Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Every other Wednesday my oldest has a church activity from 5-6 and then dance from 6:15-7; this means she has to eat whatever leftovers we have in the fridge (or, if all else fails, a deli meat sandwich) for dinner at 4:30.  Which means, of course, I’m down a good eater for dinner–AND I have to start dinner knowing I have to leave the house to take her just before five, and then be done eating in time to take her from one to the other.  (My hubby then picks her up while I bathe the boy.)  You can probably appreciate the need for an easy meal on these nights, right?  (If you can’t, well, I can’t imagine why you’re interested in this blog.)

Anyway, tonight’s pick was these Apple Pie Pancakes with Vanilla Maple Syrup, which I enjoyed–but which also need some tweaking.  I did love the flavor, although I messed with the spices a bit (I’m just all about more nutmeg flavor, and so I lessened the cinnamon and cloves some to make up for it).  I doubled it but stuck with one (large) apple (out of pure laziness, to be honest with you, but they were apple-y enough, overall), and I used half whole wheat flour because this is the Pregnancy of Craving Fiber!  These are predictable changes for me, however, and I wouldn’t say they NEEDED tweaking if these were the only things I wanted to change.  What needs to change next time, however, is the leavening.  I admit to using 1% milk instead of whole, but that shouldn’t have made the batter all that thin; I’m thinking the recipe really wants buttermilk instead (at least partly), but to do that it possibly needs some baking soda instead of all baking powder, and I need to research how to change the proportions properly.  (And yes, I am aware that altitude may be a major factor here, since the blogger lives in San Diego.)  In the meantime, the flavor truly was lovely.  If any of you know how to make them a bit fluffier without messing with that, please share!