Schanck Family Tollhouse Pancakes

Who says you can't have cookies for breakfast?

When I grew up, my sister Emily turned me on the the concept of M&M pancakes. It seemed that the only time we were allowed to have them when one of her friends would spend the night.

As a parent, I was sure to introduce these to my kids right from the start.  For us, Saturday morning is pancakes.  And since pancakes are a pretty simple endeavor, I wanted to learn to make them from scratch.  Armed with my wife's Better Homes New Cook Book, I learned pretty much the standard for pancakes.  Sometimes, if we were out of M&M's, we would use chocolate chips instead.  Other times we experimented with Reece's Pieces, butterscotch chips, or peanut butter chips.

And then this idea came to me...I bet there is a recipe somewhere for Toll House Pancakes.  I Googled around and could come up with nothing.   So I thought, how do I make a real recipe for these?  I basically wanted to have Toll House cookies for breakfast, but how was I going to get away with it?  So I looked at the Toll House cookie recipe, and then I looked at the Better Homes pancake recipe...hmm.  What if?

To make a long story short, I merged these recipes back and forth until I came up with a great recipe incorporating the flavors of the Tollhouse cookie recipe with the basic chemistry of the pancake recipe.  Now, whenever one of our kids has a friend over to spend the night, they are introduced to the Schanck Family Tollhouse Pancake Recipe.

Here is a comparison of the original recipes:

Nestle Toll House Cookies           BH&G Pancakes

2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour              1 cup all-purpose flour

1 Tsp baking soda                         2 Tsp baking powder

¾ cup granulated sugar                1 Tbsp granulated sugar

¾ cup packed brown sugar         

1 Tsp salt                                      ¼ Tsp salt

2 large eggs                                  1 egg

1 cup butter                                   1 cup milk

1 Tsp vanilla extract                      2 Tbsp cooking oil

Thus, the experimentation began.  The main differences were in the leavening agent (baking soda vs. baking powder), the fat (butter vs. milk and oil), the flavoring (vanilla), and then pure quantities of everything.

Since I was essentially making a pancake recipe, I used the BH&G one as my baseline and reached into the Toll House recipe for adaptation.  My kids and wife were the testers.  After months of going back and forth, I ended up with this recipe.  Once you have seen both recipes, it does not look so impressive, but it was the tinkering that made us find the right mix.  I even tried different kinds of flours..like high-gluten to see what would happen.  Since our family is moving towards whole foods, I was trying to improve the basic ingredients as well.  The beauty of this is that it divides the recipe into dry and wet ingredients, so that you can divide the responsibility of the kids helping.  (In our family, the wet ingredients are cooler, because you can crack eggs.)

Schanck Family Tollhouse Pancakes

Ingredients:

Dry
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
4 Tbsp light brown sugar
4 Tsp baking powder
1/2 Tsp teaspoons salt

Wet
2 egg yolks (beaten)
2 cups milk
4 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (not imitation)

Secret
2 egg whites
1/4 Tsp Cream of Tartar
Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Morsels

Other Ingredients for table:
Salted Butter (room temperature is best)
Syrup

Instructions:

Preheat skillet to 325 degrees.  (If you are making a larger batch, or are not serving the pancakes immediately, preheat oven to 150 degrees and place oven safe plate in oven.)

Separate eggs.  (It is ideal to let egg whites stand at room temperature for 30 minutes so that they will beat up higher and faster than cold egg whites.)

In a mixing bowl, mix all dry ingredients (EXCEPT Cream of Tartar and chocolate chips).

In a different mixing bowl, mix egg yolks, milk, oil, and vanilla.

In yet another bowl, beat egg whites until foamy.  Add cream of tartar.   Beat until stiff peaks.

Fold egg white mixture into wet bowl.

Add wet to dry, all at once.

Stir slowly till blended, but not too much...lumpy is ok.  Let batter sit for a few minutes to absorb moisture.

Using 1/3 cup measure, scoop batter and pour onto hot, oiled skillet (I use Pam Canola on an electric skillet).


