Sweet Milk Griddle Cakes

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A little background: my grandmother taught classes for the Idaho Power and Light Company in the 1940’s. Her job was to teach women how to use the new electric stoves. She used recipe books and her own concoctions as well. This past summer, my dad let me borrow my grandmother’s recipe book, The Household Searchlight Recipe Book. In it, I found some notes that she had taken as well as clips from magazines and newspapers. Some awesome recipes are in that book, like these Griddle Cakes! 

Some recipes look like they would be hard to follow simply because we use so many shortcuts these days. People also don’t know certain cooking techniques by heart anymore. For example, many of the recipes assume that you know how to make a basic bread or pie crust. Of course, you can research these methods but it’s interesting that most people no longer “just know” how to do these things.

Last night I was searching through my grandmother’s recipe book trying to find something I could make for breakfast with ingredients I had on hand. I happened upon the Bread section and found several recipes for Griddle-Cakes. At first, I thought I couldn’t make any of them because all the recipes required sifted flour. I did a little research and found out that a wire whisk can be used to sift flour. I tried it and it seemed to work well.

For the shortening, I used the solid Crisco butter-flavored shortening that comes in stick form. It’s much easier to measure that way (in my opinion). I used Krusteaz pancake mix, but any pancake mix will work. I recommend using an electric mixer to beat the ingredients. The pancake mix package said to leave the batter lumpy, so I was a little wary to beat the batter until smooth, but it turned out just right. The pancakes were light and fluffy and yellowish in color.

To make sure I had enough, I doubled the recipe and measured out each pancake using a ¼ cup measuring cup.

Do you prefer pancakes or waffles? I like both. For another 1940’s breakfast recipe, check out my Chocolate Waffles.

They were perfect in size and the double batch made about 16 pancakes. If you’re making the pancakes for more than 2-3 people, I recommend doubling the recipe.

Print Recipe

5 from 3 votes

Sweet Milk Griddle Cakes

An Simple, Old-Fashioned Pancake Recipe

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time20 minutes mins

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Servings: 16

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 C Pancake or Ready-Mixed Flour
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 C Milk
• 2 tbsp Melted Shortening
• 1 Egg, Well-Beaten

Instructions

• 1. Sift flour, measure, and sift with sugar.

  2. Stir egg, milk, and shortening until combined.

  3. Add dry ingredients and beat until smooth.

  4. Bake on hot griddle or in a large pan.