Popeye Pancakes!

Grandma Weeks makes a very popular dish called Pop-Up pancakes, which was commonly misunderstood by her grandchildren as “Popeye Pancakes.” I just love them, and I love the simplicity of her recipe: 6 eggs, 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk. Seriously, that’s it. I will add some vanilla sugar because we don’t eat them with maple syrup. Baked in a medium-hot oven, the cake puffs dramatically after about 12 – 15 minutes. It’s crazy! It slightly de-puffs after you take it out. And it’s oh-so-yummy!

The first pancake went crazy. This was baked at 225 C (maybe 400 F?). The oven fan was not on. I think it was in there about 20 minutes. It’s huge!

The first pancake is already falling, only moments out of the oven. It just sort of deflates.

Final deflation of the first pancake. It still looks good!

C likes the pop-up pancake, even deflated.

I got a little impatient with the second pancake. So I turned on the oven fan about 7 minutes into the cooking time, and it started to puff almost immediately. This picture was taken at about 12 minutes. Not as crazy as the first, but respectably puffed.

Ok, this is a 50 meg movie of a pancake deflating. You don’t really have to download it and watch it. But it is strangely mesmerizing…

The second pancake is done deflating.

One of the workmen left this wrench-thing in the kitchen months and months ago. It’s been bumping around the counters (and I know I’ve washed it a few times), but C just found it today. He decided it was the perfect implement to eat the pop-up pancake with.