SUNDAE SUNDAY: The hangover breakfast sundae, complete with maple, bacon, and silver dollar pancakes
While I enjoy seeing how my Instagram followers vote each week to determine which #sundaesunday flavor I work with, I must admit that in the battle of cream cheese or maple syrup this week, I was really rooting for cream cheese. Alas, maple syrup unsurprisingly won out, and I subsequently struggled to commit to a single sundae concept because I had so many ideas.
Since I hadn’t gotten to work with bacon a few Sundae Sundays ago, I knew I wanted to weave that into whatever I made since it is delightful with bacon (hello, maple bacon apple doughnut at Dynamo Donuts).
Building off bacon, I added vanilla ice cream with maple syrup swirl to the mix, and landed on a brown butter pecan blondie recipe from pastry school that sounded promising as the sundae base. However, as the blondies came out of the oven and were tasted, I felt they weren’t worth the calories, even for this series of blog posts that embraces spontaneity.
Back at the drawing board, I fully committed to the wonderful world of breakfast items. If I hadn’t done a waffle-centric sundae recently with my Decaf Wafflegato, I would have done a decadent breakfast-themed sundae involving waffles, bacon, and ice cream.
However, the idea of mini pancakes came to the forefront and rounds out the maple swirl ice cream and crispy, salty bacon bits scattered throughout this sundae. Breakfast for dessert, indeed.
The hangover breakfast sundae, complete with maple, bacon, and silver dollar pancakes
By: Kathleen Hayes; yields and adaptations listed below by component
As a reminder, my Sundae Sunday series of recipes are a one-shot, spur-of-the-moment creation, so they’re not as thoroughly tested as my other recipes.
Maple swirl ice cream - adapted from the humphry slocombe ice cream book; yield = 1 pint
MISE IT
246g heavy cream
93g whole milk
44g buttermilk
97g (organic) sugar
35g egg yolks
3 pinches of kosher salt
1 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
¼ cup - ½ cup pure maple syrup
MAKE IT
Create an ice bath for your final mixture to cool down in a large mixing bowl.
In a medium saucepan, combine cream, milk, and salt. Heat over medium or medium-high until it’s just at a soft boil, then remove from heat.
Whisk together your sugar and egg yolks until combined. This will form a thick paste.
Temper your egg mixture by ladling (or carefully pouring straight from the pan) ¼ - ⅓ cup of your hot cream mixture into the bowl with your eggs+sugar, whisking constantly to start melding the two mixtures together. Repeat with a few more ladles worth of the cream mixture, and then transfer the tempered mixture back into your saucepan.
Over medium-high heat, heat your base and use a spatula to draw figure-8s shapes repeatedly through the mixture to keep everything moving so it doesn’t stick to the bottom. Do this until it thickens slightly and reaches a temperature of 170 - 172 F, then remove from heat. (You’ve made creme anglaise!)
Pour your creme anglaise mixture through a chinoise/fine-meshed strainer into a container over an ice bath. Add vanilla paste to the strained base and stir.
Stir periodically and let mixture cool down to room temperature. Then let mixture chill for at least an hour and up to 2 days in the refrigerator.
Before you spin your ice cream: place a baking dish and spatula in the freezer (I use an even smaller version of the smaller of these two dishes when making just a pint) so your finished ice cream will go into a chilled container and not melt.
Follow the instructions for your ice cream machine and spin your ice cream. As you’re ready to dismount your ice cream into the chilled container, drizzle some maple syrup along the bottom. Put ½ of your ice cream in the container, add another layer of maple syrup, add the remainder of your ice cream, and finish with another drizzling of maple syrup. Place filled container back into the freezer to firm up and set for a few hours.
Crispy bacon
MISE IT
2 pieces of thick-cut bacon
MAKE IT
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Place bacon slices on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and cook in oven for 20-25 minutes.
Cool bacon strips on a paper-towel lined plate. Chop into small bits.
Silver dollar (mini) pancakes
Adapted from my Quick and easy, better-than-boxed buttermilk pancakes; yield: 12-15, 1” pancakes
MISE IT
Wet ingredients
145g buttermilk
14g (1T) unsalted butter, melted
25g whole eggs (~½ egg)
Dry ingredients
67g all purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
⅛ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon + 1-2 pinches kosher salt
1 ¼ teaspoons sugar
For cooking
Neutral oil like canola, for greasing the pan
MAKE IT
On the stove over medium heat or in the microwave (for 30-second intervals), melt the butter. Set aside.
Preheat a large skillet, frying pan or griddle to medium heat.
Combine all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar) in a mixing bowl and mix together with a fork or your clean hands.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the melted butter, egg, and buttermilk. Whisk until combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and gently mix with the whisk just until you don’t see any flour patches in your mix. Lumps are okay and encouraged!
Dab some neutral oil on a paper towel and use that oiled-up towel to lightly coat your pan/griddle until there’s a thin layer across your entire cooking surface. Note: You’ll want to re-apply oil every few batches of pancakes to prevent sticking, and I’ve found the amount of oil needed varies by pan.
Using small ladle or spoon, create 1” wide pancakes, fitting 5-6 per batch in a large skillet. While many recipes talk about bubbles forming/popping, I’ve found this not to be the best gauge of doneness. Instead, I periodically peek at the underside of the pancake and flip based on color; as a rough guideline, start checking after 2-3 minutes. Flip pancakes, and cook for additional 1-2 minutes, or until desired color is achieved. Since these are going into ice cream, I cook them slightly longer than I would normally so they hold their shape/crispness.
Special equipment - across all components
Spatula
Skillet, frying pan or griddle
Paper towel
Whisk
Mixing bowls
Spatula
ASSEMBLE IT
Using a sundae dish, alternate layers of ice cream scoops, silver dollar pancakes, and bacon until the dish is full. Top with bacon crumbs, a single pancake, and optional drizzle of maple syrup.
TWEAK IT
To make this seasonal, use a pumpkin pancake recipe and maple ginger ice cream.
Incorporate the bacon directly into the ice cream, which I intended on doing but didn’t because the bacon was still too hot when the ice cream left the machine
Swap out pancakes and swap in waffles or French toast bites instead.
Mix the maple syrup directly into the ice cream instead of having it as a vanilla swirl concoction.
