I like to bring out this recipe every Father’s Day. Now, being a dad doesn’t mean you like beer and pancakes. And heck, I like beer. I like pancakes. So maybe next year this should be my featured recipe for Mother’s Day! Or any day ending in y that calls for some indulgence. But never mind all that and hang on to your hats people! Because, pancakes and beer. No, not a glass of beer with your pancakes, but beer right in the pancakes! These Porter Beer Pancakes with a Porter Maple Butter Sauce prove that some things taste even better than they sound.
Beer? In Pancakes?
I’ve always been fond of pancakes and have flipped many over the years, like the basic recipe I came up with when the kids were kidlets, or these with cornmeal and raspberries or peaches, or these caramelized apple sour cream pancakes (‘scuse me while I have a moment here). Yet despite my confidence in my pancake game, I was completely bowled over when I read about beer pancakes recently.
Yes, beer. In pancakes. Which means beer for breakfast, right? Now there’s a concept.
This article on the Food Bloggers of Canada site opened my eyes to a new approach to pancakes. The writer, Bryan Clegg, talks about his experimentation with different kinds of beer in pancakes, and he mentions that you can just take your regular pancake recipe and substitute beer for the milk. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t get that idea out of my mind. I do like a beer now and then, but I’d never had any great desire to add it to my food. Suddenly it was all I was thinking about. (Okay, I might have had one or two other thoughts.)
The Perfect Beer for My Pancakes
So, off to the liquor store I went to look for a robust dark beer for my pancakes. And practically the first thing I saw was a can of Maple Porter from Nickel Brook Brewing. No doubt about it, a beer with maple syrup in it was going into my pancake batter!
Porter Beer Pancakes
I did tweak my usual pancake recipe a bit, adding in some buckwheat flour to make the batter a little thicker and more robust than usual. The porter made the batter a beautiful tan colour. It was obvious from the get-go that these were going to taste good!
Porter and Maple Butter Sauce
I wanted to take this porter pancake thing (that’s fun to say) a bit further, and decided to create a sauce with the beer in it. I thought about the Sweet Pumpkin Butter Sauce I made a couple of years ago to accompany a bread pudding, and came up with a riff on that idea. So simple: porter, maple syrup and butter, warmed, then slowly, sensuously drizzled over a quivering tower of pancakes submitting to this lavishment. <Stop it, Marlene>
Let’s Have a Porter Pancake Party
Um, have you gotten the idea that I’m really pleased with how these pancakes turned out? And that I’ll be making them again? And with the weekend coming right up, I’m hoping that you’ll be enjoying a stack of these, along with that sauce, too. I’ll probably have coffee with mine, but if you open a can of Maple Porter I just might join you — we can have a porter pancake party.
Non-disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. I mention the name of the beer I used and the brewery that made it for information purposes only. And yes, I bought my single can of beer with my own hard-earned money. Next time I might buy two. Possibly more.
Let’s Get Flipping!
- 1 1/3 cups Maple Porter
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
- Optional: 2 tbsp wheat bran
- 2 tsp baking powder
- pinch kosher salt
- 2 tbsp cane sugar
- 2 tbsp canola oil
- 1 large egg
- small amount of canola oil for cooking the pancakes
- 1/3 cup Maple Porter
- 5 tbsp maple syrup
- 5 tbsp butter
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Measure out the porter first, allowing the head to subside and then adjusting as needed to get 1 1/3 cup. While the beer is settling down, put all the dry ingredients in a small bowl (you know, the flours, bran, baking powder and salt — not the sugar, that counts as a wet ingredient) and use a whisk to stir it all together. Set aside. Now add the sugar, oil and egg to the porter in a larger bowl, and stir with a fork to get a smooth mixture. Then pour the dry ingredients into the wet and stir with a whisk just until the batter is smooth. Let this sit while you're getting the sauce together as directed below.
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If using a griddle, preheat it according to the directions. Otherwise you can use a skillet (I used to use nonstick, but now my choice is cast iron — it's your choice). Pour a tablespoon or two of canola oil into a ramekin or other small bowl and keep handy. Once the griddle or skillet is hot enough, brush a small amount of the oil on it to prevent the pancakes from sticking. I only had to do this two or three times to make the whole batch on my cast iron griddle. Pour or scoop 1/4 cup of the batter onto the griddle per pancake. Flip once bubbles start breaking through the top of the pancake, then cook just until the dough has set. Keep the pancakes warm until all have been made.
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I measured out the beer for the sauce and added a more or less equivalent amount of maple syrup and butter. And yes, then I drank the small amount of beer remaining. Or, you could use all the remaining beer and increase the syrup and butter accordingly. This is relax and go with the flow cooking!
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Combine all three ingredients in a small sauce pan. Heat over medium high heat for a few minutes, stirring. As noted above, it will foam up, so take care to avoid any spillovers. Turn the heat to low to keep the sauce warm while making the pancakes. This is a thin sauce, and it does have a tendency to split if it sits too long or gets cool, so heat it up a bit more before decanting into a serving jug.
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To serve, plate up, sauce up and enjoy!
First Published: 2017 06 01
Republished: 2019 06 14
Republished: 2022 06 17
yummy ! looks delish……
Thanks Suzanne!
Oh wow! These sound awesome. I love porters and stouts and they’d be brilliant in something sweet like this. Nicely done!
Thanks, Tiffany! I was really happy with how they turned out. We should porter pancake party together sometime. 🙂
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