Being a long distance runner(marathons and beyond) I'm quite picky in what I eat to fuel my body, so I went to Batter Blaster's website and was impressed by the ingredient, nutritional values and the organic ingredients, but I still had my doubts that something in a can (like whip-cream in a can) would be any good. Side note: also noticed they're headquartered right here in Austin, TX... shop local!
I finally remembered to look for it at the grocery store (HEB on Oltorf and S.Congress), and picked up a can. $3.99 is a great price, but now let's see how many 'cakes' it makes and if they're any good.
Most importantly, I called my running friend and personal dietician Meredith Terranova, and asked for her opinion. She was quite skeptical but as I read the ingredients off the can, she offered to give it a closer look.
Fast forward to this morning...
Did my IT Band (injury) exercises and built up some appetite with some core work and other stuff, then got going on breakfast. I had previously emailed Mer the link to Batter Blaster's site, and by now she had replied to my email as well as posted on to the Facebook page she has for her clients...
Email reply:
"I really wanted to hate this product but truthfully it is quite a bit better than any frozen product out there."
Facebook post:
"I really wanted to think it was a terrible idea, but in comparing, if you follow the serving size, they have less calories and fat than frozen options. The sodium is similar for both, and although the fiber is low for this the sugar is the same. And, yes, they are even a local product."
Time to eat and put to the test!
(Truthfully, I look forward to tomorrow even more, as with most pancakes I make, I always burn the first few till the pan temperature is perfect! Plus, I was multi-tasking, messing with photos and the waffle maker too. I also failed to buy fresh blueberries, peaches, and other waffle friendly fruits, so I was stuck with blueberry preserves(IKEA), local honey, and low-calorie, low-sugar maple syrup.)
The process was simple...
Heat up a pan, heat up the waffle maker, spray a little non-stick cooking spray when hot, then "spray" some batter out of the can and do whatever you would do with old school batter. You know... little bubbles means flip the pancake, and/or keep peeking at the waffle as it cooks.
Result?
Outstanding! Two thumbs WAAY up!!
Pancakes: I did burn a couple of pancakes(a little, but ate them), eventually got it right though. True to their claims, the pancakes where light and fluffy, and tasted identical to anything you'd make from scratch!
Waffles: My waffle maker is the kind that makes light, thinnish, somewhat crunchy waffles (NOT belgian fat ones) and they came out perfect. Simply perfect. I have to assume fat Belgian waffles will be perfect too.
Both tasted really good!
Best part, no messy pain in the butt prep work or clean up. It's right there, in a can, ready to go! And it's "Meredith approved"! (provided the serving amount is controlled)
Since it was my first batch, I made more than I would for a normal breakfast, and I put different toppings on. All were a success.
I decided to turn this into brunch, and promptly made two more waffles!
Tomorrow I will sprinkle some chopped walnuts on the mix as soon as I spray it on the waffle maker, and also give blueberry pancakes a try by toss some blueberries onto the mix. I can't wait!
Nice to see plenty of Organic ingredients:
Filtered water
Organic wheat flour (unbleached)
Organic cane sugar
Organic whole egg solids
Organic soybean powder
Sodium lactate (lactic acid from beet sugar)
DiCalcium phosphate (leavening agent)
Sea salt
Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)
Organic rice bran extract
7 comments:
Don't peek while your waffles are cooking! Watch the steam. When no more steam is floating out of the sides of your waffle iron, your waffles are done.
Nope, just don't understand why you'd eat all the extra crap they put into it, compared to just making them yourself.
Pancake batter is about the most trivially simple thing in the kitchen to make from scratch. Just don't understand the need for something like this. Same with packs of pancake mix, just unnecessary junk, compared to mixing the few ingredients from scratch.
Being better than processed, frozen versions isn't exactly high praise, either...
Amy, my problem is I like them a special crunchiness, and so I must peek and push with fork. ; )
Gordon, in principle i completely agree that scratch always wins. However, when pressed for time, "trivially simple" isn't that simple, so this is a decent alternative. By the way, I don't think you've done your homework on the higher end frozen ones, but I'm not going to argue about it. : )
One last thing, Mer slams processed, pre-packaged, treated, untreated, organic, non-organic foods more than anyone you've ever met. She is very good at what she does for a living and will talk your ear off about every "unnecessary" junk out there if you want her to. She obviously would prefer a scratch made batch, and./but I won't go into all the other details we discussed about this product and how I'm using it. Not saying you are wrong or she is right or vice versa, just felt the need to add this note as my review may sound like she wholeheartedly approved my purchased and gave me giant green lights. Just trust that there was more depth to my conversation with her than this quick review.
Done rambling!
True, but you can _very_easily_ make your own pancake mix - just double/ triple the dry ingredients in any pancake mix recipe and stick it in a jar.
Then when you want to make a pancake, you just add egg/ milk to some of your premixed dry mix.
It may take all of two minutes to mix the ingredients and I agree that if those two minutes are critical to your morning, it can be a real saving to have reconstituted, previously dried soy milk, sodium lactate, DiCalcium phosphate and whole egg solids in place.
It isn't really this canned pancake mix that I'm commenting on. The idea of pre mixed pancake mix itself always amazes me.
pancakes are far and away the simplest form of 'baking' in the world, I just don't understand why people want to try and make them taste worse for the same amount of effort.
Least the ingredient list isn't as ugly as 'Pure Sport' that everyone seems to be chugging just now.
Thanks for sharing this! The review was good, I should try this! thanks! :)
I saw Pavement at Stubbs last night. For some reason the drummer was throwing out t-shirts. I almost caught one. Should have tried harder, because it was a pretty cool Batter Blaster t-shirt. I don't know why this indie band from the 90's was tossing out batter blaster t-shirts, but they did.
looks delicious, want to try it!
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