You Don’t Want To Make These Oatmeal Pancakes

March 15, 2013 | By | COMMENTS

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Look, I’m going to level with you. These are pretty pictures I took last weekend, on a Sunday morning, after I’d made coffee for myself and read the Sunday New York Times and decided I wanted some breakfast. In the refrigerator, I had leftover English Porridge from April Bloomfield’s cookbook, with its great salty sweet kick. Instead of heating it back up, I thought: “What if I turn it into pancakes? Oatmeal pancakes?” Seemed reasonable enough.

Here’s the oatmeal, cold out of the fridge:

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I didn’t really follow a recipe; I just whisked in two eggs:

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Then added about a cup of flour, some salt, and some baking powder:

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Here’s what my oatmeal pancake batter looked like:

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It was wet but I figured “pancake batter is normally wet” so I didn’t worry about that. Then I heated some butter in a non-stick skillet and got busy. I scooped the batter into the hot butter with an ice cream scoop:

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I flattened the pancakes with a rubber spatula and flipped them after a few minutes:

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They look pretty, right? I acknowledge that. As Craig’s mom would say, I got “a good do on them.”

Here they are on a plate, topped with lots of good maple syrup:

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You would think this post has a triumphant ending: “I improvised oatmeal pancakes and they came out better than if I’d followed a recipe!”

Instead, though, here’s what happened: I cut into a pancake and the inside was chunky, mushy oatmeal gunk. Like, it didn’t become a solid pancake, it was like a mushy oatmeal-filled pancake.

Which, actually, didn’t taste half bad. Maybe if I advertised them as “oatmeal-filled pancakes” I could rave about them. But who wants an oatmeal-filled pancake? No one I know.

Still, I ate them and enjoyed them. But I wouldn’t make them again. And you probably don’t want to make them either.

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Categories: Essays

  • http://twitter.com/EllenScordato Ellen Scordato

    i would so eat those. i love oatmeal in every way. my husband looks askance as i reheat yesterday’s oatmeal in the a.m., adding a little more water, a little spice…a pancake after my own heart.

  • http://twitter.com/fsutrill Cheryl in France

    I LOVE LOVE LOVE that you post things that don’t turn out! It gives me hope…
    :-)

  • Caroline

    Have you tried the oatmeal pancakes from Orangette? That might be my favorite pancake recipe ever!

  • Stephanie

    You are wrong!!! I would want to make these and I totally think my kids and I will make them this weekend. I love oatmeal and am constantly looking for new ways to make it. One can only eat so much porridge.

  • http://www.veritymom.com Danielle Gahl

    I can never get the ‘oh, I just made this up’ to work. I am *shocked* and deeply comforted that it happened to you, even if it was just this once. You rock my world!

  • http://twitter.com/QuipsTravails Michele Hays

    I do them slightly differently – Elvis-oatmeal-style. Banana, peanut butter, oatmeal and a little milk – no flour (preferably fried in bacon grease) and light sprinkle of vanilla sugar on top (no syrup needed.) They are to oatmeal what colcannon croquettes are to mashed potatoes.

  • Katie Rose

    I love that you still posted about this. It’s comforting to know that even great food bloggers can still have duds. Although, oatmeal-filled pancakes sound good!

  • http://www.facebook.com/marge003 Margie Jackson

    that’s what happens with all my gluten free pancakes. I am struggling. I think, primarily because I am using egg replacers. Tried another recipe today and just made me want to throw everything in the kitchen.

  • Ben

    I make gluten free pancakes with GF Bisquick. Cheating, I suppose, but they come out great. And it may be the egg replacer for you. Unfortunately, I don’t have any help there. I usually use real egg whites.

  • John

    Adam, you didn’t make pancakes you made oatmeal fritters! There, now don’t they taste better?

    Actually, I think you should have skipped the eggs and just added the flour and baking powder along with some water or milk to make a thinner batter that would spread out like a pancake.

  • Lynn

    LOL

  • http://www.facebook.com/cath.fiefia Cath Fiefia

    You need to be an old Scot – they made iats once a week and kept the rest in a special drawer to fry up through the week. I suppose that is why they are iften surly!

  • Tom

    I once made pancakes like these from a very well know NYT columnist, still there, and they were about the same as these. I didn’t really care for them either. Ha!

  • laura

    i had a similar failure last week.

  • http://www.facebook.com/melissa.doucette Melissa Doucette

    Try them as waffles – they’ll cook all the way through that way. I love oatmeal waffles! :)

  • Krissy

    Agreed! They are buttery and divine!

  • http://twitter.com/BrainWines BrainWines

    Fantastic that you posted this. I’m now a big fan. Just like in the sciences, far too few people have the stones to publish “negative” results. Failures in cooking and science can certainly teach just as much, or even more, than when things go swimmingly. Bravo for posting.

  • TexAnne in Austin, Tx

    I tried to make oatmeal pancakes w/Irish steel cut oats. Don’t bother, they taste good but they just didn’t work. However, if you add 1/2 cup quick oats into your favorite recipe even (gasp) a packaged mix…YUMMY! Plop a fruit compote on top and DOUBLE YUM! P.S. Thanks for the complete disclosure.

  • http://wee-eats.com/ natalie @ wee eats

    Haha, like “cornmeal mush” at bob evans but “oatmeal mush” instead. I would probably eat and enjoy your oatmeal-filled pancakes, but that’s always a bummer when you don’t get the finished product that you’re hoping for :

  • Vanessa

    This post made me unusually curious, so I actually made these this morning to recover from a birthday cake hangover. They were not half bad! Since I didn’t have leftover porridge, I made an instant ginger and cranberry oatmeal packet and let it cool. This might be the reason why they were not too mushy. I wouldn’t call them my new favorite breakfast but it was interesting to follow your experiment :)

  • Jodi Pritchard

    I have a really old Bon Appetit recipe for buttermilk-oatmeal blackberry pancakes; you soak the oats overnight, then add the rest of the ingredients. They are so good, and now I must make them soon!

  • Mike

    I agree and that’s great when bloggers can be humble when they make a mistake

  • http://www.facebook.com/alexandra.sauer.963 Alexandra Sauer

    Is this a clever use of reverse psychology? You’re telling me not to, but all I want to do now is make oatmeal-filled pancakes…

  • Brigham

    Two words that should never go together: “leftover” and “oatmeal.” If you don’t eat it when you make it, feed it to the goat or put it in the compost. It’s not that precious.