Crock Pot Gourmet: Giant Pancake

Several weeks ago, Jessica Sinsheimer tweeted this link with instructions on how to make a giant pancake cake in an electric rice cooker. I don't own an electric rice cooker,* but I've made similar cakes in my Crock Pot, so I promised to share the recipe on my blog. It's been a crazy-busy summer, and I have so many half-written blog posts piling up, but I'm finally getting around to actually posting the promised recipe!

Crock Pot Giant Pancake

3 3/4 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. old fashioned oats
3 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 c. powdered milk**
1/3 c. oil
4 eggs
3 1/2 c. water**

In a large bowl, stir together flour, oats, baking powder, salt and powdered milk.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add oil, eggs and 1 c. water. Beat together the liquid ingredients slightly (to break the egg yolks), and then slowly expand your stirring strokes to begin stirring dry ingredients into the wet, drizzling in remaining water as you stir. (Adding all of the water at once makes it difficult to incorporate the egg properly, but you don't want to mix the batter too much, or you'll get tough pancakes, so don't be too slow about adding the water. If you don't want to worry about overmixing, you can beat the eggs, oil and water all together in a separate bowl and dump it all in at once, then stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened. I just prefer the one-bowl method, because I hate washing dishes!)

Spray your 5-quart*** Crock Pot with non-stick cooking spray, coating the sides and bottom evenly.

Pour batter into the crock, make sure the lid is skewed slightly to let steam escape, and cook on low for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. (Cooking times may vary depending upon your Crock Pot's settings.)

You can either cut and serve the cake directly from the Crock Pot (my preferred method, because it creates less dishes to wash), or you can flip the cake out onto a large tray or cookie sheet to slice and serve.

 Serve plain, or topped with your favorite syrup or fruit topping.

 For a slightly more savory dish (the pancake itself isn't too sweet to begin with), you can drizzle with melted peanut butter (or almond or cashew butter or Nutella - Okay, so the Nutella wouldn't make it savory).

*I also make rice in my slow cooker. No need to buy multiple devices when one is so good at multitasking!

** I prefer to use powdered milk in cooking, because it's less expensive, you don't notice a taste difference in cooked products, and I can add a little extra calcium to my recipes by adding more milk powder than you would normally add for that amount of reconstituted milk. But if you don't want to use powdered milk, you can omit the powdered milk and simply use 3 1/2 c. fluid milk instead of water.

*** You can make a smaller batch in a 3-quart Crock Pot. Just cut all ingredient quantities in half. It will most likely cook faster as well, so start checking on it after 1 3/4 to 2 hours.

VARIATIONS:
   -- Stir 1 c. dried cranberries in with the dry ingredients, and add 1 1/2 tsp. orange extract with the liquid ingredients. Before pouring batter into the Crock Pot, sprinkle 1/2 c. brown sugar into the bottom of the crock. If desired, you may also sprinkle 1/4 c. brown sugar on the top of the batter.
    -- Stir 1/2 c. cocoa powder in with the dry ingredients, and add 1/2 c. honey with the liquids for a sweeter treat.
    -- Use your imagination! What are your favorite pancake stir-ins? Add them to the batter before baking. (Leave a comment below to tell me your favorites!)