Of the many seminal VHS’s that held up the busted bookshelves of the share houses of my life—titles that arched nostalgically to the Friday nights of childhood—there were a handful that were considered ‘all-time’, rarely denied an enthusiastic screening.
Up there with ‘Goonies’ and pretty much anything John Hughes ever made, ‘Uncle Buck’ secured a lofty position on the VHS pedestal. In various states of consciousness, housemates and I throughout the years would cherish this parable of oaf-come-good, wishing each time that we had someone in the house that could flip up a batch of snow-shovel-sized, cardiac arrest pancakes just like John Candy could.
One night, jonesin’ for a fix, eight of us piled into our mate, Sheep’s Fairmont sedan for an ill-gotten road pilgrimage to ‘Smorgy’s All You Can Eat’ in Heidelberg, where we consumed everything but the fake lobster and gorged on pikelets, classily loading up a plastic bags’ worth for the ride home, and another for a supplemental stash of green and red jelly.
The perfect pancake seemed elusive back then, mystifying in hindsight given how easy they are to cook. You just need a little milk, some flour, a pan and a few other run-of-the-mill kitchen bits.
A few weeks into our Berlin move, Hon and I suffered intense pancake cravings. We set out to procure the necessary bits to whip up some Uncle Buck specials. It was an obstinate crash course in cross-cultural ingredient decoding. Turns out flour is ‘weizenmiel’, and baking powder means ‘backpulver’.
Loot finally acquired, we went about mastering and tweaking our measurements, sometimes unashamedly twice a day.
For your sweet-toothed pleasure, we now proudly unveil: the ultimate pancake stack. They may not be as rotund as Buck Russell’s floury behemoths, but they’re light, fluffy and guaranteed to get you shaking and slidin’ it Candy-style to early 50s rock n roll all over your kitchen floor.
An sh.k stack. The best way to end, and indeed start, the day.
- PANCAKE MIX:
- 1 Cup flour
- 1 Cup buttermilk (see notes)
- 1 Half teaspoon baking powder
- 1 Tbls white sugar
- 1 Tbls vegetable oil
- 1 Egg
- Butter (for frying)
- TOPPINGS:
- Lemon/Sugar
- Maple Syrup/Berries/Icing Sugar
- Put anything you want on the stack—bacon, whipped cream, melted chocolate, cinnamon, whole sausages. What would Buck Russell do?
- Preheat the oven to its lowest setting.
- Mix all the ingredients for the pancake mixture in a large bowl and whisk until smooth, by hand or with an electric mixer.
- Heat a frying pan on medium high. Once hot, add a small amount of butter and wait for it to sizzle. Pour mixture in(smaller the diameter, the bigger the stack). Cook until bubbles appear on the surface, and then flip them.
- Pile them on a plate in the oven to keep them warm.
- Prepare toppings.
- Stack ‘em high.
- Cook again for dessert.
- Makes 6 pancakes (double/triple the mix for a more epic stack!)
For a superior stack, buttermilk ensures maximum elevation and fluffiness. No buttermilk? No problem. Regular milk will do just fine.
You might also like
After years of living in gritty share houses—some wonderful, some pitiful—Honor Kennedy and Cam Hassard met each other in one.
Now living together in a Berlin apartment, they reflect on the gritty traditions of their sharehouse past, an homage to all the good bits of shared life—the camaraderie, the community, the meals and the wine.
Leave A Reply