You gotta give it up for this crafty gobbler. In griddle guru Jim Belosic’s book, OMG Pancakes! 75 Cool Creations Your Kids Will Love to Eat, this dad flips up some seriously inventive flapjacks – including this pancake turkey.
It’s a great pairing if you’re catching America’s Thanksgiving Parade over the breakfast table on Thanksgiving morning. Or, Belosic, who’s also the guy behind JimsPancakes.com, says it’s a pretty cool family Turkey Day dinner alternative: “Definitely less prep and cooking time!”
Here’s the recipe, excerpted with the kind permission of Penguin Group.
Ingredients
- Plain pancake batter
- Natural brown food coloring or cocoa powder
- Natural red food coloring or maraschino cherry juice
- Three squeeze bottles (available at restaurant supply stores) or plastic baggies (cut corner tip off)
- Flipper (the bigger, the better!)
- Step-by-step illustrations for reference (click the image to download!)
Directions
- Split batter into three parts in three separate bowls, with the majority in one bowl (only a tiny amount in the other two). Add brown coloring to the largest portion, and red to one of the other two. Keep the last bit plain. Transfer batter into three separate squeeze bottles or baggies.
- Make the turkey in three parts: Body, tail and feet. Use brown batter to draw the shape of the body, neck and head. Fill in the outline, leaving a space for the eye. Use plain batter for the eye. Don’t forget the wattle (use red batter for this).
- With more brown batter, form the base of the tail – as if you were making a chocolate rainbow. Let the base cook; then draw feather shapes with the red and plain batter, and connect them to the base. Arrange the feathers like the petals of a rose.
- Make feet by cooking a small shape for them on the griddle. This will be the stand for your finished masterpiece. After you’ve cooked all parts, assemble the body and tail together, like one of those balsa airplanes – “Tab A goes into Slot B.” Then, put them onto the feet.
- To “plate” it, simply allow the turkey to stand on the plate and serve! Carving, of course, is optional. So is the gravy.
This post was originally published in 2011 and is updated regularly.
