Pancake Bread Is Pretty Much Self-Made
My best breakfast days are right after the grocery store when the fridge has everything I need. This is soon followed by awkward days before my next store, where I eat Frankenstein along with random finds in the closet. It was on such an awkward day that I discovered pancake bread.
I wanted breakfast toast, but all I had was a box of instant pancake mix that you can just add water to . Sure, I could make a pancake sandwich for breakfast , but I didn’t want to stand at the stove flipping discs for 25 minutes. Pour the batter into a loaf pan and let it cook on its own for 25 minutes seemed like a much better option. (Necessity is supposed to be the mother of ingenuity, but I think laziness deserves respect too.)
Pancake fans, you will love this bread. It has a concentrated, malty, pancake flavor with a biscuit texture that shakes the toast with one hand and the cake with the other. The only thing you need to adjust is the amount of liquid in the dough. Medium pancake batter is thin. It forms an attractive round shape in the pan while the baking powder creates many large holes resulting in a nice spongy texture. Unfortunately, this batter is too weak to hold the shape of a loaf and will most likely collapse in the center. To make it firmer, simply reduce the amount of water by almost half to get a consistency close to airy cake batter, but not as thick as muffin batter.
Grease a loaf tin and line the bottom and both sides with parchment paper. Be sure to preheat your oven to 400°F before you start kneading because the dough will be ready in just a moment. Whisk dry ingredients with water. The consistency should be thick enough to leave a mark for a few seconds when you scratch the bottom with a rubber spatula, but not so hard that it will stand up. Pour it into a bread pan and bake. I used two cups of boxed dry buttermilk pancake mix and three-quarters of a cup of cold water. This dough was enough for a loaf of medium height four by seven inches. For a taller loaf, double the measurements and add twenty minutes to the bake time.
When it’s done, it will rise well and be lightly browned on the top and sides. The loaf should spring back when you lightly press down on the center. My loaf also had an attractive crack at the top when it was ready. Slice it up and use like any other bread. The exposed interior crumble makes it perfect for eating with eggs and sausage sauce, or you can french toast and soak a few slices in sweet egg custard before pan frying. I liked to spread a couple of boards with soft salted butter and simple homemade compote .
Pancake Bread Boxed
Ingredients:
- 2 cups ready-made pancake mix in boxes
- ¾ cup cold water
Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a bread pan with butter and line with parchment paper.
Whisk dry mixture and water together in a medium bowl. Pour the batter into the prepared bread pan. Bake in the oven at 400°F for 25 minutes or until the top is browned and the loaf springs back when pressed lightly in the center.