Hand place morsels into pancakes.  (We put between 7 and 10 on each pancake...depending on who gets this job.  (Faces and words are better.)


Almost ready to flip...wait...wait...wait...OK, FLIP!

When craters form, flip.

When second side is light brown, remove from skillet.

Place on warmed plate in oven until ready to serve.

Serve with (room temperature) butter and syrup.

Now, smile.

I dare you to try this for three weeks in a row in your family.  I bet you will find that you have created an untouchable family tradition.    If I dare make something different on a Saturday morning...well, you can guess what would happen...

Napoletano Pizza Dough (DOC designation*)

Several weeks ago my group, the Amateur Breadbaking Guild, took a field trip to a very special Italian restaurant in Virginia Beach to learn from the master how he prepares and cooks his pizza.  I have been to the restaurant (which will go unnamed) many times and have had lots of conversations about how they make their sauce and their dough.  As a budding breadmaker, I asked if he would mind teaching us his secret.  The owner and his wife were very gracious and very open to having our whole entourage participate (4 of us).

*This pizza would fall under the category of Napoletano pizza dough and would carry the DOC designation.  DOC stands for Demoninazione di Origine Controllata, which is an Italian governmental system that regulates the standards for Italian foods and beverages.  In this case it means that the dough adheres to the strict guidelines established by the Associazione della Vera Pizza Napoletana.  That's a lot of words that basically mean that the dough cannot contain sugar or oil.

Now you might find this strange, but sugar and oil are no-no's to authentic Italians.  I happened to have known this before, only because I asked if the owner used sugar in his dough...big mistake.  Lets just say he was gracious and allowed me to finish my meal.  Nevertheless, I warned the rest of the posse in Amateur Breadbaking Guild before we visited.

This simple dough makes a nice, thin crusted pizza with a good crunch to the bottom and a bite to the crust.  You will be proud to serve this to your guests/family.  Angelo cooks his pizza at 550 degrees for 3-4 minutes.  When you calculate the costs of this AND the quality of making this, you will consider never going out for pizza again.

Napoletano Pizza Dough Recipe

Makes five 10" Pizzas

28 oz High Gluten Flour (always weigh)
19 oz Cold Water
1 Tbsp Salt (Kosher)
1 Tsp Instant Yeast

Dry Ingredients

• Using the paddle attachment, on low, mix the flour and the salt together in your mixer.  I just let it keep running while I work on the wet ingredients.

Wet Ingredients

• Pour the yeast into the water and whisk until completely blended.

Pour the Wet Ingredients into the mixer, while it is running.  When it is completely incorporated (meaning that it is ALL stuck to the paddle), turn off your mixer, wet your hands under a faucet, and remove the dough from the paddle and put back into the bowl.  Replace the paddle with the dough hook and mix on low or medium low for 15 minutes.

How do you know whether its working?  First, after a minute or two, the dough should stick ONLY to the bottom of the bowl.   It kind of looks like a dough tornado.

If it is NOT sticking at all, add water, 1 tablespoon at at time (and 1 minute apart) until it looks like it will start sticking.  At first it will be all slimy on the outside, but after 30 seconds you should see the stick.

If it IS sticking to the sides AND the bottom, add flour, 1 heaping teaspoon at a time (and 1 minute apart) until it starts peeling from the sides.  At first it will be all dry and powdery on the outside, but after 30 seconds it will begin to get more absorbed.

After 15 minutes, turn the mixer off.  Cover your hands in flour and remove dough from hook and place on a generously floured surface.  Using a dough cutter, cut the dough into five 8-9 oz portions.

 As you weigh pieces, cut off smaller pieces to add or subract.  (As an aside, I covered my scale with some plastic wrap and dusted it with flour so that the scale did not become a stick mess.)

Pick up a dough ball and begin to knead it by turning the edges into the center.  Rotate and repeat until the outside of the dough ball is very smooth and the dusted flour is worked into the dough.  It is as if you are turning the dough inside out, over and over.

