S'more Pancakes

Pancakes are a favorite canvass of mine. They're such promising frames of fluffy emptiness, waiting to be populated with fruit or chocolate or any number of amazing things. Once you get down the basics of batter consistency and flipping, there's no end to the creative breakfasts (lunches, dinners, or desserts, for that matter) that you can create.

With a bounty of mini-marshmallows on hand from my Thanksgiving yams, I set out to bring a little bit of the campfire to the griddle one morning.

Ingredients:
Pancake Mix

Water

Chocolate Chips

Mini-Marshmallows

Graham Crackers

Butter

Steps/Analysis:

All pancake batters are a little different. Some call for additional eggs, some for oil. The variety that I've been buying lately merely asks for the addition of water and it really doesn't get any easier than that.

Follow the directions on whatever box you purchased, but don't be afraid to adjust the ratio if need be. The batter should be thick enough to hold together, but still pourable. Also, keep in mind that it will tighten up a little bit as it sits on the counter. I've gotten to the point where I can eyeball a consistent batter and, with enough pancakes under your belt, you will be there too. I promise.

To your batter, add equal portions of chocolate chips, marshmallows, and crushed graham crackers. Err on the side of caution, though. Too many mix-ins is going to complicate things later on.

Another note: leave your graham crackers a little on the over-large side. They're going to soften up in the batter and throughout the cooking process, and you want an identifiable graham cracker texture.

Heat a pan or griddle over Medium-High heat and lube it up with butter. When the butter starts sizzling, you're ready to go.

Dose out the batter in whatever amount you're comfortable with, making sure to leave room for flipping.

Don't mess around with your pancakes after you've poured the batter onto the pan. I cannot emphasize this enough. The melty marshmallows and chunky crackers are going to create some strange shapes as the batter spreads out. You can neaten up the edges if you must, but remember that you only get one flip! No more, no less.

You'll know that it's time to flip your pancakes when the edges start to solidify a bit and air bubbles start to work up through their centers.

Wait a minute or so to brown the other side and cook the pancakes through, then quickly evacuate them to a large plate or serving dish.

Repeat until there's no more batter left.

Serving/Analysis:

It seems almost criminal to suggest that you pour syrup over these pancakes, so, officially, I won't. (That is what I did, though.)

After cooking up a batch, it occurs to me that you might want to increase the ratio of marshmallows and graham crackers to chocolate. They have much subtler flavors and have the tendency to fade into the background when you really want them to put their stamp on the dish.

Feel free to garnish the plates with additional graham crackers, chocolate chips, and marshmallows.

Choco-Berry Mousse Torte

Inspired by my lady's return to the Northeast, I decided to try my hand at a second dessert (since my Johnny Rotten Cake had turned out so well). I actually found this recipe on a full page add in a magazine. Reading the ingredient list below will give you a pretty good idea of what the advertisement was for.

This is a great no-bake dessert. It takes a little time and effort to put together, but the end result is disproportionately more elegant than the amount of work involved. You'll get a few 'Oohs' and 'Ahhs' from this one, I promise.

Ingredients:
1 Tub of Cool Whip

1 Box Jell-O Instant Chocolate Pudding

1 Package of Cream Cheese

2 Cups and 2 Tablespoons of Milk

3 Squares of Semi-Sweet Baker's Chocolate

Nilla Wafers

Strawberries

Steps/Analysis:

The torte requires that you build it upside down. I'll give you a few moments to mull that over...

Back? Great. It's important to have a handle on this, conceptually, as you follow these instructions. It'll all make sense in a few minutes.

First, find a circular cake pan, roughly 9 inches in diameter. A pie plate will do in a pinch. Line the bottom with plastic wrap and stand Nilla wafers on their edges around the edge, leaning them against the wall (rounded side facing out) of the pan/plate/Frisbee/whatever.

In a large bowl, combine 2 cups of milk, half of the tub of Cool Whip (defrosted, of course), and the dry pudding mix. Stir until uniformly smooth.

In a separate bowl, break up 2 squares of baker's chocolate and microwave for a minute or so. At the end of the cycle, stir the chocolate and repeat until it is completely melted. Once a gooey, chocolate mess is accomplished, add it to the quasi-pudding you just created and stir to combine.

Note: In my first attempt, I microwaved the chocolate and attempted to add the cold ingredients to its bowl, rather than the other way around. Don't do that. Just don't. If you do, the melted chocolate will seize up and become a grainy, quicksand-like reservoir in the bottom of the bowl and you'll have to start over. Heed my words!

