Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen #51: Mama Panya's Pancakes

Time for Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen

(A weekly linky where you can share your special time in the kitchen, such a great place for learning. You can also link up Kid-Friendly Recipes)

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The linky is at the bottom.

We have been learning about Africa for the past few weeks creating works of art found in the book by MaryAnn F. Kohl and Jean Potter called "Global Art" that I am reviewing for the TOS Review Crew. When I started reviewing it I knew I wanted to make at least one recipe with the girls from the cultures we would be learning about. There have been many foods mentioned in the books we have been reading, but no recipes. I was thrilled when I found a recipe in the book "Mama Panya's Pancakes" by Mary and Rich Chamberlin.

You will need:

1 1/4 cups flour

2 cups cold water

 1 1/3 cups vegetable oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cardamom (or nutmeg, which is what we used)

1/2 tsp red chili pepper flakes, crushed (we did not use these as I don't have them anymore. I gave them to my son because I can't stand spicy things.)

The instructions are quite simple. You just mix all the ingredients together. The book said to use a fork, we used our whisk. At first I thought I had done something wrong as the batter was so thin. I actually Googled Mama Panya's Pancakes recipe and found someone had made these and shared them on her blog. I was relieved to discover that the batter was meant to be thin, or at least it was for her too. She said it was thinner than crepe batter, which I have never made, so this was news to me. 

The children all took turns stirring it. 

We preheated a nonstick pan at medium setting. The book said to use a medium to low setting. No oil is needed. We were a little skeptical at first, but with all the oil in the recipe, there really was no need for additional oil. 

We then poured 1/4 cup of batter into the center of the pan. We were supposed to tilt the pan to spread the batter to the size of a grapefruit. It was so thin, there was no need to tilt the pan. Which makes me think it shouldn't have been so thin. 

We cooked them until we saw tiny bubbles in the pancake, then we flipped them over. 

There was so much oil we needed to pour it out after a couple of pancakes. 

The instructions say that "when the second side begins to pop up from the heat, the pancake is ready." The problem was, the center was never done and the edges were too crisp. I tried a higher heat, I tried a lower heat, but I could not get these to fully cook in the center. The one pancake I left on longer was over done and too crisp to eat.

 It was suggested that we could fill these with just about anything. Two suggestions were jam and tuna fish. As we were doing Breakfast for Dinner we made eggs to go inside.

Unfortunately, they were so crisp we could not roll them up to eat them as suggested. They look more like egg tacos. I have to say, this was not a well-received recipe. The children ate their eggs, but they didn't eat the "pancakes." We ended up making bagels for something to eat. Hubby and I could only eat a little, as they were so greasy. I had doubled the batch as the book said the recipe would make 6 pancakes. I am not sure how many we would have made with our double batch, but it was much more than 12. 

I am going to look for further reviews. I just feel maybe there was a typo in the recipe or something. If you try this recipe, please share how they turn out for you. Maybe I was doing something wrong after all.

Do you have your children help you in the kitchen?  What lessons do they learn? Do you have any kid friendly recipes to share?

I'd love to see your posts, whether you have done something this week or some time in the past. Just link up below. This is a weekly linky.

I am linking up to:

 

Melt in Your Mouth Monday
Try a New Recipe Tuesday at Home to Four Kiddos
The Gathering Spot at Mamal Diane
Tempt My Tummy at Blessed with Grace
Friday Food Frenzy at Close to Home
Fantastic Thursday at Five Little Chefs

And here is my Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen linky