Peanut Butter Pancakes

Did ya ever think that you could substitute something for maple syrup that would be just as good? This summer I was taking care of my granddaughter and she wanted pancakes.

This turned into a delightful fun time together. We mixed up the batter and then heated up the grill and turned out some failures. They were kind of like soggy in the middle and brown on the sides. Then we made some that stuck to the pan. We couldn't turn them over.

Finally we used some non-stick spray and that seemed to work, but I think the pan was too hot and the result was two or three messes that stuck to the pancake turner.

We were trying to get that perfect pancake. You know the ones with ears and are golden brown? After trying several times, it looked like we would fail. I decided that maybe we needed a lower heat, so I turned down the heat and it seemed to work. I must have had the heat too high, it has the effect of cooking the outside rapidly and if you have thick batter, it leaves the inside raw. There is no way raw pancake batter tastes anything like something you would add to your regular list of favorite foods.

A few more adjustments to the heat and we finally settled on a medium high setting that seemed to be just right and we began to put out some pretty decent cakes. They were golden brown and flipped nicely and cooked fast but not too fast. We learned a little about patience, cuz if you keep peaking, it pokes holes in the pancake and makes the batter run through and then your pancake looks wrong.

After we mastered the art of cooking the pancakes, we sat at the table and decided to dig in. My granddaughter wanted to have some syrup on her pancakes. Oh no! There was no syrup to be had.

What should we do? I suggested that we put honey on them. "No," she said. "That would be too sweet."

"How about jelly," I ask.

"No, that doesn't sound right," she says.

I point out to her that we don't have that many options and that we need to come up with some idea because I sure wasn't going to go to the store.

Then it occurred to me that maybe we could put peanut butter on the pancakes. I suggested it to my granddaughter and she liked the idea. But she pointed out to me that it would not be very melty.

At this point I got a great idea. I decided that I would just heat the peanut butter and then we could pour it on. I put about 1/2 cup of peanut butter in the pan and started heating it on low heat. It began to melt and when it was completely melted and heated through, I tasted it. It had a great flavor, but it was just peanut butter and it needed to be sweetened some.

I suggested to my granddaughter that we add some jelly or jam to it and she thought that was a good idea. We had some seedless blackberry jam and we added about a half cup to the melted peanut butter and we heated it on low heat until it mixed with the peanut butter.

We then poured it over the pancakes. Oh man was it ever good. My granddaughter loved it. She said it was the best pancakes she ever had. I heard her telling her grandmother that she wanted to show her how to do it.