Poor Man’s Pancakes – 3 Ingredients | HARD TIMES

(peaceful acoustic guitar music)- Greetings, my beautiful
lovelies, it’s Emmy.Welcome back to another
episode of Hard Times,where I explore food and
recipes from times of hardship.Today, I’m going to be trying out a recipethat was sent to me by lovely Sama.Sama, thank you so much for commentingand for sending me this recipe.This is based on a
childhood memory of theirsof having poor man’s pancakes.Now, these are called poor man’s pancakesbecause they contain no
eggs and no leavening.Just three ingredients, really.You can also add another
ingredient if you have it,but you can do this just
with three ingredients:flour, sugar, and water.So, I’m just gonna whip up some pancakes.I’m going to have themwith a couple of different
alternatives to syrup.I’m gonna have ’em with
jam, peanut butter.And I’m also gonna make a savory versionthat was inspired by Kenny Shopsin, who,may he rest in peace, would
make this at his restaurant,and it was pancakes with
macaroni and cheese.Sounds great, right?I’ve always wanted to try it,and today I thought would
be a good opportunityto do so, so let’s go ahead
and make these pancakes.So you’re gonna need a container.So I’m gonna go ahead
and double this recipe,one cup of flour, one cup of sugar.Boy, these are gonna be sweet.So this is what Sama P.
said in their comment.They called them egg-less crepesbecause eggs are more expensive.”We’d have to use powdered milk.”We’d top them with whatever
pantry items we had,”jam, jelly, with powdered
sugar, sometimes peanut butter.”So since Sama used some dry milk powder,I’m gonna do the same,and I happened to have a huge bag of thisfrom when I made mozzarella
cheese from dry milk powder.I’m gonna put about three
teaspoons of that in there,and I’m gonna add one cup of water.Meanwhile, I have my
griddle heated up here.You could do this in
just a regular skillet,but I’m using my griddle
because I’m gonna be cookingseveral of these at one time.So, mix that in.So now I can see why Sama
said these are gonna becrepe pancakes, because
this batter is very thin.We use a little bit of oil here,and wipe up the excess with a paper towel.It’s a very thin batter.(batter sizzling)It’s always a great sound.So, as always when cooking pancakes,once you start seeing some
bubbles starting to appearand popping, that’s a good indicationthat these might be ready to flip.Also, around the edges,
when you start seeing themkinda set up, then you also
know that’s a good time.See, here are the bubbles
that I’m talking about.So I’m gonna increase the heat
a little bit to about 325.So for the one I just poured,I’m gonna add a little
bit of macaroni and cheeseright into the middle of this one.This one goes out to use, Kenny Shopsin,hope you’re restin’ easy.If you haven’t seen the
documentary about Kenny Shopsin,I’ll put a link down
below, it’s worth watching.So right off the bat, these
pancakes have a differentkind of look to them.They look a little bit shinier,
a little bit more plastic,and they’re browning up a
little differently, too.Maybe that’s because there’s
no baking powder in this.So these are definitely
thinner than regular pancakes,but they’re thicker than crepes.So I know this is cringe-worthy,I’m gonna be using a metal
spatula on this griddle,but this griddle actually
came with a metal spatula,so I think it can take it.These pancakes are so thin,they need something thin to flip ’em.Okay, there we go.There’s a pancake.Interesting, right?Lastly, our mac and cheese.Give that one a mush.They’re definitely a different consistencythan a typical IHOP-style pancakeor Bisquick-style pancake,
and they’re not as browned.They’re thinner, and when I flip them,they feel a little bit more rubbery.(peaceful acoustic music)All-righty, so let’s give our
poor man’s pancake a taste.Let’s try them plain first
before we add anything.Ooh, they feel pretty
crispy, look at that.Wow, they’re crispy, can you hear that?That’s what they look like on the bottom.Okay, let’s give that a taste.(speaking in foreign language)Mm, they have a very pleasant,
crisp texture to them.Slightly chewy in the middle,definitely different than a typicalpancake house-style pancake.They’re not as fluffy at all.Not surprising because
there’s no leavening.There’s a little bit of a chew to them,but they’ve got a nice, kind
of caramelized crisp to ’em.They’re very sweet,
they actually don’t needany syrup whatsoever.There’s plenty of sweetness in there.In terms of flavor, they taste
a lot like a fortune cookie,that level of sweetness
of a fortune cookie,kind of caramelized, sugary flavor,but it’s missing a little bit of butter,but really, it’s not bad.Very sweet, so I wouldn’t add
any syrup to this whatsoever,but yeah, they’re pretty good, mm hm,and definitely a lot
sweeter than a French crepe,and also thicker in texture, too.And it really doesn’t
need any syrup whatsoeverbecause it’s so sweet.Having said that, I’m now gonna try itwith some peanut butter,because that was Samma’s recommendation.So, grab some peanut butter,and add some peanut butter here.I’m also gonna add some
strawberry jelly, too.Do you remember that song?♪ Peanut butter and jelly ♪♪ That’s what I like in my belly ♪Hmm, that’s great.Mm hm, creamy peanut butteradds a ton of flavor.The jelly adds some more sweetness,and a fruity flavor to it.Delicious, mm.Also, Sama recommended powdered sugar,so I’m gonna grab that.There we go.I don’t imagine that this is gonna Beall that much more flavorful,it’s just more visually appealing,and it’s gonna be sweeter, I imagine.Here we go.Mm, mm hm.It’s actually not noticeably sweeter,it’s just very pretty.Now let’s try the Kenny Shopsin special,the macaroni and cheese pancake,so here’s the pancake, turn it over,and there’s the macaroni and cheese.(peaceful acoustic music)Mm, that one doesn’t work so well.Mm, it should be said though that I’m nota huge macaroni and cheese fan,
so right from the beginningI think the biggest
problem I have with thisis the texture.The macaroni and cheese is kind of gummy,and pancake’s a little bit gummy, too.A little bit crispness.It’s just not all that flavorful.I don’t think the mac-and-cheesereally adds much more to thisthan just a little bit of extra carbs.Oh, I bet if I put some fresh
shredded cheese in that,then that would take
this to another place.Besides adding carbs, I don’t thinkthe macaroni and cheese in this case,with this particular recipe,and without any additional
cheese adds all that much.Granted, Kenny I think
would’ve done this differently.He would’ve used a different batter,and of course different
macaroni and cheese,but just outta curiosity, I
wanted to see what would happen,but yeah, that one’s not my favorite.I think hands down, my
favorite combinationwith this particular pancake for sureis the peanut butter and jelly.So good, I think actually
peanut butter and jellywould be good with any kind of pancake.It’s just such a great combinationof richness and fruity sweetness.I think if I were to
make this recipe again,I would definitely pull back on the sugar,maybe use 1/2 the amount, but
I think in this current stateof our one-to-one-to-one
ratio, kids would love this.It’s super sweet, you don’t
need any syrup whatsoeverbecause it is so sweet,
and in terms of taste,it tastes a lot like a fortune cookie.So there you have it, poor man’s pancakes.Big thanks to Sama for
sharing this recipe with me,and thank you guys so much for watching.If you have a recipe that you’d
like me to test out, or try,or one that you have in your family,I would love to hear about it.Let me know down in
the comments, and yeah.Thanks for joining me again;I hope you guys enjoyed that one.I hope you guys learned something;please share this video with your friends.Follow me on social
media, like this video,subscribe, and I shall
see you in the next one.Toodaloo, take care, ‘bye!(cheerful violin music)(Emmy imitating brass instrument)