Bear Pancakes - First Day at the Zoo!

To celebrate Josh's first trip to the zoo last month we decided to make him a special breakfast: bear cub pancakes!

I started out with a basic whole wheat pancake recipe (I made my own buttermilk using this).

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup wheat germ
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 5 1/3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions:

1. In a food processor or in a large bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, white flour, wheat germ or oats, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, and salt.
2. Cut the butter into small pieces with a knife, and add the butter to the flour-mixture. Mix until the mixture has a sand-like consistency.
3. Make a well in the center of the flour-butter mixture, and add the buttermilk and eggs. Stir until the liquids are fully incorporated.
4. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and grease the surface with 1 tablespoon of butter or oil. Ladle the batter onto the surface to form 4 inch pancakes. Once bubbles form on the top of the pancakes, flip them over, and cook them on the other side for about 2 minutes.

For the bear: Make one larger and two smaller round pancakes, layer the larger one on top of the two smaller to make a bear with ears!

For the mouth: Roll up bacon into a bear-mouth(ish) shape and fry it until crispy.

For the eyes: Separate an egg and place small dollups of white into a hot frying pan followed by even smaller dollops of yolk. Cooked this over medium heat sunny-side-up until the yolk is cooked through. 

For the tie: Slice 2 strawberries not quite all the way through and fan out. Use a smaller fruit as the knot (we had pomegranate seeds, but blueberries would work as well!

Sure, he looks a little funky, but this was really just a test run for us for when Josh gets older! Hope you (and your kids!) enjoy!