Bacon Pancake Bites – Maple Syrup Optional

We had some people over for an early Christmas dinner last night.  Some family, some friends. 

But before all that, when it was morning, I cooked some bacon and eggs for Bill.

The bacon is homemade.  We made it.  It’s our second batch, and it will not be our last.  Some time soon I will tell you all about that.  The making of bacon.

But for now, there’s this little story. 

(And I’m sorry – no process pictures this time.)

I cooked up the bacon and a couple of over-easy eggs for Bill, and we had a skinny slab of the bacon left.  (Don’t worry – we have more in the freezer).  I said I’d cook it up and use it in something this week – stirred into mashed potatoes, maybe.  Bill said we could cook it up and serve it that night.  Hm.  Why not?

So the wheels in my little brain started turning, and I thought – how cute would it be to make tiny pancakes and serve them with tiny pieces of bacon?

So, after some more thought, that’s what I did.  I made a small batch of pancake batter, and, using a 2 teaspoon measure as a ladle, cooked up a whole mess of tiny, adorable pancakes.

Next, I cut the remaining slab of bacon into thick slices, and then cut them cross-wise, about 3/4” wide or so.  I fried them up until they were browned nicely on both sides. 

I did all that in the morning because I’d be cooking the sauerbraten on two burners later in the day, AND making the spaetzle on another burner, so I wouldn’t have a lot of space to work with.  I put the bacon in the fridge for a few hours, and covered the pancakes so they wouldn’t dry out.

Later on, when it was time to assemble, I got large skewers (I couldn’t find the toothpicks, but actually I think the skewers work better anyway) and started putting my little bites together.

First, I put a piece of bacon in the center of one of the little pancakes, wrapped the pancake around the bacon part-way (it looks a bit like a very tiny taco), and then stuck the skewer through all three layers.  I put all these skewers (Bill helped) on a plate, and served it with a dish of warmed maple syrup.

Originally I had that little pitcher filled with the syrup (in the picture above), but dipping them seemed a better idea than drizzling syrup on them.  And so it was.

I kept them in the warming drawer of my oven until people started to arrive. 

The overall consensus?

A definite winner.  A fun mix of salty and sweet, a tiny bite of breakfast before digging into last night’s meal.  What’s not to like? 

Give them a try and let me know what you think!

Comments

[yummychunklet]

Interesting! I'm contemplating making a version of this by putting bacon right in the pancake batter!

[Amanda]

How fun!
I think this would be a great appetizer for a brunch.
You could also use sausage too. Even the microwave frozen sausage cut into pieces would be really great with this too.

Love the idea! :)

[Domestic Diva]

This is soo inventive,kinda reminds me of some new thing Dunkin Donuts is doing where theres a sausage fried in a Pancake,something along those lines.Anyway this looks great.
chicagosdomesticdiva.blogspot.com

[anon]

oh man that looks delicious. i don't understand why your whole family isn't obese though, with the kinds of things you cook. must be good genes :)

[Briana]

These are so cute! They're kind of like these french toast dumplings I saw recently.

[Cat]

Oh. My. God. You are clearly a total genius!! The only way I would personally make them better is by adding a slice of strawberry, as I love the pancake/maple/bacon/berry combo. My partner did something similar for me recently, but he stabbed a little piece of omelette, then a bit of bacon, then a potato gem (not sure what Americans call them, but its a little half inch or so hash brown nugget basically) with a toothpick, and served me them with barbeque sauce to dip. I think I ate about 25 of them in as many seconds. Delicious!!! We should all eat more food on toothpicks.