I have been intrigued by the recipe for "Lacy Panty Cakes" ever since I got a copy of Baked Elements -- the whimsical name captured my imagination. Apparently the name captivated Renato Poliafito as well, because the recipe became "imprinted, ever so delicately, phantomlike, on his subconscious" after he found the original version in a 1950s cookbook. Matt and Renato say the recipe is supposed to produce a pancake-like treat that texturally resembles the lace in lace panties, but the idea was still difficult for me to conceptualize.
The recipe appears in the "Booze" chapter of the book because the Baked boys adapted the recipe by adding whiskey to the batter and a whiskey sauce accompaniment. The sauce is quite easy -- you cook brown sugar and butter on the stove until the sugar is dissolved, add whiskey and cook, and add cream and cook some more. The sauce bubbled furiously after I added the whiskey, which I thought was a good thing -- I am not a fan of booze in general, and I was hoping that all of the alcohol would be cooked off. It was. The resulting sauce was an intense smokey and complex caramel that didn't taste alcoholic at all.
The batter for the lacy panty cakes is a snap to make. You sift together flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, stir in graham cracker crumbs, and incorporate beaten eggs, sour cream, and whiskey. You drop the batter (I used a #20 scoop) into a hot pan with melted butter and cook on both sides. It took me a bit of experimenting to find the right cooking time and temperature to get nice looking pancakes. I found that cooking them slower at a lower heat was the way to go. While this definitely took a bit more time, I kept the finished pancakes warm in the oven as I went along, the they held up beautifully until I was able to cook the entire batch.
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I can see where the "lacy panty" name comes from, because the surface of the pancakes browned in a weblike pattern that resembled lace. I served the pancakes dusted with powdered sugar and drizzled with the whiskey sauce, along with some bananas and blueberries.
The lacy panty cakes were moist and tender and they are probably the most delicious pancakes I've ever had. The graham cracker crumbs added a terrific depth of flavor, although not much in the way of texture; I made my crumbs in the food processor, so they were extremely fine. The lacy browned parts of the pancakes -- as well as the edges -- were wonderfully crisp and almost caramelized. The whiskey sauce is the bomb, and I could not get enough of it with the pancakes (I also took Matt and Renato's suggestion to eat some of the leftover sauce with ice cream, and that was incredibly delicious as well). I couldn't taste any whiskey in the pancakes, which was a plus in my book.
I hardly ever make pancakes or order them in a restaurant, because I've always thought of them as pretty boring -- like a waffle, but without the nice crisp crust. I never knew that pancakes could be this good. Lacy Panty Cakes are truly a revelation!
Recipe: "Lacy Panty Cakes" from Baked Elements: Our Top 10 Favorite Ingredients, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.
The recipe appears in the "Booze" chapter of the book because the Baked boys adapted the recipe by adding whiskey to the batter and a whiskey sauce accompaniment. The sauce is quite easy -- you cook brown sugar and butter on the stove until the sugar is dissolved, add whiskey and cook, and add cream and cook some more. The sauce bubbled furiously after I added the whiskey, which I thought was a good thing -- I am not a fan of booze in general, and I was hoping that all of the alcohol would be cooked off. It was. The resulting sauce was an intense smokey and complex caramel that didn't taste alcoholic at all.
The batter for the lacy panty cakes is a snap to make. You sift together flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, stir in graham cracker crumbs, and incorporate beaten eggs, sour cream, and whiskey. You drop the batter (I used a #20 scoop) into a hot pan with melted butter and cook on both sides. It took me a bit of experimenting to find the right cooking time and temperature to get nice looking pancakes. I found that cooking them slower at a lower heat was the way to go. While this definitely took a bit more time, I kept the finished pancakes warm in the oven as I went along, the they held up beautifully until I was able to cook the entire batch.
.JPG)
The lacy panty cakes were moist and tender and they are probably the most delicious pancakes I've ever had. The graham cracker crumbs added a terrific depth of flavor, although not much in the way of texture; I made my crumbs in the food processor, so they were extremely fine. The lacy browned parts of the pancakes -- as well as the edges -- were wonderfully crisp and almost caramelized. The whiskey sauce is the bomb, and I could not get enough of it with the pancakes (I also took Matt and Renato's suggestion to eat some of the leftover sauce with ice cream, and that was incredibly delicious as well). I couldn't taste any whiskey in the pancakes, which was a plus in my book.
I hardly ever make pancakes or order them in a restaurant, because I've always thought of them as pretty boring -- like a waffle, but without the nice crisp crust. I never knew that pancakes could be this good. Lacy Panty Cakes are truly a revelation!
Recipe: "Lacy Panty Cakes" from Baked Elements: Our Top 10 Favorite Ingredients, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.
Comments
Loved your post, your writing is great. Glad you liked the pancakes, yours do look awesome.