Cooking With My Kids: Pancakes With Stairs and Almonds

Not really stairs.

It's pancakes with apples and pears.  And sliced almonds.  And apple syrup.

The "stairs" part comes from my childhood, from my maternal grandparents.  "Apples and pears" is Cockney slang for "stairs," and when my sister and I were little, and it was time for bed, we were urged to go up the apples and pears.  I can hear it particularly in my grandfather's voice.  "UP the apples and pears!" he'd say enthusiastically.  Now that I have young children, I have a deeper understanding of just WHY he was enthusiastic by that point in the day.

Anyway.

This morning Alex came up with the fruit/nut combination but didn't feel like cooking.  Julia helped make the batter, and I peeled and cut the apples and the pear and made the syrup.

I didn't take a ton of pictures - I was trying to do too many things at the same time, I guess.  Not one of my better mornings, but oh well, we all have those.

Anyway, here is the recipe for you, in case you'd like to make these yourself.

Pancakes with Stairs and Almonds

(I made half plain, half with the fruit/nut mixture, but there's plenty of the fruit/nut mixture to make all of them that way.)

4 T butter, melted and cooled

2 eggs

1 pint 2% Greek-style yogurt

1 cup vanilla soymilk

2 cups all-purpose flour

4 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

(I should have added cinnamon, now that I type this.  Duh.)

1 apple, peeled and diced

1 pear, peeled and diced

2 T sliced almonds, crumbled

1 tsp lemon juice

~~~

For the syrup:

2 apples (or one apple & one pear) peeled and chopped

4 T butter (it was the other half of the stick.  too much, perhaps.)

1/4 cup sugar

~~~~~

To make the batter:

Combine all the dry ingredients, whisk together and set aside.

Add eggs, melted & cooled butter, yogurt and soymilk and stir together until just combined.  You might need to add more liquid if the batter is too thick. 

Mix the diced apples, pears, almonds, and lemon juice together.  Set aside.

To make the syrup:

Combine all syrup ingredients in a medium-small pot on the stove and cook, stirring occasionally, until fruit is very soft.  Press through a strainer if desired, or puree.

Assembly:

Heat a griddle or skillet until very hot.  Brush lightly with vegetable oil. 

Ladle batter onto griddle.  If you're making plain pancakes, simply cook until bubbles appear evenly across the upper surface of the pancake.  Adjust temperature as needed so you don't burn them.  Flip over, cook another minute or two until done. 

If you're cooking the Stairs and Almonds version, ladle your batter onto the griddle, then, by hand, sprinkle some of the fruit/nut mixture onto the pancakes after you've ladled them all out. 

 
When the bubbles appear throughout most of the upper surface, flip them and finish them. 

Serve immediately with butter and/or apple syrup.