Fall is in the air. The trees are turning color, and the nights are getting nippier – and it’s apple season. Apples are so versatile. Biting into a fresh juicy apple is a treat, and they can be used to make tasty salads, side dishes, and desserts. When browsing through a hundred-year-old magazine I came across a recipe for Apple Griddle Cakes and decided to give it a try.
My sense is that griddle cakes and pancakes are interchangeable terms. There may be regional variation regarding which is used.
The Apple Griddle Cakes were delectable. They were light and almost airy with sweet and chewy bits of apple. I started to write that the griddle cakes were light and fluffy, but then I realized that many recipes state that the recipe makes “light and fluffy” griddle cakes. This recipe is different from most because it calls for separating the eggs, beating the egg whites, and then folding them into the griddle cake batter. Most modern recipes just call for adding the entire egg with all the other ingredients.
Most apple recipes today call for cinnamon; however, the old recipe did not call for using any. This allowed the natural sweet and tangy flavor of the apples to be more prominent in the griddle cakes.
Another difference between this recipe and other griddle cake recipes is that it calls for small pieces of torn bread (bread crumbs) that have been soaked in milk. A hundred years ago, cooks didn’t want to waste food, and this recipe was a way to use stale bread (or bread crusts).
Here is the original recipe:
This recipe was included in an advertisement for Crisco. (Yes, Crisco has been around for more than a hundred years, though the ingredients have been tweaked several times over the years.). When I updated the recipe, I used melted butter instead of the Crisco.
A hundred years ago, this recipe probably was a good way to use stale bread that was very dry and firm, so the bread crumbs may have needed to soak overnight to soften. However, I decided to use some whole wheat bread that I recently purchased. I just tore up several slices of the bread and soaked it in the milk. It did not take more than a few minutes for the bread to become mushy. I did not heat the milk. After the bread softened, I just used electric beaters to turn it into a paste.
One large apple made approximately one cup of chopped apples.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Apple Griddle Cakes
2 cups bread, torn into small pieces
2 cups milk
2 eggs, separated
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup flour
1 cup chopped apples (1 large apple)
Put the bread crumbs into a bowl and pour the milk over them. Let the bread soak until it is soft and mushy. This will only take a few minutes in many cases; it may take up to several hours if the bread is extremely stale and dry.)
In the meantime, put the egg whites in a bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
Once the bread crumbs have softened, beat the bread and milk mixture with electric beaters to make a paste. Add the egg yolks, butter, sugar, salt, and flour; beat until thoroughly mixed. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites; then, using a fork, stir in the chopped apples.
Heat a lightly greased griddle or skillet to a medium temperature, then pour or scoop the batter onto the hot surface to make individual pancakes. Cook until the top surface is hot and bubbly, and then flip and cook other side.
I love the picture! Griddle cakes on a china plate, a china pitcher of syrup, a glass of water, a cup of coffee, and something on a side plate. Could you tell what was on the side plate? I thought it was boiled eggs at first, but decided they were too small for eggs.
My second edition Betty Crocker cookbook has a recipes for waffles and pancakes that use separated eggs, with whipped egg whites. It also has waffle and pancake recipes that uses whole eggs in the batter.
It looks like round scoops of butter.
Ah, that makes sense! Butter and syrup for the griddle cakes!
It’s really interesting that the 2nd edition of the Betty Crocker Cookbook includes both recipes that call for separating eggs when making pancakes and waffles, and recipes that do not call for separating them. I have a Betty Crocker Cookbook published in 1969 (I’m not sure which edition it is), and it only has pancake and waffle recipes that call for using whole eggs.
Oh wow…. no flour…just the bread crumbs!!! never seen that before. And then I rechecked the recipe and saw the flour…. Now I wonder if you could make this up with just the bread crumbs…
For that reason alone I need to try this one.
It might work to just use bread crumbs since bread is mostly flour – though the amount of milk might need to be adjusted. Not sure. If you decide to experiment and make the Griddle Cakes using just bread crumbs, you’ll have to let me know how they turn out.
There were so many creative ways to use stale bread!
Agree – There sure are a lot of ways to use stale bread. And, recipe authors a hundred years ago seemed to be especially interested in creating ways to use it.
And how did they taste?
They were very tasty. I really liked them. I should have made that clearer when I wrote the post.
I would like to know if you found the griddle cakes fluffy since you whipped and folded the egg whites? And as suzassippi above asked, how did they taste?
Yes, they were light and fluffy. Beating the egg whites makes a noticeable difference in the texture of the griddle cakes. They were yummy. I liked them a lot.
And that is why the proof is in the pudding…or the griddle cakes!
Looks good! Although you didn’t use it, the recipe brought back fond memories of my mom’s can of Crisco:)
It’s nice to hear that this post brought back some warm memories. I’ve seen numerous hundred-year-old recipes that call for Crisco, and when I make one I always struggle with whether to use it or not. The recipe is more authentic if I use it, yet I also know that many people have concerns about using it. So I generally just substitute butter when updating the recipe.
I certainly understand that, Sheryl.
This is very much the recipe I have in a cookbook from the civil war era (The Blue & Grey Cookbook) – they used lard instead of Crisco!
It’s really interesting that you saw a similar recipe in a civil war era cookbook. Lard would have been a really common fat to use when cooking back then. Crisco was invented in the early 1900s. Advertisements from that era stress how “white, pure, and wholesome” Crisco was compared to lard.
That’s the thing about recipes – many of them are just retooled versions of earlier ones using a new or improved ingredient!!
How true.
Uing bread as a key ingredient is an interesting twist.
It’s definitely not something that we’d typically think of putting in griddle cakes today.
We bought quite a few apples this year and I slice and dry them for snacks in the winter. I have a food drier and I love it. I imagine they dried fruit on strings over the stove – I have tried that and I always get fruit flies.
I don’t think that I’ve ever seen any information about how they dried apples at home a hundred years ago. I’ll have to watch for that in the future when going through old magazines and cookbooks. After I read your comment, I did a quick search and found an interesting article about commercial methods used for drying apples in the early 1900s:
The Commercial Evaporator, An American Innovation in Drying Apples: The First Fifty Years—1864-1914
Yes, to a little taste of tradition on a griddle!
Apple Griddle Cakes are a lovely comfort food.
Sounds good but I don’t want to have to separate eggs in the morning for pancakes!
🙂 I’m guessing there are a lot of people like you. That’s probably why griddle cake and waffle recipes that call for separating eggs have gone out of style. Most modern recipes call for just adding whole eggs.
Looks delicious I’m gonna try it
I think that you’ll enjoy the Apple Griddle Cakes.