Slowly pour the contents of the thoroughly mixed bowl of pudding goodness into your pan. Be patient so you don't disturb the retaining wall of Nilla wafers.

Hopefully, you've let your cream cheese sit around for a while and soften. Dump that into a new bowl, with the sugar, and the 2 tablespoons of milk you have in reserve. Stir to combine and carefully spread over the top of the pan. Then, press a layer of Nilla wafers into it. You want the flat bottoms facing up (You do remember that the top of this thing is actually the bottom, right?).

Cover the whole kit and caboodle with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for at least 4 hours. I let mine go overnight.

When you come back to the torte, remove the top layer of plastic and place a large plate or serving platter upside-down on top of the pan. Clamp your hands on each side and flip the whole thing. Coax the dessert out by pulling on the exposed plastic wrap, if necessary.

Top the torte with the remaining Whip Cream and a layer of sliced strawberries. Finally, take a cheese grater to the last square of chocolate and give it a good dusting of chocolate snow flakes.

Serving/Notes:

The pictures say it all, don't they? This is a great summer dessert - chocolaty and rich, but not overly heavy. The Nilla wafers soak up a lot of moisture and make a really tender makeshift crust. Delicious!

B.A. Gourmet's First Dessert: Johnny Rotten Cake

One of the unexpected benefits of starting this blog is that friends, relatives, and acquaintances (once aware of its existence) have started to send me their own recipes to try. That's one of the great things about cooking, in my opinion, the fact that it tends to draw people together. Even if you only look as far as family, I'm sure there are a few recipes lurking around that have been passed down through the years. All you have to do to tap into them as a resource is express a little interest. More often than not, people are more than happy to share their food, stories, and opinions with you. Case in point, me!

Today's recipe actually comes from one of my previous professors, the very talented writer, instructor, and baker Jane Satterfield. If you have any interest in the genres of poetry or memoir, you'd do well to look her books up. They come highly recommended.

Several weeks ago, Jane sent me a recipe Johnny Rotten Cake, so named by her family after the expression "Eat this lovely sponge; not that rotten cake," meaning save your appetite for something special. The following recipe may be better known as Wacky or Three Hole Cake (the reason for that will be clear soon) and is a popular southern dessert.

Johnny Rotten Cake is very much in line with the spirit of The B.A. Gourmet; it's simple to make and requires very little preparation/cooking time.

Ingredients:

3 Cups of Flour

2 Cups of Sugar

1/2 Cup of Good Quality Cocoa

2/3 Cup of Oil

2 Teaspoons of Baking Soda

1/2 Teaspoon of Salt

2 Tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla

2 Cups of Water

Additional Icing Ingredients-

1 Cup of Chocolate Chips

1/2 Stick of Butter

Steps/Analysis:

To my surprise, all of these ingredients were already in my pantry. If you live with someone who does even a little baking, you probably do too, so take a look around before you go grocery shopping.

Pour all of the dry ingredients in a 9x13 inch baking pan. (That's right, no mixing bowls required!) The recipe I was given states that you do not need to prep the pan at all. Because this was my first dessert attempt, though, I decided to take out some insurance by rubbing it down with a little Crisco and dusting it with flour.

(Note: I actually ended up using half milk chocolate cocoa and half dark chocolate cocoa. That was not by design, though. The ran out of milk chocolate and didn't notice the different labels until I had already started pouring the dark chocolate. I'm a fan of dark chocolate anyway, so I continued onward. The end product did not suffer as a result of the combination.)

Use a spoon or your fingers to make three holes in the resulting mound (hence the cake's formal name) and pour the wet ingredients into them. If the vinegar makes contact with the baking soda, there will be a little foaming (a la the classic science fair volcano project), but there shouldn't be enough of either ingredient to overflow the baking pan.

Carefully mix the ingredients until a mostly uniform consistency is achieved. Then, place the pan in a 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes. You'll know it's done when you can insert a sharp knife or tooth pick into the center and it comes out clean.

Allow to cool and ice if desired. For the icing, place the chocolate chips and butter (cut into chunks) in a microwave-safe bowl and zap it for a minute or until you can stir it up into an icing consistency. Spread it over the cake and let it set up.

Serving/Notes:

This is a great recipe. It's economical, adaptable, and easy to pull off. The cake comes out pleasantly dense and moist. It's not overly sweet by itself, though, so the icing is a good idea. I definitely plan on making this again and look forward to trying out all kinds of interesting variations. Thanks, Jane!