beer cap'n crunch pancakes
Andrea D'Agosto
Andrea D'Agosto

The Surprising Ingredient That'll Make Your Pancakes Extra Fluffy

This is Cookbook Club, a place where we flip through the best new cookbooks to find the recipes and stories that you need in your life. 

Josh Scherer is not your average bro. Sure, he loves a backwards baseball cap, muscle tanks, sports, and pounding light beer, but he's also a wizard in the kitchen, where he turns out plates of hash brown croque-madames with a side of self-deprecating humor. Scherer (also a Thrillist contributor) is the force behind The Culinary Bro-Down, a food blog and Instagram account that blends Top Chef cooking techniques with 7-Eleven ingredients. And now he has a new cookbook that does the same.

While a lot of food bloggers and cookbook authors are obsessed with cooking idyllic meals made from local produce and high-end ingredients, Scherer has always had a different approach. "I grew up eating the most trash convenience food out there -- a lot of fast food, chips, and boxed Rice-A-Roni type of stuff," says Scherer with a laugh. "I have a fuck ton of institutional knowledge about things like Taco Bell's menu, so when I started cooking I was riffing on that." The result is creations like bread pudding made with White Castle cheeseburgers and a homemade barbecue sauce crafted from a bottle of Cherry Coke and chipotle powder.

Josh Scherer seamlessly blends Top Chef cooking techniques with 7-Eleven ingredients.

If this sounds like the musings of someone with the munchies, that’s because it is. “The stuff I like to make is classic stoner food,” says Scherer. “Much of it is influenced by smoking marijuana and then cooking and eating.” He recalls the story of trying to take a photo of one of his dishes but having to stop to blow smoke out of the window to get a clear shot. 

The book, like any good bro-bible, includes a section dedicated entirely to beer. “I used to have so much light beer lying around in college, so I started to use it when I cooked.” One of his favorite uses for beer? Pancakes. “I saw someone on the Food Network put seltzer into pancake batter once, and I just thought that Natty Light was so close to seltzer that this could work,” Scherer explains.

It might sound like a strange addition to a weekend breakfast, but it makes perfect sense if you like your pancakes fluffy. “The carbonation from the beer is going to act like a leavening agent... and it gives the dish a nice funk that deepens the flavor,” he notes. Scherer pairs the pancake with a malt glaze and Crunch Berries for good measure -- though maple syrup would probably work just as well.

Get the recipe for Cap'N Drunk Pancakes below.

Thrillist Video

CAP’N DRUNK PANCAKES WITH MALT GLAZE


Yield: MAKES 8 MEDIUM PANCAKES, ABOUT 3 SERVINGS

INGREDIENTS:
4 cups nondescriptly flavored golden square breakfast cereal whose mascot holds military rank
1 cup flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 can light beer
1 cup whole milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter, melted; plus more for cooking the pancakes
2 tablespoons whole milk
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons malted milk powder (if you can’t find malt powder, use powdered milk; it will at least give you an extra dose of funk in there)
DIRECTIONS:
This recipe employs a technique -- I’m pretty sure it’s a classical French pastry thing -- where you sub out stupid boring white flour for sugary and nostalgic breakfast cereal. I might have learned about it on Chef’s Table. There was Beethoven playing in the background (or whatever), and then some dude in a white hat dusts a cutting board with Fruity Pebbles in a super-slo-mo shot. Can’t remember which episode though. I’ll get back to you on that. The technique doesn’t only apply to pancakes, either. You can add cereal crumbs to cookie dough or cake batter, or basically any batter or dough that doesn’t rely on gluten development like donuts or pizza do. I suggest you do it, and after you eat these pancakes, you’ll see why.

1. For the pancakes: Put the breakfast cereal and flour in a food processor or blender and let it run on high until the cereal is properly dusted up. (Or empty it into a large Ziploc bag and bash it repeatedly with a blunt object -- like a can of beans or a brick.) Empty that into a large mixing bowl and add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the beer, milk, egg, and melted butter and whisk together.
3. Slowly pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and whisk together.
4. Heat about a teaspoon of butter in a large nonstick sauté pan over medium heat. Or one of those big electric griddles... Man, I should get one of those. They seem useful. But where would I even put it, you know?
5. When the butter is fully melted, pour in about a ½ cup of your pancake batter and swirl the pan a little bit so the batter disperses evenly. Fit as many pancakes as you can into the pan without the edges touching. Or you can go one at a time and spend all day at the stove. Either way.
6. When bubbles start to form on top of the pancake (or when you smell it burning, I don’t know), after about 3 minutes, flip the pancake and cook for another 2 on the other side, until the batter is cooked through and there’s some good browning on the outsides. Repeat until all the batter is used. To keep the pancakes warm until serving, wrap them together in tin foil. It will insulate the heat and get some good steam action going, which will keep them tender and moist.
7. To make the glaze: Heat a small saucepot on medium-low heat, and add the milk and butter. When the butter melts, whisk in the powdered sugar and malt powder. Whisk over the heat for 15 seconds then turn off the heat.
8. Stack those cakes at least three high on a plate, pour a bunch of glaze over the top, then garnish with some extra crushed-up breakfast cereal that for sure doesn’t rhyme with “Faptain Brunch.”

The Culinary Bro-Down Cookbook is available for purchase now.

Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email and subscribe here for our YouTube channel to get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun.

Khushbu Shah is a Senior Food Features Editor at Thrillist and extremely wants pancakes right now. Follow her cravings on Instagram