Little did I know that he was a foodie. Before there were such things as foodies. In fact, he came from a family of foodies.
One would imagine that a star with the stature of Vincent Price would have spent a whole lot of time in fancy restaurants. But, like today's fans of food, he liked to cook. And even more important, he thought that good food should be available to the masses.
A Treasury of Great Recipes by Vincent Price and his wife, Mary, is a collection of recipes that the average cook of the day (the book was first published in 1965) could manage to make.
But the recipes are inspired by restaurants.
The book had been out of print for quite some time - and became crazy expensive as a collector's edition. But it has since been re-released by Vincent and Mary's daughter, Victoria Price, so it's more affordable, for sure.
As I was browsing through the book, I spotted a recipe for "little thin orange pancakes" that seemed like a perfect fit (hehe) for a new pan I was testing. The pan is called a Plett Pan
, and it has shallow indentations that are meant for making ... well, small pancakes.The Plett pan is usually used for Swedish pancakes, but after I looked at a bunch of recipes, I realized that the common theme was that the pancakes used about a tablespoon of batter each - just like the little thin orange pancakes in Vincent Price's book.
And I thought, well, how about that? I could test a cookbook recipe at the same time I was testing the pan. (The pan will appear on the review blog later. For now, we're making PANCAKES.
To be fair, Vincent Price's recipe didn't require using a special pan. But, hey, I figured the little pancakes would be cuter if I didn't free-form them.
Harvey Girl Special Little Thin Orange Pancakes
Adapted from A Treasury of Great Recipes
by Mary and Vincent Price
Zest from 1/2 orange1 cup fresh orange juice
Supremes from 1/2 orange, diced (about 1/4 cup)
1 cup packaged pancake mix
Butter, for the pan (if needed)
Combine the zest, orange juice. diced orange, and pancake mix in a bowl.
Heat the pan. You can brush a little melted butter in the indentations, if you like but the pan I used was very nonstick and really didn't need it.
I did add butter at first, but didn't add any more as I continued making pancakes.
Put about 1 tablespoon of batter in each indentation.
From this point, you're cooking just like you'd cook a normal pancake.
I suggest using a small silicone turner to get under the pancakes to check the bottom and to turn them.
To remove the pancakes from the pan, you can just flip the pan over, or slide them out, or remove them one at a time with the little spatula you used to flip them.
These pancakes were sweet enough that they didn't need any syrup, but a little butter was nice. Sour cream would be nice, too, if you prefer creamy-tartness.
I bought the cookbook; the Plett pan was sent for the purpose of a review (which will be on Cookistry Reviews a little later - right now I'm in the midst of GIFT GUIDES!
