Well, we're done with all our Thanksgiving cooking, and we've cleaned out all the leftovers. Our Christmas tree is trimmed. We've hauled out the holly and decked the halls.
In short, we're in full-tilt holiday mode around here.
Which is why we thought these pancakes sounded so delicious. Hearty cornmeal hotcakes warmed by the comforting taste of cinnamon seemed like the perfect, homey indulgence on a gray wintry morning.
We wanted these pancakes to be really special. Unfortunately, we got a big ol' plate of "meh."
The biggest disappointment here was that we couldn't taste the polenta at all -- the cornmeal seemed to add absolutely nothing to these pancakes. Maybe if we'd used a coarse-ground meal, we would have tasted more of a difference. But we simply couldn't discern anything distinctive about the cornmeal.
And the cinnamon, unfortunately, also turned out to be something of a bust. We envisioned pancakes subtly infused with the taste of cinnamon -- the spirit of the holidays on a plate!
But the final product just tasted like regular pancakes inelegantly covered in cinnamon shavings. It was a lot less tasty than we'd expected.
So color us disappointed. Maybe our expectations were too high. Maybe our hopes were blinded by the Christmas spirit. But these cinnamon polenta pancakes were just nothing special.
So these pancakes didn't do much in the way of holiday cheer. Perhaps it's time to break out the egg nog.
Cinnamon Polenta Pancakes
Food & Wine (December 2009)
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(This photo: Food & Wine)
• TOTAL TIME: 30 MIN
• SERVINGS: 4
Ingredients
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cornmeal
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup low-fat buttermilk
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup water
Directions
1. In a bowl, whisk the flour with the cornmeal, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a bowl, whisk the buttermilk with the eggs, olive oil and water. Whisk the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, leaving small lumps.
2. Set a griddle or skillet over moderate high heat and spray it with vegetable oil spray. When the pan is hot, spoon in 1/4-cup mounds of batter and spread to form 4-inch rounds. Cook the pancakes until the bottoms are browned and bubbles appear on the surface, 2 minutes. Flip and cook until browned on the bottom, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Serve the pancakes warm.
