Abita Strawberry Beer Pancakes!

This is my favorite time of year.  I’ve probably said that at other times, like when Mother’s Winter Grind comes out, but seriously.  Abita Strawberry Lager season.  It makes me happy.  Especially since our local brew emporium has decided to sell it.  Oh, and our favorite watering hole is also featuring Abita as their Brewery of the Month, which means on Wednesdays, my toughest choice is “TurboDog or Purple Haze?”

And in a segue that makes no sense whatsoever, one of my LEAST favorite breakfast items on the planet is pancakes.  I prefer waffles, given the choice. Actually, given the choice, I would choose to eat biscuits & gravy every morning if there was a Biscuits & Gravy Fairy in my house.  But I digress.  It is VERY rare that I actually want pancakes.  You have to add something to them to make me want them—like when my cousin/former roommate Primo would make chocolate chip pancakes…those were good days.  Or my pumpkin pancakes.  Or the Red Velvet pancakes that IHOP had a while back. MMMmmmmm…

But in this particular instance, I decided that beer pancakes sounded good.  Strawberry beer pancakes, to be exact.  And what could go better with strawberry beer pancakes than Abita’s Strawberry Lager?

Ingredients: (makes 4 short-stack servings—aka, 2 per person)

1 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1 cup Abita Strawberry Lager

2 Tbsp light butter, melted

4-6 strawberries, washed & diced, plus 4 for decorating

 

Directions:

Pretty easy here.  Combined your dry ingredients.  Then add egg, beer, & butter and mix well.  A few lumps are okay.  Mix in diced strawberries.

Heat a skillet over medium and lightly coat with nonstick butter-flavored cooking spray.  When the skillet is hot, use an ice cream scoop to portion batter into the pan.  When bubbles start to appear on top, use a spatula to flip.

 

Meanwhile, prep your strawberries for the top decoration.  Pick the prettiest ones for this—your ugly strawberries can be chopped up to go into the pancakes. If you wanna be all fancy-like, use a good paring knife to make slits across the strawberry almost all the way (but not quite) to the stem.  Then splay the slices thusly:

(One of those random things I learned at Martin’s which has remained useful.)

 

When you’ve got a stack o’ pancakes, portion them out, pour maple syrup over top (or strawberry syrup, if you feel so inclined) and decorate with a strawberry.

 

Totes yummy.  And you get to have booze for breakfast that isn’t in a mimosa.  Though, FYI…mimosas go great with these.  Next time I make a batch, I think I want to try it with brown sugar instead of regular sugar for some extra richness.

 

NutriFacts:

Calories 222.8

  Total Fat 3.9 g

  Saturated Fat 1.2 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 1.6 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 0.9 g

  Cholesterol 40.9 mg

  Sodium 473.9 mg

  Potassium 91.4 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 38.9 g

  Dietary Fiber 1.3 g

  Sugars 13.6 g

  Protein 4.9 g