Tuesday, February 10, 2009
More Food Geekery re: McGriddle Crack
Thanks so much to all of you who left comments and suggestions about the great syrup glob Crack at home dilemma! What fun!
So yea, to those of you who wondered....YES!, they're really that good, and YES!, it really is all about the syrup globs being IN the pancakes, and the here-and-there kind of blips of sweet on the tongue that makes Crack what it is, at least for me. So no, just putting syrup in some form on the pancakes doesn't cut it.
And besides, where's the fun in making something easy? :)
I'm definitely going to try the maple sugar bits, and as far as using actual maple syrup goesI've researched all your suggestions for what kind of thickener to use. As I mentioned before, being able to stay a gel when heated is the issue, and it looks like agar-agar might be the best bet...from the website cybercolloids.net:
One of the single biggest users of agar in the west is in the baking industry where the very high melting points of the agar gels make them particularly suitable to the baking process. Agar has good compatibility with sugar and can be used in very high sugar environments that would precipitate most other gums.
I also read that it's used extensively in Asia which leads me to think I may be able to buy it at the Asian market, so I'm adding it to the list for my next United Noodles run.
I should also note that in addition to the method of getting the syrup globs into the pancakes that told you about in the original post, I did in fact, try "scattering" them on top of the already cooking pancakes, and even following that up with a bit more batter as a cover before flipping. Unfortunately, while this method was messier, it wasn't more effective at keeping the globs from melting out.
And freezing the goo, yes. That was my game plan from the outset of this project, but as I suspected, the sugar content in the maple syrup prevented the goo from freezing. Really, there was little to no discernable difference in behavior between the room temp or refrigerated goo globs and the frozen, so I omitted that part as well.
Anyway, rest assured there'll be a round two of this experiment coming sometime soon, but I just want to put out there that both personally and as representative of Crack addicts everywhere, I think Gretchen needs to pump her brother for whatever details he may have gleaned from getting the syrup-glob-in-pancake-machine to work.
I won't tell, I promise :)
For you "enough with the foodgeek stuff" peeps, here's a peek at what went on at Modern in MN over the weekend:
That, friends, is a hack of IKEA's $8.99 TERTIAL desk lamps into wall lamps, complete with cord cover. Check out the step-by-step here.
So yea, to those of you who wondered....YES!, they're really that good, and YES!, it really is all about the syrup globs being IN the pancakes, and the here-and-there kind of blips of sweet on the tongue that makes Crack what it is, at least for me. So no, just putting syrup in some form on the pancakes doesn't cut it.
And besides, where's the fun in making something easy? :)
I'm definitely going to try the maple sugar bits, and as far as using actual maple syrup goesI've researched all your suggestions for what kind of thickener to use. As I mentioned before, being able to stay a gel when heated is the issue, and it looks like agar-agar might be the best bet...from the website cybercolloids.net:
One of the single biggest users of agar in the west is in the baking industry where the very high melting points of the agar gels make them particularly suitable to the baking process. Agar has good compatibility with sugar and can be used in very high sugar environments that would precipitate most other gums.
I also read that it's used extensively in Asia which leads me to think I may be able to buy it at the Asian market, so I'm adding it to the list for my next United Noodles run.
I should also note that in addition to the method of getting the syrup globs into the pancakes that told you about in the original post, I did in fact, try "scattering" them on top of the already cooking pancakes, and even following that up with a bit more batter as a cover before flipping. Unfortunately, while this method was messier, it wasn't more effective at keeping the globs from melting out.
And freezing the goo, yes. That was my game plan from the outset of this project, but as I suspected, the sugar content in the maple syrup prevented the goo from freezing. Really, there was little to no discernable difference in behavior between the room temp or refrigerated goo globs and the frozen, so I omitted that part as well.
Anyway, rest assured there'll be a round two of this experiment coming sometime soon, but I just want to put out there that both personally and as representative of Crack addicts everywhere, I think Gretchen needs to pump her brother for whatever details he may have gleaned from getting the syrup-glob-in-pancake-machine to work.
I won't tell, I promise :)
For you "enough with the foodgeek stuff" peeps, here's a peek at what went on at Modern in MN over the weekend:
That, friends, is a hack of IKEA's $8.99 TERTIAL desk lamps into wall lamps, complete with cord cover. Check out the step-by-step here.
Labels: cooking food mcgriddle ikea hack
