Just add an egg and water and heat the frying pan...and you have delicious pancakes in minutes. Photo courtesy of stock.xchng.

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September 2005

Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Cereals, Pancakes & Waffles

The Great San Saba River Pecan Company Pancake & Waffle Mix

Eggy, Swedish-Type Pancakes That Hit The Spot

We have experimented over the years with many pancake and waffle mixes: blue corn, buckwheat, whole wheat, multigrain, wild rice, and varieties we have no doubt forgotten. It is difficult to find a bad pancake mix—it’s like making a bad piece of toast. If you can cook the basic ingredients without burning them, the results are at a minimum, decent.

With pancake mixes, unlike toast, the question is: are the goods worth the price? Generally, the analogy holds, as with the difference between commercial loaves and bakery loaves, that a specialty pancake mix is tastier than Aunt Jemima or Pillsbury. The flours are better and more interesting, the mixes are more natural.

Mixes are also labor savers. It isn’t rocket science to measure out white flour, baking powder, and baking soda—the ingredients in your basic supermarket buttermilk pancake mix—but sometimes that seems just a tad more labor than we’re willing to do. Crack an egg, measure milk and water and one dry item (the pancake mix), O.K. Besides, who wants white flour pancake mixes? Specialty mixes make special pancakes.

It was thus that we tried The Great San Saba River Pecan Company’s Pancake & Waffle Mix, touted as the “Best Ever Belgium [sic] Waffles or Extra Fluffy Pancakes.” We’re not sure why they’re called Belgian—a waffle which specifically uses yeast, missing from this recipe. In fact, they create something very much like a Swedish pancake, flat and light and in this case, very eggy as a result of three eggs in the batter. The recipe is a mixture of wheat flour, corn flour, graham flour, and buttermilk. The result is a very interesting and versatile pancake which can be enjoyed sweet or savory, for breakfast, lunch, or supper.

While the company sells the mix packaged with a bottle of its tasty fruit and pecan topping as a “breakfast set,” these pancakes and waffles say much more than “breakfast food.” You can use them at any time of day, including afternoon tea, light supper, or dessert. Here’s how we tried them:

Sweet: Plain with dusted confectioner’s sugar, jam, or syrup, with or without a side of breakfast meats Rolled with a sweet ricotta filling, plain or with fruit or chocolate bits Topped with fresh bananas and berries Savory: With sour cream or crème fraîche and salmon caviar With smoked salmon or poached salmon, sour cream and dill With poached chicken and dill, with creamed chicken and mushrooms
	Filled with ricotta, chocolate bits and dried cherries.

It’s well worth adding to your collection of pancake mixes, and giving as a gift (it comes in a cellophane bag with a gold bow). Each box makes 24 four-inch pancakes or six to eight large waffles.