When the dough is ready, there should be a small seam on one side of the ball.  Place the ball, seam side down, on a part of your counter (no flour). Begin to roll it around your hands using the friction from the counter to push the dough underneath the ball towards the seam.  Make sure that the seam stays counter side down as you are doing this.  Basically, you are working the sides under the ball and into the seam, almost to the point where you can no longer see the seam.  (Angelo, can make the seam disappear...I could not.)

Heavily flour a container that you can fit all the balls into, or put them on a tray.  Make sure there is room for growth. (Please ignore my photo, because I took 2 of them out, and individually bagged them.)  Cover them and let them rise for about 3 hours.  Then, either freeze in ziplock bags (with more flour in them) or use.

They can be refrigerated for several days. 

One the day before you plan to use them, take them out of the freezer and place them in the fridge. 

On the day you plan to use them, pull them out of the fridge 3 hours to let them acclamate to room temperature and begin rising again.

Disclaimer:  What surprised me about this dough, was that my kids preferred this over all others that I have made.  I would have guessed that the sugar and the oil would have been welcome ingredients to their tastebuds.  However, my kids say now that they prefer homemade pizza to delivery, which to me is the greatest feeling.  When my daughter told a friend of hers (that was spending the night) that she likes her dad's pizza better than the local place, it was all worth it.  It is WAY less expensive and I enjoy making it.  I hope you, too, will have a similar story to tell one day.

Day 8- Finishing the Starter- Part 1

Well, the starter finally doubled.  Probably should have followed the directions more carefully the first time.  I would not be on Day 8 if that were the case.  Actually, I would prefer that directions are written with the simple-minded in mind...people just like me.  That is probably a discussion for another time though.

Back to the recipe.  It says to break the starter into 6 equal pieces.  The verb "break" is an interesting term for this, since it is very gummy and sticky.  I chose to flop it on to a cutting board and, using a wet knife, cut the blob into six pieces of random size.  (You have to keep wetting the knife, or you will wish that you had not used it.)

I transferred the six cutlets into a bowl.  Then, I added 1 pound of high gluten flour.  I had to look up how many ounces were in a pound since I could not remember and I use a digital scale.  Then, once I Googled it, and proceeded to weigh my flour. Just as I hit the 16 oz measurement, the scale went to pounds. Ahh.  Now I remember...

Then, I added 2 cups of room temperature water...which was supposed to be 70 degrees.  However, room temperature in my home is more like 80 degrees, which surprised me how cold the water felt at 70.

My Kitchen Aid mixer then went to town for a few minutes working the taffy into an interesting, sticky blend called a "thick sponge".  Then, I transferred this mess into the fridge for a 3-day hibernation.  Now, at this point, the starter can be used in dough.  It has to be reactivated just before it is used, though.  Basically, you add the flour/water mixture and the bacteria starts eating the sugars out and turning it into CO2...i.e. fluffiness.

Day 7- The Non Starter Starter

Ok, I have to admit that I had to go away for my 17th anniversary.  I was afraid to leave the starter out a total of 48 hours, and it had not risen one bit.  So I kind of punted.  I put the starter in the fridge overnight and pretended like a day had not gone by.

Then I pulled it out, let it reach room temperature.  Then mixed the flour water mixture in.

I learned something important, however, which frustrates me to no end.  Day 3 is supposed to be a repeat of Day 2, but here is how he words it...

Day 2-  Mix and knead until you have a ball about the same size as you had on the previous day.
Day 3- ...enough water to form a firm ball

Ok...my dough was never firm.  I added the exact amount of flour (I weigh instead of using volume because it can be so variable) and the exact amount of water and it was pretty gooey.  For 3 days!  Then I read again, and find the word "firm".  Its just like me.

At this point, I should probably start over, but I am going to give it a try.  I cut the dough in half and added the exact amount of flour and 1 tablespoon of water (instead of 3.)

Now, that is a firm ball.  I used more flour on the surface and kept my hands dusted with flour, because it was still very sticky.  But at least now I have a firm ball!

I pressed it back into its container and we will see what happens.