Cinnamon Apple Pancakes

This is a Farmers Wife Original. (with some help from The Farming Tot!)

I was given a challenge this week by my friends at Foodbuzz and Frigidaire to come up with a kid friendly recipe, that kids could help make. Well as most of you know, my 2 year old is still a little young to be much help in the kitchen, but he does however come up with a lot of recipes for me by giving me an idea of something he wants to eat. And such an occurrence happened the night I received this challenge, The Farming Tot decided he wanted Cinnamon Apple Pancakes for breakfast, and he wanted apples in them, as well as an apple syrup on top. Now I do have a recipe for apple syrup on the blog, which is absolutely delicious. However I didn't have the ingredients to make this specific syrup so I had to scramble to come up with something else. Luckily for me I think pretty quick on my feet, and was able to put this together pretty fast for my little man (and my farming hubby), and it really was yummy! As I said, unfortunately my little guy is too little to really help in the kitchen, but coming up with the idea is half the battle, but his little questions as I'm cracking the eggs into the bowl, and watching how I chop the apples, I can see that he is very interested in someday helping Mommy cook! (This is also the little boy who loves to watch cooking shows with me!) But for those of you with older ones there are so many things they can help do to make this recipe, and not only is it fun to have them in the kitchen with you, but teaching someone how to cook is possibly one of the best gifts you can give them. Besides learning how to do your own laundry, it's one thing that will help them so much later on in life, so I really encourage you all to let those little fingers into your kitchen (Supervised please!!), and start small by letting them watch and ask questions, stir the batter those things. But with this recipe the older ones can help by measuring the ingredients, stirring the batter, using an apple corer/slicer to slice the apples into wedges, and then let you cut them into smaller pieces. And those of you with teenagers, I highly encourage letting them help with the actual cooking of the food, I know it's hard to surrender your kitchen, but it can be a great bonding time and I honestly have a lot of good memories from cooking with both of my parents even as a teen. I hope that you'll enjoy this breakfast recipe, if your kids are anything like mine then breakfast can be the biggest challenge of the day, but this was such a huge hit with my little one and a nice treat for us grownups too. I really hope you'll enjoy this recipe, and maybe get to make this as a family, and sit down to eat your creation together! And I also hope you'll check out what my friends at Frigidaire are doing to help encourage kids to help in the kitchen, take a look at their site www.maketimeforchange.com, to get daily tips and recipes! And you can enter right now to win a new double range! Check it out!

Ingredients: this makes about 8 pancakes

Apple Topping:

2 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored and sliced

1 Tablespoon Butter

1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

2 1/2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon

Pancakes:

1 Egg

1 Cup Buttermilk

2 Tablespoons Oil

1 Cup Flour

1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1 Tablespoon Sugar

1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon

1/8 Teaspoon Nutmeg

1 Gala Apple, peeled, cored and very finely diced

Directions:

First you'll want to make the apple topping, since it has to simmer. Peel and granny smith apples, and using an apple corer/slicer, slice the apples into wedges. Then slice them in half again. In a small-medium pot, melt the butter. One the butter is melted add in the sugar, juice, and cinnamon. Once that's mixed drop in the apples and stir. Let it come to a boil and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 10-20 minutes until the apples are soft and you have a delicious syrup at the bottom of the pot. Keep warm. In a large mixing bowl combine pancake ingredients, minus the apples, until thick. Next peel and diced the gala apple. You'll want them to be very tiny bits of apple, so it's not huge chunks. Add to the pancake mixture. Heat your griddle to about 350 degrees F, or if using a griddle pan on your stove, heat on medium heat until nice and hot. Spray with cooking spray, and using a 1/2 cup measuring cup, scoop a 1/2 cup of pancake batter onto the griddle for each pancake. Flip when bubbles start to form in the center of the pancake. Cook until golden brown. Serve with the apple topping, and some of the syrup created by the apples. You can add more syrup it you want. 

Review: 

This was definitely different from any apple pancakes we've had before. Most places you just get the apples on top and that's it, and don't get me wrong they are delicious. But this was definitely a nice change of pace, and something we all gobbled up really fast. The Farming Tot was very pleased with his idea coming to life, and ate every bite! He always eats better when he gets to help come up with the idea, and gets to watch how I make it. 4.5 Stars.

P.S. Once again I encourage you to check out www.maketimeforchange.com, what they're doing over there is really special and a wonderful encouragement to us parents to get our kids more involved in what they're eating! Each day you visit the Kids' Cooking Academy, Frigidaire will donate $1 to Save the Children to help provide nutritious snacks and promote healthier lifestyles for children living in poverty in the U.S. I really hope you'll help me in partnering with them to promote healthy lifestyles, and with Save the Children. This is such a great program! God Bless!