In the spirit of Improvement Monday, My kids wanted me to post about how we rescued a failed recipe. Note: I often mess up recipes. I have a hard time sticking to a recipe. So while this happened to my daughter, it very well could have happened to me. Enjoy!
The Plan: Keto Pancakes
We bought a package of Keto Pancakes hoping to have it for breakfast this week. Pretty easy, already mixed no problem right? *foreshadowing*
I had a tough time getting work done the night before and was up until 1 am. We were also behind on laundry. I was trying to sort through the clothes to find clothes for everyone to wear today. Dad was already gone.
My daughter decided to make everyone brunch (it was closer to lunch time). She wanted to make pancakes. She wanted to make FANCY pancakes. She followed the instructions on the package. Then, she added some blueberries from the freezer, and a dash of cinnamon. She also added milk and eggs to make it more creamy. She followed my instructions to make sure to add butter or bacon grease, so that the pancakes wouldn’t stick. I started to smell the pancakes cooking. They smelled good. I yelled a thank you.
After a while, I went into the kitchen to check on the progress of the pancakes. While tasty, all that was coming out of the pan was mush. I started troubleshooting with my daughter. We added more fat to the pan. That didn’t seem to help. I tried to flip the pancake. It fell apart but was starting to get a near burnt brown on the bottom. I told my daughter that she put too much water in it. She kept telling me “no I didn’t!”
Then in a quieter voice she said, “I added milk.”
Well there’s your problem.
While trying to manage the “pancakes”, and the hungry two and four year olds pressing plates against my legs, I less than coherently tried to teach my daughter about wet to dry ratios. I added some extra almond flour. That didn’t work. I thought it might need some eggs, but my daughter informed me it already had eggs. I started realizing that rescuing the pancakes would take a lot of ingredients, and I was sure I wouldn’t be able to do it right.
Then I got an idea. We can rescue this by making it into porridge instead. I dumped the rest of the batter into the large pan with pleanty of bacon grease. I cooked it down until it was less soupy. I felt like the eggs were cooked. I served it up, and the kids liked it!
The Take Away
I’m going to mess up. I’m going to get the directions wrong. I’m going to add things that don’t belong there. Aaand … then it fails. I get back up, dust myself off, and see what I can salvage. Sometimes the mistake is better than I thought it would be.
Later that day, I was late and missed the thing, the very reason why I was digging for clothes and trying to save the ‘pancakes’. I was very dissappointed in myself. But soon after, one of my neighbors had an emergency, and I was right there, able to help. My kids reminded me that it was just like the ‘pancakes’: not what I hoped for, but still very good.