Toast Restaurant Flannel Cakes
Makes 6-8 flannel cakes
From Toast
31 Sunnyside Ave.
(between Blithedale and Miller)
Mill Valley, CA
(415) 388-2500
toastmillvalley.com
The flannel cakes:
- 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 1/4 cups whole or 2 percent milk
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 tablespoons canola oil + more for griddle
- 3/4 cup granola with dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
- The honey-pecan butter (optional)
- 1 stick butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons chopped toasted pecans (or candied nuts)
For the flannel cakes: Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a sieve and shake over a mixing bowl. In another bowl, whisk the milk, eggs, vanilla and 2 tablespoons canola oil. Make a well in center of dry ingredients and pour in blended liquids, whisking in dry ingredients from the sides of well. Do not overmix. Lumps are OK. Stir the granola and wheat germ together in a small bowl.
Coat the surface of a large griddle or large 12-inch nonstick skillet with oil and heat over medium heat. Ladle out batter, a little less than 1/2 cup for each pancake. Sprinkle on a couple of tablespoons granola mixture so it covers the top of each pancake; you may have a little left over. I use my fingers to tap in the granola mixture as the batter is still raw so it will sink in. This method keeps everything crunchier. When the flannel cakes are golden around the edges, and small bubbles begin to rise to the surface, carefully turn over. The granola side will take at least 1 1/2 minutes. Remove the flannel cakes to warm platter. If there are any remaining pieces of granola in the skillet, wipe out using a damp paper towel. Drizzle in a little more oil for the next batches. Serve with warm maple syrup and honey-pecan butter, if desired.
For the honey-pecan butter: Place butter, honey and pecans in food processor and process until blended but with small pieces of pecan showing.
Per serving: 235 calories, 7 g protein, 32 g carbohydrate, 8 g fat (2 g saturated), 58 mg cholesterol, 322 mg sodium, 2 g fiber.
About Chef Michael Garcia
Michael is a San Francisco native starting his culinary career at 14 working for a local caterer washing dishes and helping with basic food prep. At 16 moved on to another San Francisco catering company still cleaning but also getting a lot more involved with prepping and plating food for parties ranging from 100 ppl to 2000 ppl.Upon graduating he was hired at Sheraton ITT starting as a pantry cook. With in no time all his catering experience paid off and was put in to an assistant banquet chef position. In 1991 he transferred hotels to be a part of the renowned Palace Hotels' reopening. At 20 years old he was starting back at pantry again but in one amazing hotel working with chef Thomas Kovacs, chef Thomas Hanson, garde manger chef Knacnon and a wide array of talented chef and restaurateurs. Spending almost 8 years there it was an informal internship learning and working almost every position in the kitchen and leaving as garde manger chef. He went on to do a short stint at Farallon, sous chef for San Francisco's Cliff House, sous for Bon Appetite, Chef for Prego's all while maintaining a small catering/ ice sculpturing business.
Then in 2001 he was opening exec. Chef for Sociale in San Francisco's Presidio Heights which meet with great reviews and was embraced as a local hot spot.
In 2003 he moved to Marin county meeting Shahram Bijan and worked for him as chef de cuisine at his Mill Valley restaurant First Crush. Soon after Mr. Bijan Purchased a café style restaurant "Toast" were Michael went to temporarily work to set up operations and train staff. Michael fell in love with the neighborhood style restaurant and developing the concept that worked for it. Utilizing finer points of cooking in a comfort food environment. Michael took the ball on this restaurant and ran with it becoming operations manager/ exec. Chef.
