Halloween Stuff

I had a dinner party a couple of weeks ago and my friend Michelle brought over the best red velvet cake. She decorated it perfectly for Halloween. She used these gummy candies shaped like a scary goul-like mouth with teeth. It is really odd to eat one as you look down and are actually eating teeth!

My favorite candy for Halloween is candy corn. A friend of mine at work has helped me to rekindle my love for this candy. She buys bags of it and shares it with the office. What is it about this candy? To put it simply, it is just so pretty and it reminds me of being a kid (not to mention it is pure sugar). My favorite chocolate shop Boule makes the most beautiful candy corn. It looks more ridged and hand cut. I was curious about the history of candy corn and read this article.

A new world record was made, check out bigpumpkin.com for a picture of the world’s largest pumpkin. It weighed 1502 lbs!

Happy Halloween Everybody!
-Fer

Orange

Orange was the color at the farmer’s market this weekend. I did a little research into the color and found that the color orange is an appetite stimulant.

One of the fruits of fall, the persimmon’s orange skin is a signal of that the seasons are changing. I had actually never tried is a persimmon. Most of the world calls them “kaki”. We in the United States call them persimmons after the Algonquin Indian name for “Diospyros virginiana” which means “dry fruit”. The genus name, Diospyros means “food for the Gods”.

I found the fruit to be sweet and very fibrous. The softer the fruit is on the outside the sweeter it is on the inside. The fruit is meant to be peeled, sliced and then eaten like an apple. I found that the taste is close to an unripe pear. The persimmon is native to China and was brought to California in the mid 1880’s. Not all of the species of persimmons are edible to humans. The fruit of the persimmon can be eaten fresh or dried. I read about a Korean punch made from dried persimmons called “suiconggwa”. One traditional American dish would like to try making is Persimmon Pudding. A dessert that is the consicentancy of pumpkin pie but shaped like a brownie and usually served with whipped cream. I also found a recipe for Persimmon cookies. It is a whole new orange world! -Fer

My Favorite Chocolate Shop

Each month, Food Destinations issues a challenge for all bloggers from countries near and far to tell their thoughts on the best food in their hometown. This month's event is "My Favorite Chocolate Shop."

There is no doubt in my mind that my favorite chocolate shop is Boule. Pastry chef Michelle Myers makes the most incredible and delicious chocolate. She is an artist. I love chocolate so much I don’t really care what it looks like! But-Michelle Myers truly knows how to make art with her chocolate. The pieces are so beautiful. She creates such interesting flavors and combinations.

My favorite items include: chocolate covered toffee, Champagne truffles in dark chocolate and their hot Italian chocolate. The Italian hot chocolate is a must for every chocolate lover. Picture the most perfect warm chocolate in the consistency of cooked pudding. This chocolate shop also offers cakes, tarts, ice creams, sorbets and pastries. The shop is designed beautifully and the packaging of the chocolate is a gift in itself.

-Fer

Boule, 420 N. La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angleles, CA 90048, 310-289-9977
Monday through Saturday; 10:00 am - 7:00 pm
Sunday; 10:00 am - 5:00pm

Food Photo Friday!

Listen to:Hang On Little Tomato

A Good Cup O' Joe

I like to mix up my preparation of my morning coffee. I have a few coffee pots in which to choose: a regular drip, a vacuum pot (we call the “butt”), a french press and an espresso maker. With all of these different methods, you would think that I would have the best cup of coffee every morning. But-I don’t. Sometimes it is good, sometimes it is o.k. but honestly I never make a GREAT cup of coffee. This is something I long to do. I am in the process of trying many different bean roasts from local coffee roasters. A report is forthcoming. Since I am on this hunt for the best brewed home coffee, I found this article an interesting read: The new coffee connoisseur.

-Fer

German Apple Pancakes

Yes….It is another pancake recipe! What can I Say? I love pancakes!

European pancakes are usually made with some kind of fruit. A German pancake is made with apples. The German name for these pancakes is “Apfelpfannkuchen”. The traditional way to make this dish is to flip the pancake over in the pan while it is still on the cook top. The other common theme to European pancakes is that they are usually baked sometime during the cooking process. However-the German pancake is not usually baked. This recipe calls for you to pop the pancake in the oven at the end and allow you to finish the rest of your meal while it is baking. No flipping required.

