The entries are in. Greta and Janet Podleski's Batter Be Good to Me Pancakes were hugely popular. I received 13 submissions for this month's cooking club. Here's the second batch of Batter Be Good to Me Pancake submissions. Go back to Part I

From Regan who sent this funny, if mixed, review:
Oh, how I had high hopes for this recipe! Don't get me wrong -- I loved it. I had just hoped it would be a successful stepping stone in my slow and steady path to my families healthy eating! I have a pair of fussy eaters (a husband and a two year old son that takes after my husband!) that I have been slowly introducing to healthier eating (brown rice instead of white, rye bread instead of white…). So when I saw this pancake recipe full of fruit and oat bran I couldn't help but feel a glimmer of excitement! I followed the recipe mostly to a T-- substituting good old Aunt Jemima for the maple syrup (we are not big fans of maple syrup) and a mango orange juice combo for the orange juice. I also had to use frozen blueberries as I waited too long and missed the season here. I got the look from my husband (the "what no greasy bacon and eggs" look) but I'll give him credit for agreeing to try them. Imagine my horror when he cut off a piece only to have raw batter seep out! I quickly got him another - fully cooked - pancake, but he was clearly not sold. "They're a little heavy." I had to agree they weren't the light fluffy and certainly fatty little pancakes that taste heavenly but clog arteries and take up space on my hips!   Next I turned my attention to my son. I had cut up the pancakes into chunks and set up strawberry, yogurt, and syrup stations he could dip the pancake pieces into. He had been quietly eating away so I thought there was still hope. Or maybe not. He was happily mixing the yogurt and strawberry sauce and lapping it up. He wouldn't touch the pancakes due to the foreign little dots all over them. Sigh…. I loved mine, ate them up quickly, sighed and went back to the drawing board!!

From Rita who made the pancakes a family affair:
I was recently in Nova Scotia visiting my girls and decided to try making pancakes with the family! My twin granddaughters, Alexandra and Emma (age 4) and I were in charge of the batter, my daughter was in charge of organizing ingredients and the strawberry sauce, hubby (grandpa) was in charge of cooking the pancakes and my other granddaughter, Kayla (age 11) was in charge of plate design! We had a great time making the pancakes and thoroughly enjoyed the end result! I'm not sure you will be able to make it out in the final shot called 'pancakes' but each pancake had the first initial for each granddaughter!  Blueberries were in season in "The Valley" so we went with that and added a little sprig of mint to dress the final result! I think Kayla did an awesome job with the plate. My son-in-law was disappointed to miss the event but alas had to work. Anyway, great choice of recipes and loved the addition of the oat bran! Also didn't miss the whipped cream as the vanilla yogurt had lots of flavour.

From Nadine who found the pancakes a bit too healthy:
I tried this recipe because I really like the Podleski sisters and the way they promote healthy eating, but in the end I found out I'm a pancake purist at heart. I found the oat bran was annoyingly present in each bite, which was too much for my Wonder Bread eating habits. I did love the addition of banana to the batter and will probably use that trick when I make pancakes again. I opted to make a blueberry sauce instead of strawberry and for extra presentation points, I used a big biscuit cutter to make my pancakes uniform (plus, I just like mini-sized food). Overall, I'd give this recipe a pass, but it's not going to replace my short stack at Cora's!

From Brilynn of Jumbo Empanadas who substituted mangos for strawberries to tasty results:
Here's my submission for the August Cooking Club, thanks for picking such a great recipe! After wolfing down a few pancakes, I can definitely vouch for their tastiness. The only downside to this recipe was that my pancakes didn't turn out very well in the aesthetics department. This could have been entirely due to a user error, but as you can see in the photo, I've had to hide the pancakes underneath a mango fan to distract from their ugliness. I don't think I suffered any because of it. The mango replaced the strawberry sauce that was supposed to top the pancakes. But since I had a case of ripe mangoes sitting on the counter, it was mangoes and maple syrup all the way. Mmmmm maple syrup.

From Derrick who enjoyed his "Cottage" cakes:
I made this month's challenge recipe up at the cottage for a family brunch and they were delicious. I had to improvise with some of the ingredients as local stores didn't carry oat bran (sub: wheat bran) and I found a strawberry sauce from scratch I used instead of making the real sauce. They were fantastic!

From Kelly who successfully tweaked the recipe to suit her vegan taste buds:
I changed a few things in the recipe, I used 1/2 whole wheat flour, substituted sour milk for the buttermilk, and used soft tofu instead of the yogurt and added 1 tbsp of cornstarch because they didn't seem to be holding together very well. I also added some extra flour and didn't add the blueberries. They tasted good and I made a yummy sauce with strawberries and maple syrup, and then sprinkled icing sugar over the pancakes.

From Deanna who had a couple of issues with the recipe:
I really wanted to like this recipe more than I actually did; it sounded good, but I had some issues, including:
1) The recipe specified fresh blueberries and fresh strawberries.
Problem: Where I am, local strawberries are usually in season from June-July, and blueberries are in season in August. So my strawberries weren't local and ended up being a little tasteless and woody.
2) Possibly because my strawberries weren't very flavourful, I found the strawberry sauce tasted more like orange juice, which I personally didn't like much with the blueberries.
3) The 1/2 cup of batter seemed to make awfully large pancakes - and I found that large size hard to manage when flipping them over. I switched to a scant 1/3 cup size, and had better results. (My favorite plain pancake recipe calls for 1/4 cup of batter per pancake, so that might just be my own preference.)
4) I found it hard to make sure each pancake had about the same number of blueberries; my last one had only one blueberry! Next time I would just scoop/pour the batter, then sprinkle some berries on top before flipping, to distribute them more evenly. 
All in all, I would rate this one as just okay, but not so nice that I'd go out of my way to make it again. Having said that, the idea of making and using what amounts to fresh fruit compote instead of maple syrup does have merit. So I may take that concept with me and adapt it to my favourite recipe in future.
 
Go back to Part I

Be sure to check out past Foodtv.ca Cooking Club Results:

• May Cooking Club Results: Michael Smith's Buffalo Chicken Wing Salad Part I and Part II
• June Cooking Club Results: Laura Calder's Crisp Chewy Meringues Part I and Part II
• July Cooking Club Results: Rob Rainford's Smoked Salmon with Strawberry Salsa Part I and Part II
• August Cooking Club Results: Janet & Greta Podleski's Batter Be Good to Me Pancakes Part I