The Pancake Fiasco

Someday I need to remember that I don't have enough knowledge about what different ingredients do in a recipe to leave things out or try to substitute. This morning, I tried making pancakes from scratch (the mix pancakes here don't sit well with Jason and we are out of cereal). Let's just say, he ended up having oatmeal for breakfast.

I wanted to make oatmeal pancakes and use applesauce but not use eggs. I wasn't able to find a recipe on Allrecipes.com that fit those requirements so I found one with eggs and changed it up a bit. I searched online a little bit about substitutions for eggs. A few websites said that as long as it's only a couple of eggs, I can just leave them out and add a touch more liquid to compensate. I had also heard that vinegar can be used in place of eggs so I figured I could add some if the first one didn't turn out.

Then the recipe called for baking soda and baking powder. All I have is a container of something called cooking soda. I figured it was about the same as baking soda so I would just add a little bit more that the amount in the recipe but not as much as the two combined (seeing as baking soda is stronger). Although as I don't have measuring spoons, how much I actually put in is anyone's guess.

I also used some baby apple puree that I had in the freezer and regular milk in place of buttermilk.

So I mix it all together and try to cook it up. The flame was low because the batter was thick but the pancakes never cooked. Even after the outsides were done/borderline too dark, they were still gooey in the middle. I figured it was either not enough baking soda or the lack of egg causing problems. So I added another more baking soda and tried another one. Same problem. This time, along with the more baking soda, I did add some vinegar. The batter got little bubbles in it and when it started cooking, it looked like it was kind of rising like it's supposed to. Alas, it seemed to fall. More vinegar and baking soda, same result.

By this time, Jason, while playing with Anna, was getting ready for breakfast (hungry and he needed to get back to work). After a few more rounds of additions, I told myself that if the next one didn't work I would just make him oatmeal. Same result. So I started the oatmeal in the microwave but kept trying to tweak the pancakes.

I hate making oatmeal in the microwave. Unfortunately, the pot was dirty (yes we only have one pot) so I had to. The bowl was pretty full when I put it in and the oatmeal and milk just bubbled up over the side. After the amount of time it said on the package, it was still really runny. I put it in for another minute and after more bubbled up over the side, it was ready.

The pancakes never did turn out. I ended up making at least 6 before I was pooped and just dumped the batter. So after this experience, I vow to never try to make pancakes without eggs again. I also vow to only tweak things like nuts or fruit or chocolate chips in baked goods. Maybe then they will turn out.