5 Large eggs
2 Teaspoons vanilla
½ Cup plus 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
½ Cup All-purpose flour
1 Teaspoon Baking powder
1/8 Teaspoon Sea Salt
1-1/2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 Large Granny Smith apples-cut into thin wedges (I like the apples cut thin. When they are cut thicker the apples can be a little too overwhelming in the pancake.
1 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
Confectioner’s Sugar
Fresh Berries (Optional)

In a blender combine the eggs, vanilla and the ½ Cup granulated sugar and blend until combined, a few seconds or three or four pulses. Add the flour, baking powder and salt, mix until smooth, about 10 seconds more.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place a 10-inch ovenproof, non-stick frying pan over medium heat and add the butter. When the butter has foamed and the foam has subsided, add the apples and sauté, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 4-5 minutes. Sprinkle the apples with Cinnamon and the remaining 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar. Stir together and sauté until the apples are gazed and the edges are slightly translucent, about 2 minutes longer.

Spread the apples evenly in the frying pan and pour the batter slowly over the top, so that the sliced apples stay in place. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the bottom is firm, about 6-8 minutes. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook until the top of the pancake is firm, about 8-10 minutes longer.

Remove from oven, invert a flat serving plate over the frying pan, and hold the plate and the pan together to flip the pancake onto the plate. Be careful the pan has been in the oven and is very hot. Cut the pancake into wedges. Serve with hot syrup or fresh fruit. Or both! I like sprinkling powdered sugar on top.

Mincing Words

I have been using a lot of fresh herbs lately. I usually chop them all by hand and knew there had to be a better way to do this task. This mince tool and block have been on my "want" list. I finally picked one up. It works fast and cuts the herbs into nice pieces.

Bottled Water Taste Test

Last week I started my rant about my fascination with bottled water. We all have pre-conceived notions on how good or bad water might be based on how that water is sold and packaged. We wanted to strip all that away and just have the taste to compare.

The taste test was of 14 different bottled water varieties. There was water bottled in both glass and plastic. We were blind folded, given a glass in front of us and asked to give our observations to the “tester” as they wrote each of our observations down.

This is our results:

Out of the 14 brands that were tested this is what we liked best:
1. Penta
2. Fiji
3. Aquafina
4. Ice Age

Out of the 14 brands that were tested this is what we felt were the worst:
1. Evian (Plastic Bottle)
2. Volvic (Glass Bottle)
3. Liquid Salvation
4. Dassani

I was surprised to find I did not like Volvic in a glass bottle. This has long been a favorite. It is a special brand and difficult to find. It reminds me of my first trip to Paris. I remember arriving home and wanting to find this brand, as it would help me somehow relive my trip. I also found it extremely interesting that we liked Aquafina as one of our top picks. This is such a common brand and is sold everywhere.

Penta and Fiji were agreed to be the best for everyday drinking water. Aquafina was close behind them in our findings. Our comments about these waters: “wet”, “clean”, “Doesn’t taste like anything-except a pure wet water”. We also commented that Penta’s packaging was never appealing and boring. But-the taste won us over. Fiji was also one of those brands we never considered but now is one of our favorites.

Dassani was agreed to be the worst in our findings naming it: “metallic”, “thick”, “definite plastic taste”, “dirty” and “has a strong after taste”.

We also found it interesting that out of our top four picks none of them were in glass bottles. Glass to me has always said quality. I believe this is still true to some extent, but not in our findings above. I encourage you to buy 3 or 4 brands that you seem to be drawn to or enjoy and have your own taste test. You might surprise yourself!

Food Photo Friday!

Grocery Lists

How do you tally or keep track of grocery items you need to buy? I use a chalkboard. My chalkboard ritual is so normal to me that I have never questioned if there is a better way to coordinate my grocery list. I track my list on the chalkboard and then transfer my list to paper so I have it at the market with me.

How do you make sure to pick up everything on your list? Do you know your market so well that you can write your list in row order according to the market you use? That would be very impressive. That isn’t me. I just grab the list and off I go down the isles. I check the list towards the end of my visit and make sure I have what I need prior to my departure.

Also-do you have a regular set of staples you buy other than the regula: milk, coffee, TP, cheese and fruit? I would love to hear what those items are!

-Fer

Pick a Water any Water

I am always curious about the marketing behind bottled water. There are too many brands to even remember nowadays. I do remember when Evian was pretty much your only choice and hardly anyone would put up the money to buy it. Now water is the craze. The beautiful packaging and all the promise behind what “this brand” can do for you!

