August 24, 2012

Fridays of Intestinal Fortitude:
Half-Baked

Note: Fridays of Intestinal Fortitude is a weekly(ish) feature about food, food and more FOOD. No, I am not an expert, but I do enjoy talking about food prep, cooking food, eating food and making sweet love to food.  Okay, maybe not the "sweet love" part. After all, this is not meant to be an homage to 9 1/2 Weeks.

Recipe Index can be found here. 
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Recently, I read an article on Slate, Ignore Your Oven Dial (You can’t control the temperature of your oven very well, so stop worrying about it.) that I wished I had read years ago.  I have written extensively over the years about How I Cannot Bake.  However! Gradually, I am getting better at it and that Slate article is a good reason why -- I simply needed to learn how to stop relying upon my oven timer and temperature gauge (within reason).  I have learned to use my peepers, my nose and a carefully placed finger or fork.  In short, I am learning how to observe the baking process. Over the past few years, I have been baking more and more -- sometimes,  I am even pulling things out of my oven which are actually edible (Hell's Bells, I now make Romanian Kifli every year for Christmas.  Oh my, how the times have changed.)

The other day, my friend Katy gave me a recipe for pancake muffins.  I tried her recipe, but it never came out quite right for me.  Although, judging from how quickly each batch disappeared, they were obviously edible.  In fact, at one point, Arun hugged me and said "Mama, even though you are not a good baker, I like these muffins. "

Anyway, since Katy and I use different pancake mixes, I began to experiment with my mix.  And then, suddenly, I had a recipe.  A baking recipe. Well, not really a recipe since I nabbed the idea from a friend, then snatched the ingredient list  from Aunt Jemima.

Whatever, nitpicker.

Pancake Muffins

Ingredients
1 cup Politically Incorrect Aunt Jemima Original Pancake mix
1 egg
⅔ cup milk,
¼ to ½  cup syrup

Preparation
1. Mix together, pour into greased muffin pan (or liners -- these things are pretty sticky.)

2. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees and serve!

Note: Yes, more syrup is delicious, but also stickier.  Guess which one Team Chaos prefers? Also, fruit, nuts and even bacon (BACON!) can be added for a higher Yum Factor.

2 comments:

Amanda said...

That is a great article. Thanks for sharing. The only thing I would add is that when you're watching your baking goods "like a hawk", be sure to rotate the dish. I've found that this helps heat all parts of the dish evenly. I'm so glad that you and baking are coming to terms with one another :)

Dee said...

Pretty sure my crew would gobble these up. May have to try them out this weekend!

My oven temp always jacks with cakes and cookies I bake, so I am always adjusting and watching closely when I do bake.