Cornmeal & Bacon Flapjacks with Cranberry Syrup

This entire weekend conspired against me to make pancakes. I’m serious.

First, my best friend was visiting me from WI. She is nothing if not the pancake queen. They’re really the only food she knows how to, or enjoys, making. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, midnight snack. If I ask what she wants, the answer will be “pancakes.”

 

Second, we watched 50/50. I absolutely obsessed with the movie because of the storyline, characters, humor, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Umm, hello? Have we met?) and cannot stop watching it. The retired greyhound dog Skeletor also helps. He’s too cute.

Aaaaaanyways, back to pancakes. There’s a scene where Joseph Gordon Levitt’s character is hopped up on morophine and is delightfully unfiltered. When his love interest comes to visit he’s all cute, lying in the hospital bed, woozy and delirious and looks at her with this adorable expression as says “I wanna make you pancakes.”

That’s it. Just a simple desire to make the woman he cares for pancakes.

Lastly, I had leftover bacon sitting in the fridge. I’m normally not faced with this sort of dilemma, so I was determined to use it in a creative way.

With a little noodling and rooting around in my cabinets, I found some cornbread mix and figured out a plan. Cornmeal and Bacon Flapjacks. Yes. Perfectly tender, delightfully savory, and slightly unexpected. That was it. A quick syrup made with the last remnants of cranberry sauce offers a sweet and subtly tart balance, creating a perfect breakfast to linger over with coffee and friends.

Cornmeal & Bacon Flapjacks with Cranberry Syrup (recipe by Amanda)

1 package cornbread mix

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

3 TBSP sugar

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

2 TBSP unsalted butter, melted

2 large eggs

½ cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

¼ cup orange juice

3 pieces crispy bacon, finely chopped

1 batch cranberry syrup, recipe follows

Whisk together cornbread mix, flour, sugar, soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a separate bowl whisk together butter, eggs, milk, vanilla, and orange juice until well combined. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just moistened (some lumps are okay). Stir in bacon and set batter aside to rest for 10 minutes.

While batter rests, make the cranberry syrup.

Preheat griddle over medium heat and coat with butter. Using a ¼ cup measure pour batter onto preheated pan and cook until bubbles form over the surface of pancake, flip and continue cooking until pancake is cooked through. Repeat with remaining batter.

Serve with more butter and cranberry syrup.

Quick Cranberry Syrup

½ cup cranberry sauce

½ cup pure maple syrup

Big pinch salt

Combine ingredients in a small saucepan and put over high heat until boiling. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve warm.

I wonder if JGL would like these?