Try some pretty little pancakes for Mother’s Day! These are baked in the oven using egg rings as a mold-a little extra work, but the final result is soon pretty!
Serves 3-4 (makes about 12 3″ diameter pancakes)
For the pancakes:
Dry mix
2 cups all purpose flour
2 Tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegan butter substitute (like earth balance brand), margarine or shortening, chopped
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix the dry ingredients together well in a mixing bowl. Stir in the chopped butter substitute until the dry mix takes on a crumbly texture.
Wet mix
2 Tablespoons ground flax + 6 Tablespoons warm water (you are substituting for 2 eggs in this recipe)
1 1/2 cups canned coconut cream (available at asian markets and/or Trader Joe’s) or full fat coconut milk
zest of 2 lemons
Mix the ground flax with the warm water and allow to stand for about 10 minutes. This mixture is a replacement for the egg in the recipe and has a binding effect. You can alternatively use Ener-G egg replacer and follow the instructions for replacing 2 eggs.
After the 10 minutes are up whisk together the coconut cream and the flax/water mix. Fold in the lemon zest.
Add this to the dry mix and quickly fold everything together for about 30 seconds. You will end up with a slightly lumpy batter, which is ok! You don’t want to mix all the lumps out because you will overmix the batter and end up with heavy pancakes.
OK now for the fun part! I made these nicely shaped and fluffy pancakes with 2 1/2″-3″ egg rings, which allows them to rise as they cook. I was inspired by an article I saw on Food 52, one of my favorite food sites. I decided to veganize it and it worked really well.
Egg rings are metal disks/rings that are sold at kitchen supply stores to help eggs cook in a perfect circle.
The way to make these work for pancakes is to grease the inside of the rings and place them in a greased cast iron skillet on the stove top and allow it to get to a nice medium heat. If you don’t have a skillet, a non stick cookie sheet will work as well, but it’s easier to use an oven proof skillet or pan. After a minute or two, once the rings are hot, spoon a few Tablespoons of the pancake batter into the rings, being careful to fill it only about 1/3 full. They will rise considerably. Cook them for about 30 seconds in the pan and then transfer the pan to the oven.
Bake in the oven for about 5 minutes, keeping a close eye on them. They should be bubbly on top, but not domed like a muffin. The sides should be a little browned. Remove them from the oven and score the sides of the pancakes with a paring knife and lift the egg ring off of them with tongs or a dry towel. Using a spatula carefully flip the pancakes and brown the other side in the pan on the stovetop. Check for doneness by inserting your paring knife into the center of the pancakes. Serve with strawberries tossed in maple and dust with confectioner’s sugar if you’d like!
This technique makes really pretty little cakes! Expect for the first batch to bite the dust in terms of the shape, but they’ll still taste great 🙂
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