Pancake Soufflé (The Puffy Pancakes)

The other Sunday when Brian and I were making up our second batch of Spiced Pecan Waffles my brothers Garrett and Jeff were having breakfast with us. Garrett likes to cook too and he had seen a pancake soufflé made on an episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, and decided to whip one up. Gar likes to call it the puffy pancake because it's basically pancake batter with whipped egg whites. He took a basic pancake batter recipe, and added a few extras like vanilla and nutmeg, plus the beaten egg whites. The result was a heavenly, cloudlike pancake, with a toasty outside and soft center, topped off with fruit, powdered sugar and syrup.

Here's how you make it:
Recipe for 4 pancakes

Turn on broiler

separate 4 eggs
combine egg yokes with:
1 cup milk
4 Tablespoons melted butter
1/2 Teaspoon vanilla
1/4 Teaspoon nutmeg
Add:
1 cup flour, stir until just combined

Whip the 4 egg whites until peaks are stiff, but not dry. Gently fold into batter, do not over mix.


Melt a pad of butter in an 8 inch pan over medium heat. Once melted add 3/4 to 1 cup of batter.


Cook for about 2-3 minutes. At this point the batter will begin to set and you can add fruit. If you add fruit at the beginning it will fall to the bottom. Cook for a few more minutes until golden brown on the bottom and moves freely in the pan.


Transfer to broiler to brown the top and finish cooking, about a minute or so. (Keep an eye on it.)

Slide out onto a plate, garnish with powdered sugar and/or maple syrup.

I can't say enough good things about these delicious little babies! Garrett is sitting here with me as I write this and I'm pretty sure we'll be making them again tomorrow for Sunday breakfast.
[Update: We did make these again for breakfast today but we used my small cast iron skillets, about 7 inches. Garrett thought the cast iron cooked more evenly. They were smaller, so a better size, but just as delicious!]