While watching rerun episodes of Man vs. Food on the Travel Channel, Adam Richman was at The Buff Restaurant of Boulder, Colorado. One of their specialty items was a breakfast called "Saddlebag Pancakes". Two giant pancakes, one with sausage, one with bacon; big deal you say? The meat was inside the pancakes, not on the side; every forkful was a mixture of meat and pancake without having to root around on the plate.
Not being able to travel to Boulder to try the place out, I decided to make my own. The first thing I had to decide was what type of
pancake to use, so I let my hubby choose and he wanted honey wheat. While the restaurant braised their eggs, I did a simple over easy; mixed with the maple syrup, the egg yolks helped to create this rich, indulgent syrup for the meaty pancakes.
I used thick cut bacon and cooked it up till just crisp; I wanted a little remaining fat for when it was cooking up in the pancake batter. Also, they would crumble up into small pieces if too crisp, but require being cut into bite sized ones. The sausages, however, were not the typical breakfast links you find in the supermarket. Instead I used an all pork, fresh sausage without the additional seasonings you would find in breakfast sausage. I love this type as it cooks up in the pan bubbling, squeaking and hopping around; the flavor is awesome and fun to watch, and listen to, cooking. Reminded me so much of making the English dish "Bubble and Squeak", but that's for another blog post. I used an angle cut for the sausages for more surface texture. For the six inch pancakes, I used 3 strips of bacon or 3 sausage links; but if you want both meats in your pancakes, then I would suggest just using 2 of each.
So lets get started, first I'll give you my recipe for the Honey Wheat Pancakes and then the construction of the actual Saddlebags.
Honey Wheat Pancakes
Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 ½ cups old fashioned oatmeal (ground to flour or use oat flour)
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
2 ½ cups buttermilk
2 tsp canola oil
1 egg
2 egg whites
2 Tbsp honey
Preparation:
In a large mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl, whisk together all wet ingredients; slowly add to dry ingredient bowl, mixing together as added. Do not over mix batter; let rest 10 minutes while griddle (stove top or electric) heats up.
Lightly oil griddle before each batch if using nonstick appliance.
Use a regular ladle (1 ½ ladles per pancake) to portion out batter; using bottom of ladle to smooth out batter to a 6 inch circle. Each pancake will take 2-4 minutes per side depending on type of griddle used.
Makes 8 pancakes.
The construction of the Saddlebags begins once the griddle is ready for the batter. Remember to have your bacon and sausage cut up and ready to go. First get the batter on the griddle for two pancakes.
Add bacon pieces to one pancake, sausage to the other. Depending on how your griddle browns up pancakes, you'll know when to flip them over. Once flipped, leave them alone and just let the batter brown up as usual. Remove to a plate once done.
It was that easy; now have your eggs going at the same time, so everything will be pipping hot. Maple syrup goes best with these beauties, and eat enough of these saddlebags, you'll develop your own.
Mary Cokenour