Recently, I have tried the popular new mint flavor waters. The newest one out is called Metromint. I don’t care for it as it reminds me too much of going to the dentist. The water claims that due to the mint in the water it will aid in digestion and is purified using reverse osmosis membrane filtration. Which is claimed to the purest filtration technology available. There is just something about drinking water that reminds me of a “lite” mouthwash. So-I have to take a pass on this one.

The other bottled water I have tried lately is called Hint. I love their “look” and their name. They offer many flavors that show a “hint” in their water. I find the water very pleasant. I didn’t try their mint version (surprise!). But-I liked the cucumber flavor and the lime flavor.

One bottled brand I do like is Vitamin Water. It has electrolytes (Magnesium, potassium and calcium) added to the water that is formulated to assist in “rapid hydration” of the body. For me one huge difference drinking this water is I can gulp it. I can finish the bottle and want to finish the bottle. There are some people that can chug down water. I am not one of those people-I nurse it. I drink the amount of water I need for the day and that suits me just fine. But-when I drink Vitamin Water/Smart Water I drink it all and want more. I like it and it tastes great. My favorite flavor right now is “Formula 50”. (It is actually named for the rapper 50 cent’s new album).

One thing I would like to do at Fer Food is a taste test of many different brands of plain, non-flavored waters and see how they rate.

-Fer

p.s. Oh! The photo above is a new water called Liquid Salvation Water. It claims to be “ultra-hydrating" and is “pure water for an impure world”. The bottle is a plastic shaped flask. It says, “Ask for the flask!” I think I have seen every style of bottled water now.

That's sum dressing

I was walking by a corkboard today. You know, the ones that people attach their business cards and personal items for sale. Thumb tacked amongst the usual items on the corkboard was a stack of about ten sheets of paper - photocopies - of a handwritten recipe for some sort of Chinese salad dressing. This was only slightly odd as first as it only simply looked out of place. But it got odder as you started to take note of the quantities of the ingredients involved: eight gallons of mayonnaise... two quarts of sesame oil... one gallon cold water, etc.

This struck me funny as while it was considerate to share the recipe, but at the same time nearly rude in its unhelpfulness in regards to the specifics. My curiosity was killing me! I mean, who has eight gallons of mayonnaise just lying around? Two scoops of sugar? How big is the scoop? Are all mixer speeds at setting "1" turn at the same speed? And is this actually a Chinese recipe using mayonnaise!? I find it more likely that this would be an American recipe for a Chinese-inspired salad dressing.

One thing's for sure, I'll be keeping this recipe handy for the time I'm REALLY craving a big salad with Chinese dressing.

Human Hibernation and World Bread Day

I have noticed lately I cannot eat enough food. I crave bread and comfort foods more than anything else. I had just started to wonder what’s up? When-it hit me. It’s fall. Although, I live in CA and the seasons aren’t like they are back East, my body still kicks in the “stock it up for the winter mode”. I think my eating habits change due to the days becoming shorter and the nights longer. All it makes me want to do is curl up and eat!

I think my favorite (let’s call it) “hibernation food” is probably homemade macaroni & cheese or fresh baked bread. I should also mention mashed potatoes. What is your favorite "hibernation" food?

Today is “World Bread Day”. What a perfect time of year to have this holiday. So-eat up everyone!

-Fer

Food Photo Friday(+ 1 day)!

I found this story on one of my daily reads Slashfood. Isn't she grand?
-Fer

Lachanophobia

Woman finally cures her 40-year fear of vegetables

Food For Thought-Part II

Fer: Is there any stories you would like to share about a child or a family that has been helped with what you do?
Marty Fujita: We get comments from kids and parents all the time about how much they appreciate what the Food For Thought program has done to raise awareness among the kids about making healthy choices and understanding where their food comes from, and who grows it, and to appreciate the farmer, the food and the environment that provides it for them. It is very gratifying to hear parents 'complain' that their kids are coming home and demanding that they find this kind of tangerine, or that kind of snap pea, or that the farm field trip was the best one they had ever experienced, or that they never knew that a fresh-picked strawberry smelled so good (and tasted as good as it smelled!), or that they didn't bring home any of the carrots the picked from the farm trip, because they ate them all before they got home!

Fer: What is the biggest need for your non-profit?(i.e. financial, volunteers, etc.) If people are interested in started a similar program in their area how would they do it?
Marty Fujita: We constantly have to raise funds to support our program and have been very fortunate in the past with great donors and foundations who believe in our program. We are able to get more volunteers as our program becomes better known, and awareness is raised.

