Aunt Jemima Party Pancakes (1956) ★★★★

12:00 AM 1950s , 20th century , 4 stars , 4 weeks of yuletide , atomic age , breakfast , christmas , holiday , united states 3 Comments

Eggnog is something I enjoyed as a child, but my fondness for the holiday beverage declined over the years. To be honest, I haven't had eggnog in quite a few years, so I decided that using it as a flavouring for pancakes was probably a safe bet.

ANYWAY.

I stumbled across this two-page advertisement for Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix in LIFE magazine. Honestly it never even occurred to me to use different flavours of milk when making pancakes. Perhaps this would make strawberry milk palatable? (I'm sorry, but how can people drink that stuff?! My school once sold blue raspberry milk...ew, just ew.)

Original Recipe:

SO EASY! HERE'S HOW:
Deluxe pancakes. Makes 14 to 16 pancakes.

2 cups Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix
1 egg
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons butter or shortening
Add milk, egg and shortening to the Aunt Jemima pancake mix, stirring lightly. Bake on hot, lightly greased griddle, turning only once. 

For chocolate pancakes, use chocolate milk instead of regular milk.
For strawberry pancakes, use strawberry milk instead of regular milk.
For eggnog pancakes, omit the egg and use only one cup regular milk plus one cup dairy-made eggnog.

When serving several persons, stack pancakes and keep warm in oven.
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Serve six dollar-size pancakes per person and top each serving with whipped cream, sprinkling with nutmeg.


The Verdict:
Well first off, this makes SO MUCH PANCAKE BATTER. Seriously. Especially when you're making dollar-sized pancakes. If you are a few hungry people and are making regular-sized pancakes, this is an okay amount. Otherwise, please half it at the very least.
Taste-wise, these are okay. I definitely got a festive feeling eating them. The eggnog is definitely tasteable, but it's not super strong, so if you want to make these and really like eggnog, I would suggest maybed increased the eggnog to milk ratio, adding some to the whipped cream, or making an eggnog sauce to drizzle on top. The whipped cream and nutmeg did increase the eggnoggyness of the dish as well. And speaking of - the recipe didn't mention if the whipped cream should be sweetened or not, but I'm just saying, unsweetened whipped cream is kinda ew. Overall, not something I would make often, but I ate more than one of my own free will.

Modernized Recipe:
(Adapted from LIFE 23 Jan 1956)


2 tablespoons BUTTER or SHORTENING
1 cup MILK
1 cup EGGNOG
2 cups AUNT JEMIMA PANCAKE MIX
WHIPPED CREAM
NUTMEG

1. In a large mixing bowl, melt the butter. Whisk in the milk and eggnog. Add the pancake mix and whisk until well combined and lumps are gone.
2. Heat a fry pan or griddle to medium heat. Lightly grease. Drop one tablespoon of batter for each dollar-sized pancake. Fry until puffy and golden brown, flipping once when the edges begin to firm up.
3. Arrange the pancakes on a plate with whipped cream. Sprinkle the nutmeg over top.