Make the Bread, Buy the Butter - Jennifer Reese [23]
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Butter, for the skillet
Maple syrup, for serving
1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
2. Beat in the egg, buttermilk, and melted butter. Stir until smooth.
3. In a large skillet, melt a chunk of butter over medium heat. Ladle ½-cupfuls of batter into the skillet and cook, watching closely and waiting until the bubbles burst on each pancake before flipping it. Add more butter to the skillet and proceed until all the pancakes are cooked. Or store the excess batter in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
4. Serve with maple syrup.
Makes about 10 pancakes
BUTTERMILK
If you enjoy a big, creamy glass of buttermilk sprinkled with salt, as my grandmother does, you’re very strange and you should definitely buy fresh buttermilk in a carton. You should also buy fresh buttermilk if you’re making buttermilk soup or a Southern buttermilk pie—or anything that relies heavily on buttermilk’s unique satiny-rich-sour personality. But for biscuits or pancakes, you can improvise buttermilk by souring ordinary milk: mix a tablespoon of vinegar (distilled white or cider) in a cup of milk, and let it sit for a minute to sour. Another alternative is to buy powdered buttermilk: dilute about 2 tablespoons of the powder in a cup of water and mix well. The beauty of powdered buttermilk is that it doesn’t go bad. Although if you make the mistake of tasting it freshly mixed, you might argue that it already is. Don’t drink it; just bake with it.
Make it or buy it? Make it.
Hassle: Easy
Cost comparison: A quart of store-bought buttermilk costs about $2.50. A quart made with powder: $0.94. A quart of soured milk: $0.90.
WAFFLES
A staple of the motel complimentary breakfast buffet, Eggos—or more likely a cheap knockoff—are about as special as the nondairy creamer tublets sweating in the bowl of melted ice. This recipe makes a thin, crispy, and tangy waffle. It’s a variation on the raised waffles from The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham.
Make it or buy it? Make it.
Hassle: This is a bowl, a beater, and 3 minutes more time than some people, like my husband, are up for. Plus, you have to remember to mix the batter 12 hours ahead.
Cost comparison: These cost about $0.18 per ounce to make. Eggo: $0.31 per ounce.
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon kosher salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2 cups warm milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, separated
½ teaspoon baking soda
Neutral vegetable oil, for greasing the waffle iron
1. The night before you plan to eat the waffles, in a large bowl beat together all the ingredients except the eggs and baking soda. Cover and let sit at room temperature overnight.
2. In the morning, whisk the egg yolks and soda into the batter, which will look puffy, crusty, and tired, but quickly revives. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold them into the batter.
3. Cook the waffles on a lightly greased iron. Re-grease between batches. Leftover batter keeps for 3 days in the refrigerator.
Makes 8 to 10 waffles
EGGS BENEDICT
Eggs Benedict are fairly easy to make at home, and if you’ve read Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, home is the only place you’ll ever want to eat them. Bourdain writes: “Nobody I know has ever made hollandaise to order. Most likely, the stuff on your eggs was made hours ago and held on station. Equally disturbing is the likelihood that the butter used in the hollandaise is melted table butter, heated, clarified, and strained to get out all the bread crumbs and cigarette butts.”
Make it or buy it? Make it.
Hassle: These take less time to pull together than waiting in line for brunch, but they’re definitely a hassle.
Cost comparison: Hard to calculate. Restaurants typically throw in extras, like wedges of orange or a parsley sprig. Plus they wash the dishes