Heather says:
Whenever birthday season rolls around, we like to give the birthday child a few treats of their own choosing, within reason. I do believe my middle child is a budding foodie. In the days leading up to his birthday, he talked about how he wanted to have apple pancakes for breakfast, something we have never made or even offered. I got to thinking. How could I alter my buttermilk pancakes to create a version apple-y enough for a four-year-old’s palate, but not cloyingly so for the rest of us? As I was mulling over the idea, I realized that this was a perfect Fearless Friday experiment.
Apple Cider Pancakes
- 4 TBSP butter, melted
- 2 cups vanilla yogurt
- 1 cup apple cider
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose or plain flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 large apple – sliced very thin
- Cooking oil- optional
Just like with the buttermilk pancakes, it’s very helpful to let the liquid ingredients approach room temperature. Measure the yogurt and apple cider and set out the eggs about 30 minutes before you begin the recipe.
When you’re ready to get started, melt the butter. Crack the eggs and beat them just until they are one color. Combine all the liquid ingredients in a large bowl, stirring thoroughly. Set aside.
In a smaller bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. If you tried the buttermilk pancakes, you may have noticed I omitted the sugar. Both the apple cider and vanilla yogurt bring enough of their own to this recipe.
Pour half the dry ingredients into the large bowl of wet. Whisk or stir briskly until there are no lumps. Carefully add the second half of the flour mixture and gently stir until it is just combined. We’re trying to not disturb the chemical reaction we started with the first half of the dry ingredients.
Begin heating your skillet. If you’re using an electric skillet, I found this recipe needed to be 275F, vs the 300F of the buttermilk pancakes. If you are using a skillet on the stove, you’ll need to be on the lowest setting, but give the pan plenty of time to get hot before adding the first cupful of batter. Don’t forget, if you need to grease your pan, to wipe out all of the excess oil. Pancakes are little sponges and easily get greasy. If you use a nonstick pan that is in good shape, cooking oil is probably not necessary.
While the skillet is heating and the batter is resting – actually the batter is very busy, there’s a reaction between the baking soda, powder and the acids in the yogurt and apple cider- slice your apple. It’s best if the apple is not red delicious or any of the blander varieties. We are huge fans of Gala or Honeycrisp, they have enough tartness to survive heating, but aren’t so tart that they aren’t fun to eat out of hand. If you are doubling or tripling this batch for an event, sprinkle the apples with lemon juice to prevent browning.
When the skillet is hot, pour the batter onto the skillet by 1/3 cup fulls. Place 2 – 3 slices of apples on each pancake and allow them to cook for about 2 minutes on each side. Be careful, these are a little harder to turn than the plain buttermilk ones.
Unless you enjoy playing short-order cook for people, keep the finished pancakes in the oven set at 200F. This will keep them at serving temperature until the whole batch has been cooked.
Enjoy!
Heather, your pancakes look great! It's been absolutely AGES since I've had pancakes. . . and apple season is almost here!
They look awesome. That will definitely be a must try recipe!
Great idea. Happy Birthday! Now I'm thinking about putting some type of cooked shredded apples in my oatmeal pancakes. OOoooh.
I very rarely cook. Seriously, since the end of January when I moved here, I have cooked precisely zero times. My Fearless Friday project involves a lot of food prep for a party that my friend and I are hosting tonight. The most fearless: bacon-wrapped, cream-cheese-stuffed jalapenos. I'm using Heather's recipe. I bought the jalapenos last night, sliced them in half length-wise, and removed the seeds and ribs. Each slice of bacon has been sliced into thirds. (tip: I was ultra lazy and sliced them before taking them out of the package. It made it quite simple.) I have 90 jalapeno halves to make tonight just before the party starts, but last night I filled, wrapped, toothpicked, and baked 6 of them so we could try them. (Heather says 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.) I don't like spicy things, and the jalapenos were a bit too hot for me, but oh they were good. I am sure they will be the hit of the party tonight. Thanks for the help, Heather. I'm cooking and I ate jalapenos … I haven't been this fearless in a long time. 🙂
I wish I could take credit for inventing that one. I saw it probably two years ago on Pioneer Woman Cooks. That's an excellent site for reliable recipes.
I, purposely, over-cooked these, in my toaster oven, where I could watch them, closer.. and the more they cook the less heat they have.. They don't look as pretty for parties.. but they work for just you.. and making a sandwich is considered cooking, I read, recently. 🙂
These look fantastic! May just have found something to cook this weekend… Now, what I am going to need is a recipe for pumpkin pancakes and one for pumpkin muffins. Got those??
I fearlessly let my daughter can a batch of tomatoes today. Even though, when I'd let her do SOME of the ones we did on Tuesday, most of hers failed to seal. But, thankfully she learned from her mistakes and every one of the jars she did today sealed. 🙂
No fear here. Well, not now, anyway.
Not only did I buy an eggplant for the first time in my life but I made and tried babaganoush for the first time. My kids were also quite brave, so we all had brownies and ice cream to celebrate our conquest
I almost had a FF post… I will have to work on it for next week. I lack of computer time and other things have put a damper on post anything lately.
Those look really good, but I think the kids would take the apples out and eat them then eat the pancakes.
These look so good – my boys will love them! I'll try them next weekend. Thanks!
Where does one source apple cider?
It’s more prominently displayed this time of year, but it can usually be found near the OJ the rest of the year.
I core my apples and then slice them into thin rings, and I put them on the skillet first with a little butter, so they have a chance to soften.
It’s also AMAZINGLY good to use canned pineapple rings in the same fashion.
I just use my standard pancake recipe. Looking forward to trying your batter!
I was excited to try this recipe, but it was a total flop 🙁 The only thing I can guess is that the vanilla yogurt I used had significantly less sugar than the vanilla yogurt you used. The pancakes we ended up with had such a strong vinegar flavor that no one could finish even one… even after drowning in syrup. I am going to continue to experiment with this recipe, though, because the texture was excellent and they smelled wonderful cooking. Perhaps just cutting back on the vinegar would solve the issue?
The recipe calls for apple cider, not apple cider vinegar.
Apple cider can be found in the grocery store near the OJ or sometimes in the produce aisle.