Among this ephemera is one item that's garnered a lot of attention - a recipe for pancakes. Apparently Ms. Parks' secret was ... peanut butter.
Featherlite Pancakes
Sift together
1 C flour
2 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
Mix (separately)
1 egg
1-1/4 C milk
1/3 C peanut butter
1 Tbsp melted shortening or oil
Combine with dry ingredients
Cook at 275 on griddle
We couldn't wait and decided to try out the pancakes for breakfast this morning. I substituted with two vegan ingredients - almond milk and Follow Your Heart's VeganEgg - and used Earth Balance's shortening.
One VeganEgg 'egg' makes up a little too much liquid, so I mixed one 'egg' per the package directions and then used just three heaping tablespoons of the resulting goo in the recipe. (When you make VeganEgg, you really want to make sure you use ice cold water, otherwise the texture of the resulting mix will be too loose and watery. I usually fill a bowl with ice and water and let it sit for a few minutes.)
Dry ingredients, mixed:
You'll want to make sure you have a lot of ramekins on hand. Besides mixing the egg, we also needed to soften the shortening and peanut butter in the microwave. If the those aren't melted enough, these wet ingredients will take forever to whisk together.
At some point in the proceedings, our dog Morgan smelled the peanut butter and decided these pancakes were for her. She was sadly mistaken.
The real secret to these pancakes became obvious as soon as we mixed the wet ingredients into dry - it's the amount of baking powder, causing the batter to foam up and filling it with air bubbles.
The batter hit the griddle looking more like scrambled eggs or oatmeal. This was not the smooth batter I'm used to making - it didn't pool gently into rounded shapes.
These also cooked a little more quickly than I'm used to. A few seconds less on each side probably would have resulted in less brown, more golden color. But whatever, they were delicious - light and fluffy, with only a hint of peanut flavor.
About the Rosa Parks Collection
