M and I kind of have a running joke/tradition about my birthday and it’s called, “birthday week.” I think birthdays are less about the actual day on which you are born but more about the idea of celebration. Celebrating the fact that I am indeed alive and life is good! While ideally I celebrate those two facts every day of the year, the week of my birthday feels just a bit more special.
I tend to do smaller things to treat myself and then explain it by saying “it’s my birthday week.” Occasionally this can be used against M in that I’ll ask him to do something, followed by “it’s my birthday week!” Of course, it’s rather hard to pull this from 2000 miles away (I tried the “fly home, it’s my birthday” but we both knew that we had neither the time nor money for that).
These started the week. You can’t go wrong with a giant stack of pancakes and a little extra butter. The pancakes are hearty, extremely nutty, and a bit on the richer side than I would normally make (and no, I didn’t eat this entire stack of pancakes. I wanted to but some semblance of self control stepped in).
(PS- not a treat to myself but still fun, Wooden Spoons Kitchen launched a new site design this morning for Warm Vanilla Sugar. Be sure to pop over and check out Katrina’s new look!)
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PinIngredients
- ⅓ cup pecans
- ⅔ cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 egg
- 1/4 cup butter, split
- 1/2 vanilla bean
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- ½–3/4 cup milk
Instructions
- For brown butter, carefully slit half of bean and scrape out as much of the insides as you can into a medium skillet. Toss in the butter and scraped out vanilla bean into the pan. Heat over medium heat. Once butter has melted, continue stirring while butter foams up. Once brown flecks appear at the bottom of the pan and the butter has a nutty aroma, remove from heat and set aside, let cool slightly and remove bean shell.
- In a food processor, pulse pecans until they resembled course flour. Combine with whole wheat pastry flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk egg. Whisk in 2 tablespoons brown butter, maple syrup, and ½ cup of milk.
- Combine wet mixture in to dry mixture and stir until batter is combined. Stir in more milk if consistency is not pourable.
- Heat a skillet over medium heat. When skillet is hot (if you flick water onto the skillet, it should sizzle), take about ¼ cup of batter and pour onto skillet. Let cook for 1-2 minutes (until the pancakes begins to bubble slightly. Flip and let cook for another 1-2 minutes until pancake is cooked through.
- Top with remaining brown butter, maple syrup, and pecans.
Jenny says
Gorgeous photos! this looks like the perfect celebration breakfast. We have the birthweek in my house too
Didu says
Q: “carefully slit each bean” but there should only be half a bean of vanilla… ??? that means I should use 2???
Where I live there’s no whole wheat pastry flour. There is finely grind whole wheat but it contains the same amount of gluten as a regular whole wheat flour.
I don’t use white flour at all. what would suggest?
also- what else can I use the brown butter for, and how long can i keep it in the fridge?
Love your recipes!
Thanks!!!
elalderson says
I fixed my wording- still use only half a bean. As for the flour, your whole wheat flour would be fine- if I don’t have any pastry flour, I’ll use medium ground and it turns out. As for the brown butter, I’ve never tried to save it- if you google brown butter you’ll see recipes for cookies, cakes, etc. Hope this helps!
Warm Vanilla Sugar says
Brown butter makes my world! These pancakes look so fabulous Erin. Such a great way to start the day!
Tash @ The Velvet Moon Baker says
these look beautiful! I’m your newest follower aswell 😀
heidi @foodiecrush says
Happy birthday week! We all deserve a whole week to celebrate given it lasts an entire year. How did you get those babies so fluffy and perfect? I need a pancake lesson. Gorgeous.
Heidi (kaprise.com) says
Happy Birthday!!!! I like your concept of the “birthday week!” Enjoy your special week!
Jocelyn Delk Adams says
Brown butter makes life worth living. Wow these look amazing!
Nicole | Eat This Poem says
Happy birthday! I love the idea of these pancakes. A little brown better always makes everything better. 🙂
Natasha Steinberg says
I do the whole birthday week excuse thing too. I love the celebration and overindulging, just for a short while. And I sort of wish you had eaten that entire stack of pancakes. That would have been epic. They look delicious! Happy birthday!
Alex @ delicious-knowledge.com says
I try to get away with Birthday Month, so I totally appreciate birthday week 🙂 I really love celebrations and an excuse to make yummy food- for myself and others! These pancakes look delicious. I want my last meal to be brown butter- yum!
Melissa Vanni says
Holy smokes, these pancakes look good! Happy birthday week, I hope it’s a good one! 🙂
Kathryn says
Happy happy birthday week! Pancakes sound like an excellent way to start it.
caroline says
What a great way to start your b-day week! I have oodles of pecans at home, so these are definitely in order. 😀
Stefanie says
Happy birthday week! Your pancake posts always make me wish I made pancakes more often!
Kate says
What beautiful pictures! These pancakes sound amazing!
Cookie and Kate says
I want a birthday week! My birthday is totally overshadowed by Christmas. I’d be really happy if someone made me brown butter and pecan pancakes for any occasion, though!
Damaris says
Yay for birthday weeks. Mine is coming up next week, the big 3-0. These pancakes would be perfect for my birthday week!
didu says
First of all thanks for the previous answer 😉
My hubby is making this recipe right now and noticed that cinnamon is one of the ingredients though not in the list 🙁
we didn’t know how much to add so we put in 1/2 tsp.
Lets hope it’s not too much 🙂
Love your blog! your my hero (cause i’m not allowed to eat white flower…)
Adi
Alyssa says
I found your blog a while ago when I was looking for a recipe…which I can no longer remember :), but wanted to thank you for THIS recipe – I made these pancakes this weekend for a brunch, and they were a huge hit with adults, kids, and toddlers. My (notoriously non eating) son ate almost half a pancake, which is huge for him. Thanks again, and I look forward to reading about more tastyness.