, or over night works well too, fry in a lightly greased skillet or on a griddle.

Serves 2-3 people. I get about 6 pancakes that measure approx. 5 inches.

Obsessed. With Pancakes.

I blame my father. He started it. It's his fault. Every weekend, he made breakfast. He still does. Unfortunately, he has limited recipes. At 72, he's not willing to try many new recipes. I sent him 50 recipes a while ago, he's made 4 of them. That brings his total up to 8, or maybe 10 recipes.

To me, that is BORING. I need variety. There are so many possibilities for terrific meals, why repeat the same thing over and over?

As an adult, I still sit down at the kitchen table every morning with my cup of tea or coffee and some form of homemade breakfast. Typically it's pancakes. They are easy to make for 2, granted I am the only person living in my house, but my dog and cat have to eat pancakes too, they insist on it. Really they do.

My personal goal is to make it an entire year without repeating a single breakfast menu.

I have an ever growing stack of pancake recipes. I file them into three categories.

1. Traditional-pancakes that are cooked on the griddle or in a skillet.

2. Baked-pancakes that go into the oven.

3. Crepe Style-thin pancakes that resemble crepes, most are European in origin.

So far, I have over 100 recipes either created by me, borrowed from follow blog-enthusiasts, and even a few from cook books. Some I've had for a couple years, scribbled on various scraps of paper that was available when I stumbled across the recipe, I have no idea who I got the recipe from. For those I do remember and/or can track down, I will link to the blog where it came from.

For now, I hope you enjoy all the recipes as much as I do. Happy Eating!

Fluffy Blueberry Pancakes

Overslept this morning, so I had to keep it simple.

1 C All-Purpose Flour

1 Tbs Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

3 Tbs Vanilla Yogurt

1 Egg

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

3/4 C Milk

1/2 C Fresh or Thawed Blueberries.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, whisk in everything else but the blueberries. In a skillet over medium heat, pour in 1/4 cup of batter, arrange blueberries in pancake. Cover the berries with a dot of batter. Turn when bubbly on top and browned on the bottom.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Who doesn't love to go to the mall, walk past the food court and see those oh so gooey cinnamon rolls sitting there, covered in mass amounts of cream cheese frosting, waiting to be eaten?

Then you think of the extra calories that you're about to indulge in. You blindly turn your head and walk the other way. Or, you vow to skip a meal and give in.

My solution is to turn all that ooey-gooey goodness into a breakfast. You can eat 2 or 3 of these pancakes and still have consumed around 100 less calories than you would eating that one cinnamon roll. A Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll, according to Cinnabon.com, contains 880 calories and 36g of fat. These pancakes 614 calories and 30.9g of fat per serving. Plus you eat them for breakfast, as a meal. It should be a decent amount of calories to keep you going until lunch.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

The Filling

4 Tbs Unsalted Butter, melted

1/2 C Packed Brown Sugar

1 Tbs Ground Cinnamon

Mix it together until smooth, pour into a pastry bag and set aside.

The Frosting

2 oz Cream Cheese, softened

1 C Powdered Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

2 Tbs milk

Mix it together until smooth, pour into another pastry bag and set aside.

The Pancake

1 C All-Purpose Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

Dash Salt

1 large egg

1 C Milk

1 tsp vanilla

In a medium bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Whisk in egg, milk and vanilla.

In a large non-stick skillet or on a griddle, over medium-low heat, ladle out about 1/4 C batter at a time. Snip the tip off the pastry bag containing the Cinnamon Filling. Swirl it around in the batter in a spiral pattern. Cook until the surface is bubbled and bottom side is golden brown. Flip and continue to cook the second side until lightly browned.

When ready to serve, snip the tip off the pastry bag containing the frosting. Swirl it over the pancakes.

Pink Lemonade Pancakes

I have a passion for baking and an obsession for pancakes. I try to turn everything into a new pancake recipe so I can eat it for breakfast. Today's creation follows the trend of pink lemonade cupcakes.

Pink Lemonade Pancakes

1 C All-Purpose Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbs Malt Powder or 1 Tbs Sugar

3 Tbs Plain Yogurt

1 Egg, beaten

3/4 C Pink Lemonade Concentrate, thawed

In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Stir in yogurt, egg, and lemonade concentrate. (Optional: If you want a pinker color, add a drop of red food coloring.) Cook over low-medium heat in a non-stick skillet. Turn when bubbles appear on the surface. Watch these carefully as they brown quickly.