Start The New Year Right with Hoppin' John Served Over Cornmeal Pancakes

Hoppin' John is a Southern dish traditionally served on New Year's Day.  It's made with black-eyed peas, onions, and bacon (sometimes ham or sausage) and typically served over rice with a side of greens and corn bread.  The black-eyed peas in Hoppin' John are supposed to make us think of coins (I've never seen a coin that looks remotely like a black-eyed pea, but I'll go with it), and are supposed to bring a prosperous new year.  The greens are said to add wealth, since they are the color of money (that makes sense) and the cornbread continues the theme appropriately by being the color of gold.

Gingerbread Cupcake Batter Pancakes

Gingerbread cupcakes were one of the very first cupcakes that I ever baked.  I got lucky and they were phenomenal (if my early cupcakes hadn't been tasty, who knows if this blog would have ever happened).  When my friend Brooke from Sucre Shop questioned whether you could make pancakes from cupcake batter (clearly I only choose brilliant people as my friends), I immediately thought of converting the gingerbread cupcakes to pancakes. 

To make the gingerbread cupcake batter pancakes, I kept the the basic batter as my gingerbread cupcakes, adjusted the proportions, and voila - cupcakes turned into pancakes!

Get more details and the recipe on Paula Deen's site where I am a regular contributor.  

Malted Milk Pancakes

I had a lot of leftover malted milk powder from my nougat and Milky Way cupcakes.  I could obviously use it to make malted milkshakes, but I found a recipe for pancakes with malted milk powder and I had to try it.  I've prepared many pancake recipes over the years.  As you might guess, I'm not the type to find one recipe that I like and stick with it.  These malted milk pancakes were among the best that I've sampled - not surprising since the recipe came from a very trusted (and regal) source, King Arthur Flour.

The malted milk pancakes had the obligatory fluffiness and were just the right amount of sweet so that the extra sugar from the pure maple syrup didn't give them the sugar content of birthday cake.  Despite the presence of the malted milk powder, I couldn't really taste malt in the end product (Jonathan says that he could taste it - perhaps he's a super-taster), but this didn't stop me from adding this recipe to the list of pancakes that I would make again - if I made things more than once.

Malted Milk Pancake Recipe

In a rare Cupcake Project move, I'm not going to reprint the recipe here.  I have nothing to add to the expert and photo-filled description of these pancakes on King Arthur Flour's site.  My only advice is to not wait until breakfast to make them and to ALWAYS use real maple syrup.

Pancake Recipe Using Blue Cornmeal and Orange - Different and Delicious

Pancake recipes have been high on my tasting list recently. I haven't been posting all of the pancake recipes I've tried because this isn't a pancake blog; it's a cupcake blog. Besides that, I'm not always up for a food photo shoot at breakfast time. However, this pancake recipe for blue cornmeal pancakes made the cut!

Why Did This Pancake Recipe Make It on Cupcake Project?

• I made this pancake recipe for Taste & Create, the monthly event where food bloggers get paired with other food bloggers to try each others' recipes.
• The pancake recipe was exceptional. Don't make this recipe expecting a smooth, light, and fluffy pancake. This recipe is for the pancake lover who appreciates a dense pancake with a textured inside and a sweet, complex flavor.
• Of course, I am going to use this pancake recipe as a cupcake inspiration. You can look forward to a blue cornmeal orange cupcake.

About the Pancake Recipe

My partner for this month's Taste & Create was Grace from A Southern Grace. This is actually the second time I've been paired with Grace. The first time I made her breakfast quinoa and subsequently made quinoa cupcakes. She's got all kinds of recipes on her blog, but I suppose I'm drawn to her breakfast ones. This time, I spotted her blue cornmeal pancakes and had to give them a try. Oddly enough, she got the recipe from Katie at One Little Corner of the World during a previous Taste & Create. Katie found the recipe in the cookbook "With a Measure of Grace: The Story and Recipes of a Small Town Restaurant". Was that a mouthful of pancakes, or what?

The Pancake Recipe and Cooking Notes


Makes 20 medium-sized pancakes. Cut the pancake recipe in in half or even quarter it if you are making them for just a couple of people, or make the whole thing and put some in the freezer for a lazy Sunday morning.

• 3 C flour
• 1 C sugar
• 1 T baking powder
• 1 t salt
• 1 C blue cornmeal (You can use regular yellow cornmeal if that's all you've got.)
  
• 4 eggs
• 3 C milk
• 1/2 C oil (Any vegetable oil will do. I used my favorite not-too-olivey baking olive oil - Jovia Groves' 2007 Arbequina, but any olive oil will do. You can order Jovia from Extra Virgin.)
  
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (I used 1/2 t vanilla extract and 1/2 t orange extract to give the pancakes an orange flavor. I highly recommend it! If you don't have orange extract, you could use some orange zest instead.)
  
• More oil for greasing griddle (I prefer to use butter to grease, but either would work.)
  

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cornmeal.
2. In another bowl, lightly mix eggs, milk, oil, and extracts.
   
3. Add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients and combine well.
4. Preheat griddle to medium-hot. A drop of water will dance over the griddle when it is ready. Grease by spreading 2 tbsp oil on it and spread around with a folded paper towel. Keep the towel around to use for the next batch of cakes. (I used a cast iron skillet since I don't own a griddle. I just dropped some butter on the skillet and swirled it around until the whole skillet was covered. I did not need to use a towel.)
   
5. Pour from a pitcher or use a ladle to make standard round cakes. Turn cakes when edges are set and small bubbles form and pop on the surface.
6. After a minute or so, peek underneath. If they look golden and pancake-like, turn out to a plate.
7. Eat right away or keep warm in the oven until you are ready to enjoy them!
   

What to Put on Your Pancakes

You can't go wrong with maple syrup on your pancakes (as long as you use the real stuff and not maple flavored crap). For an extra special treat, you might want to try making a homemade Grand Marnier syrup.