Fer: Can you give me more specifics about your garden program? What does it offer the kids?
Marty Fujita: There are lots of garden-based learning curricula out there, especially in California. But we borrowed and adapted a terrific one called "Growing Great" that was developed for the Manhattan Beach Unified School District by Marika Bergsund. As I mentioned above, we are only providing this to K, 1st and 5th graders. K and 1st focuses on learning the basic parts of plants, and planting a salad garden. The kids all have a giant harvest day, and then make a huge salad they eat together. They love it! The 5th grade focuses on using the garden to learn the scientific method; they conduct a science experiment, changing one variable (water, nutrients, light) to measure affect on plant growth. They also plant a colonial/native American garden. The garden club is open to all kids who want to work in the garden during recesses. We had 90 kids at one school! After 5 hours of accumulated time, they get a Food For Thought cap. At the end of the year, the kids harvest, and hold a farmers market--last year they sold out! The funds go back into the garden club to purchase garden supplies.

Fer: Is there anything you would like to share that I didn't cover?
Marty Fujita: Check out our website, which we will soon update. There is lots of other information and links that might be useful to get a Farm To School program like ours started.


A special thank you to Marty Fujita for taking time to let us know more about this unique program. Wouldn't it be great if this program was the norm throughout our nation's schools? Please check out their website at www.foodforthoughtojai.org


Additional resources:
www.farmtoschool.org
www.ediblecommunities.com

Photo above by Marty Fujita

Food For Thought-Part I

I remember growing up and going to visit my cousins on their farm in rural Indiana. We would go for tractor rides and pick vegetables to be prepared for our dinner that evening. What a great experience for a child to learn first hand about a farm.

I was inspired when I read about a program in Ojai, California called "Food For Thought-The Ojai Healthy Schools Program”. I contacted the program in an effort to do a report for Fer Food. Marty Fujita, one of the program’s co-founders agreed to answer some of my questions. Half of this interview will be posted today and the other half posted tomorrow.

Fer: In your own words-can you give me the background of why you started your program and how you came up with the idea and name?
Marty Fujita: I first moved to Ojai in 2003 with my family from the Bay Area, where we learned to really appreciate good, fresh food and cooking. I am an ecologist by training. These two things--an appreciation for good, healthy food and concern for the environment--got me thinking about how to institute a farm-to-school program for my kids' school here in Ojai. (They were also rather dismayed with the cafeteria food offerings, so part of the motivation was to see how we could promote healthier offerings in the school lunch program.) I helped to get a group of concerned parents and professionals together in a steering committee to help plan and organize; one of these parents is a very talented graphic artist and chef named Jeri Oshima. She came up with the name and the logo for our program: Food For Thought Ojai.

Fer: How many years has the program been active?
Marty Fujita: It officially was launched in September of 2003 at one elementary school in our district. Since then the program has grown and is now going at all the elementary schools; this year we started at the junior high school as well.

Fer: Can you take a guess at the amount of children and families that your program has helped? Or how many it helps now?
Marty Fujita: This is difficult to estimate. However, we conduct nutrition education sessions in class for all 3rd and 6th grades at all five elementary schools; garden-based learning sessions for all Kindergarten, first and 5th grades; farm field trips for all 4th graders and for selected classes at the junior and senior high schools. The farm-fresh seasonal salad bar meal is held once a week at all five elementary schools. We hold community outreach and events that are open to the entire community. There are approximately 3,000 kids in the district's schools; the greater Ojai Valley has a population of about 15,000 people. Most students in the district have been influenced by our program to some extent; most families in the district know about our program. It is difficult to assess what kind of impact we have made with regard to influencing kids making healthier choices, or raising awareness about eating locally grown foods, supporting local farmers, or being better environmental stewards, but we try to get that message out in as many ways as possible!

Fer: How do you introduce the program to the new children and families just starting each year? Is it one on one? Or with the entire family? How is the program implemented throughout the year?
Marty Fujita: We give a brief presentation at each school at back to school gatherings, orientations or other opportunities. We also try to get as many volunteers to help us implement our program as possible. We conduct orientations for the salad bar for K and 1st graders to help them learn to make a well-balanced meal from the salad bar; we also do taste-testing of items in season (e.g. Fuyu persimmons, yellow watermelon, different kinds of tangerines, etc.) to get the kids to try new things. We now have two part-time staff, a program coordinator who helps to coordinate schedules for teaching, organizes volunteer trainings, and in general serves as our liaison with the school district. We have hired professional registered dieticians to develop the curriculum that incorporates state standards, and they teach the volunteers who actually deliver the lessons. We also have a part-time garden coordinator, who trains volunteers to deliver the garden-based learning lessons, maintains the gardens, and organizes garden clubs at each school. Board members also volunteer for various needs.

