Countdown to Halloween 2013 - Vampire Theme

Today's theme for the Countdown to Halloween was vampires. Although I had a few ideas for today based on what I saw on Pinterest - decorating a white pumpkin to look like a vampire and making vampire cookies - we ended up only doing one - Jam-Filled Pancakes.

I tried to find a white pumpkin for the vampire-looking pumpkin, but they are unavailable in the area. We could have painted a pumpkin white with acrylic paint, but that seemed like it would take quite a few bottles of paint.

When we thought about making gingerbread men that look like vampires, we couldn't stomach the thought of any more sweets. It seems like there are so many recipes for cookies, bars, pies, and other desserts around Halloween...and not very many healthy recipes. So, we chose not to make the cookies.

Instead, we made Jam-filled Vampire Pancakes. I saw the idea on a pin on Pinterest which led to Baking Bites.

Pancake we made with raspberry jam filling.

The fang marks were made using a toothpick.

The recipe for the pancakes had a nice flavor to it because there is one teaspoon of vanilla. However, the batter is very thin and did not cover the raspberry jam filling completely. I'm wondering if it was because I used skim milk versus the buttermilk as called for in recipe.

Either way, using one of our recipes for pancakes - either from the Betty Crocker cookbook or my Dad's sourdough pancakes - would have been better to use. Both these recipes have thicker batter, rise when cooking, and would have easily covered the jam.

The red raspberry jam came from Salt-N-Pepper Farm and was delicious!  It was the perfect for the two "teeth" marks in the pancake that made it look like it was oozing "blood."

This is the recipe that we used:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 large egg
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
approx 1/3 cup red jam of your choice

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.

In a small bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together buttermilk, egg, vegetable oi, and vanilla. Pour into dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Preheat a lightly-greased griddle or frying pan to medium-high. When a drop of water skitters on the surface, it is ready.

Drop a scant 1/4 cup of batter onto the griddle. Place about 3 tsp jam in the center of the pancake. Cover with a bit more pancake batter – just enough to hide the jam. Cook until first side is golden, then flip and brown the second side.

Sophia making fang marks in her pancakes

using a toothpick.

To make vampire bites, use a toothpick to make fang marks and mark each with a drop of jam. Serve immediately.