I have been seeing around the net the idea of pancakes with a twist. Instead of cooking them the conventional way they are cooked in muffin trays – so, I thought why not experiment and give it a try… I have not seen any detailed instructions on what to do (or NOT to do) just the concept so, this really was an experiment… And of course as with everything now days the joining of these two must result in an amalgamation of the names also… therefore I declare them to be hereafter known as puffins.
I decided for my first attempt to keep it as simple as possible and see what the outcome was – we would just use one of those shake pancake mixes where you just add the water and shake away… The “we” in this story is myself and my toddler – always the handy sous-chef.
So we got out various muffin trays to experiment what worked best. We used 3 different types of trays – regular muffin trays which make 6 muffins per tray, mini muffin tray which makes 12 muffins per tray and 2 ginger bread men shaped muffin trays. To add an extra twist we decided to throw some strawberries into 3 of the “regular” sized puffins.
We pre-heated the oven to 180degrees (fan forced) and greased the muffin trays then my sous-chef helped add the water and we danced whilst shake, shake, shaking that pancake mix… He then helped to pour the mixture into each of the trays. As I had no idea what would happen (if anything) and how long it might take to happen we sat in the kitchen and watched the oven which my assistant found very entertaining and exciting anyway!
We were very excited when the pancakes started to actually rise a bit and brown etc. The mini puffins were in about 15-20 mins but the regular sized puffins and the ginger bread ones took a bit longer due to their bigger size. I would say we left them in 25 mins.
The outcome? Well the mini puffins were great they cooked well and tasted great. The regular sized puffins even after the extra time were still “doughy” in the middle, the ginger bread men were in between the two! I would say the mini puffins were a success, the ginger bread puffins my son happily ate and the regular puffins well they unfortunately ended up in the bin.
I will definitely attempt these again… perhaps I should let the regular puffins cook a little longer or not put quite as much mixture into each of the holes? The mini puffins and the ginger bread puffins seemed to be the best option for us anyway – the ginger bread puffins was of course the novelty factor and the mini puffins well they were the perfect “bite size” little snack. Next time I think I will make the pancake mix from scratch as well!
We had ours with some maple syrup and cream and strawberry jam and cream. All in all it was a fun and easy snack to make with my toddler – we both had a lovely time and we all enjoyed eating them too!
Has anyone else tried this? What was the outcome / do you have any hints or tips? If you haven’t, give it a go and let us know the results!
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