Poorhouse Pancakes

These skillet-sized pancakes taste like funnel cakes, and you don't need to put anything on them. My mother-in-law grew up in a family with 20 kids. They would often come home from school at lunch for one of these poorhouse pancakes. They'd wait patiently for their pancake to be ready, or they'd have to go to the back of the line. She insists that "you don't use a recipe, you just do it by taste," but I didn't want to lose this piece of family history when my generation doesn't make them often enough to remember how without help. I'm on a gluten-free diet, so we tried this with Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour for me, and even though it didn't taste good before we cooked it, it was yummy once it was fried.

• Ready In: 20 mins
• Serves: 5-6
• Yields: 5-6 pancakes

Ingredients

• 1  cup  oil (plus extra for cooking)
• 3  cups flour
• 3  eggs
• 1 1⁄4 cups milk
• 3⁄4 cup sugar

Directions

1. Heat pan (ideally a 9 inch skillet) with almost 1/4 inch of oil in the bottom.
2. Mix flour & egg.
3. Add milk. Batter should be pretty runny.
4. Add sugar to taste.
5. Pour batter into hot skillet. If it needs a bit of help, spread it with a spoon.
6. As it cooks, cut slits with a spatula, especially to pop bubbles. If your skillet doesn't heat evenly, rotate the pancake so it will cook evenly.
7. Peek underneath to see when it's golden brown & ready to flip. Flip and cook until the second side is done.
8. Serve as is, no need to top it.