Pappy's Puff Pancakes

Hattie’s Kitchen is an imaginary place inside this house.

The basis of this drawing was a photograph which my mother took in the late 1940s. She was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri, and the photo was of the last house they lived in there.

The influences of my family’s southern cooking and having lived in California, Utah and Colorado has had an impact on what are favorite recipes at our house, but this imagined safe place was the beginning of the cookbook.





As I write this, it is Sunday morning, and I’m thinking about the Sunday’s of my childhood.

I spent a lot of weekends with my maternal grandparents. For some reason that I can’t even remember, we called them Mammy and Pappy. They were the source of a lot of my learning about the skills that are being lost today.

This skillet belonged to them, and came to me after my grandmother had a stroke and they went to live with my aunt in Tennessee.

Sunday morning, while Mammy got my sister and me ready for church, Pappy made breakfast. It is the only meal I remember him ever cooking, so having his recipe for this signature meal is pretty amazing. That this copy is actually in his handwriting is an even more special treasure.




Pappy’s Puff Pancakes

2 cups self-rising flour – spooned into cup
1 slightly heaping teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ to 1 2/3 cups milk
2 eggs, separated
1 tablespoon bacon drippings

Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt in bowl.
Mix the milk, egg yolks and bacon drippings, add to dry ingredients and mix
Beat egg whites fairly stiffly and mix into the batter
Grease skillet with bacon drippings and bake pancakes on medium heat


Now I know these are probably not “heart healthy”, but I do remember the Sunday ritual, and I’m convinced that even today having these once in a while wouldn’t hurt you too much.

I can remember the sound of the rotary egg beater as the egg whites were whipped, and the delightful crunch of the outside browned edge of these wonderful tasting breakfast treats.

I’m sure they wouldn’t taste the same with any other kind of oil added, so be brave and fry some bacon ahead of time to use those drippings. After all, you won’t need to add any butter to them once they are cooked. Since no one else has “The Skillet” you’ll need to make do with your own heavy pan--try to stay away from Teflon though, the texture won’t be the same.

So I’m hoping someone will give these a try and let me know what you think!