While my game-mates were rolling to see how much cash they got for their wheat harvest, I leaned over and grabbed Dreena Burton’s Vive Le Vegan!, and started flipping through the chapter on Breakfasts. The Apple Oat Pancakes and Banana Bliss Pancakes seemed especially yummy, so this morning I attempted them. Unfortunately, it didn’t go so well.

The Apple Oat Pancakes look yummy….

…but I couldn’t get them to cook all the way through without burning them. I don’t know if this was a problem with my pan (a Le Creuset cast iron skillet) or if I just wasn’t getting the burner set at the right temperature. The oaty and apple flavors went great together, but both pancake recipes call for a whole tablespoon of baking powder, and I think that might be responsible for the metallic aftertaste that I seem to be so sensitive to. I’ve tasted it before in recipes that have a lot of baking powder, like some cornbreads. Maybe I just have weird taste buds?

I managed to get about three okay-looking pancakes out of this batch, and I gave a couple to Miles, my six-year-old. He loved them.

Since we were all still hungry, I cleaned out my bowl and dove right into the Banana Bliss Pancakes:

These cooked up a lot better, but I still had problems with burning (you can see the uneven color), and the taste was pretty awful. The banana flavor was, for me, drowned out by the taste of the baking powder, and they weren’t sweet at all. Jason suggested I add some honey, so I put two tablespoons in the remaining batter, but it didn’t seem to improve things. The household declared them “Hippy Pancakes”, and they got a thumbs-down.

I’m disappointed they didn’t work, but I think this might have something to do with my Vegan Pancake Curse. Almost every single vegan pancake or french toast recipe I’ve tried has been awful, and I don’t know why. The one exception to this rule is the recipe we tried for Easy Weekend Pancakes, from VeganYumYum. Those are DELICIOUS, I mean crazy-delicious, the kind of pancakes that are hard to get to the table because we keep wanting to eat them right out of the pan.They were immune to the curse, maybe because they go through the Vita-Mix, and since I’m a whiz with the Vita-Mix, my mojo with that appliance might be canceling out the curse.

I will keep trying. I will fight the curse!