Fer: What do you believe is our largest problem with the way our society eats? Is there one thing each one of us can do to make a difference?
Marty Fujita: We do not appreciate good, wholesome foods. We are much more concerned about cheap prices and convenience because we lead overly busy lives. The average American spends about 15% of their income on food. The average European spends about 30% of their income on food--much better, fresher, foods--because they appreciate good foods. This is why we have a 'Fast Food Nation' that now faces an obesity epidemic. We can try to overcome this by understanding that "we are what we eat"; read ingredient labels, shop at your local farmers market, buy whole foods that are fresh, in-season and local as much as possible, sit down with your family to enjoy dinner and conversation, and teach these things to your kids!


www.foodforthoughtojai.org
Photo above by Marty Fujita

Hungry Planet-What The World Eats

I found this book absolutely fascinating. This beautiful, coffee table book, documents 30 families, 24 countries and 600 meals. There is a large photo portrait of each family with their groceries for one week. Each of these family portraits includes a written summary of the family and their groceries per type of food (i.e. vegies, starch, etc.) and cost paid for the one week. This book is a must read for anyone that is curious about what the world eats. What a fantastic account of the world of food!

-Fer

Additional Information:
NPR review
Peter Menzel Photography
To buy.

California Avocado Festival 2006

It was an avocado weekend. Foods that I never thought would involve an avocado were offered. I tried avocado bread; avocado ice cream and avocado beer to name a few! The ice cream was very “eggy”. It was one of those things you just kept eating because you weren’t sure if you liked it or not. But-then you ate the whole thing and knew you would try it again. I asked an older woman eating a cone if the ice cream was good. She said with a smile, “This is my second one!”. The avocado bread was delicious. I had the best homemade taquitos with guacamole from “Crusade” in Santa Barbara.

I saw a woman walking by with an avocado for a hat, a man making chickens out of towels and more people wearing green than on St. Patrick’s Day. I saw “The World’s Largest Bowl of Guacamole”.

Did you know there are over 1700 varieties of avocados and that number is growing all the time? I counted 16 varieties that were offered to eat or buy at the festival. There was a table in the exhibition hall covered with avocados of all shapes and sizes labeled each by name. A 9.7-ounce avocado for Santa Barbara won the largest avocado contest.

It's World Bread Day-October 16th

What should you do on World Bread Day? I have read some "to-do" lists on different blogs and decided to make up one of my own. Let me know if any of you have something fun to do in celebration of bread day. I am glad I have over a week to decide what type of bread I will be baking. So....

Bake bread.
Eat bread.
Share bread.
Try a new bread you have never tasted before.
Give bread to someone in need.
Make toast.
Feed the birds.

-Fer

The Perfection of Confection

As the holidays are fast approaching, I wanted to share a great tool that might come in handy. This is just a fun tool. A mesh sugar shaker places just the right amount of sugar where you need it. It is a great dusting tool for pancakes, cakes or anything you need to dust. It is perfect for spreading flour down in prep for rolling out a pie crust.

-Fer

Salt-Nutrition & A Bit of History

In the US, the consumption of sodium is on an average about 3 grams a day, corresponding to the ingestion of 7-8 grams of salt. A certain amount of salt must be incorporated daily in our diet, not only because it is very rapidly eliminated by our organism and also because it enhances the taste of our food. It is an essential element in the diet of not only humans but of animals, and even of many plants. It is one of the most effective and most widely used of all food preservatives (and used to preserve Egyptian mummies as well).

Salt was in general use long before history, as we know it, began to be recorded. Some 2,700 years B.C.-about 4,700 years ago-there was published in China the Peng-Tzao-Kan-Mu, probably the earliest known treatise on pharmacology. A major portion of this writing was devoted to a discussion of more than 40 kinds of salt, including descriptions of two methods of extracting salt and putting it in usable form that are amazingly similar to processes used today. Chinese folklore recounts the discovery of salt. Salt production has been important in China for two millennia or more. And the Chinese, like many other governments over time, realizing that everyone needed to consume salt, made salt taxes a major revenue source. Nomads spreading westward were known to carry salt. Egyptian art from 1450 B.C. records salt making.

As I have been researching salt lately, I found this GREAT website that answered most of my questions on the subject. Most of the above history report was taken from this website. There are beautiful photos of each type of salt and it lists each salts appropriate use. The website has a shop to buy the salts shown. I am interested in trying the following: Hawaiian Sea Salt, Black Salt and Smoked Sea Salt. My intent was to provide a salt reference guide to Fer Food readers but here it is completed and illustrated. What a great find!

-Fer

$2.00

How can it be in our world of abundance there are people still hungry? I ask myself this question often. I wonder why so many people have so much and so many more have so little. People work so hard just to barely feed their families. For me the hunger issue is simple. People need food. Let’s give it to them.

Over the weekend I went to the farmer’s market. I noticed a man handing over to a booth owner some W.I.C. coupons when he announced that he was taking a bag of oranges. “They are $2.00 a bag-right?” The owner nodded his head yes and took the coupons from the man. The man walked away holding his child’s hand and his huge bag of oranges. I don’t know why this hit me so hard. I guess I feel so lucky that I am able to buy what I want at the market and have never even noticed that oranges are only $2.00 a bag.

I started walking back to my car and along the way there were people handing out free vegetarian meals from a van. There were piles of these free meals. Only in America can you walk down the street buying food while being offered free food. As I continued to walk, I noticed a man in front of me declining his free sample. When I declined, I wished there was someway to give my free sample to someone who needs it.

Later, I went to the grocery store to finish my shopping when I noticed again someone offering free energy drink samples. Everyone is walking past the “drink man” and turning down the free samples.

Something is really wrong where it is a struggle for someone to buy a $2.00 bag of oranges when all of this free promotion food is being handed out. In fact we have so much food we decline it even when it is free. Wouldn’t we all live in a better society if we would give out free food based on need rather than choice?

-Fer

Doughnut+Coffee+Jam=Pancakes

I am so intrigued by this Chicago Chef who seems limitless in his ability to make new out of an old idea. Homaro Cantu pushes limits and experiments using his kitchen to make art out of his cuisine. I was excited to find a write up about him this month in Gourmet Magazine. This recipe was offered and I gave it a try.

Doughnut Pancakes With Strawberry-Coffee Sauce
Adapted From Homaro Cantu of Moto, Chicago
Serves 6 (Dessert)

For Sauce:
1 Cup Strawberry Jam or Preserves
* I used Jam as I think the Preserves might be too chunky. I preferred the sauce to be very smooth.
1/2 Cup Strong Brewed Coffee
For Pancakes:
3 (4-by 1 Inch) glazed yeast doughnuts, torn into 1-inch pieces
2 large eggs
1/3 cup of whole milk
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons confectioners sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 to 4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Make Sauce:
Blend jam and coffee in blender until smooth, transfer to a bowl.

Make pancakes:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 200 degrees. Puree doughnuts with eggs, milk, cream, baking powder, confectioners sugar, and salt in cleaned blender until smooth (batter will be thick). Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a 12-inch heavy nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides. Working in batches of 12, drop rounded teaspoons of batter into skillet and cook until pancakes are set around edges and undersides are golden, about 1 minute. Carefully turn over and cook until puffed and undersides are golden brown, about 1 minute more. Transfer pancakes to baking sheet and keep warm in oven. Make more pancakes, adjusting heat as necessary and using 1 tablespoon butter for each batch. Serve with sauce.

* I used Entenmann’s brand doughnuts. It was the only brand of glazed doughnuts at the grocery store. I think next time I will experiment with going to a bakery and buying fresh glazed. Gourmet’s article specifically noted that the chef does not recommend Krispy Kreme doughnuts because they produced a very greasy doughnut. I think the Entenmann’s was also too greasy. The trick is to find a doughnut that is heavier and more like cake.

**I made these for breakfast, as I was too excited to wait until after dinner. I recommend that you wait. These make a better dessert than a breakfast. As these pancakes are more crepe than pancake. I liked to eat them as miniature crepes. I took one and powdered it with sugar and then added the sauce down the middle. I then rolled it up as a crepe to eat.

12/12/06 Update: this recipe was originally created by Ben Roche. I have still yet to find the perfect store/bakery bought doughnut to make the perfect doughnut pancake. Open to suggestions!! -Fer