Star Wars Pancakes

I was psyched the day Caroline came home with Star Wars™ Vehicles Pancake Molds she acquired from a clearance sale at Williams Sonoma. Saturday morning breakfast was elevated to a whole new level: not only could I cook a nutritive breakfast, but now my family could be 'force'-fed (pun intended).



I ripped through the cardboard packaging, quickly discarded the directions and special recipe, and readied up the batter. C'mon. Who has time for reading instructions with a hungry family ravenously waiting for their morning meal? Cooking pankcakes is an inherent part of fatherhood, along with BBQ grilling and potty training your son to pee on trees. How could I fail?

ANSWER: quite easy.

The molds are quite complex in shape. Intricate appendages stem off a central body. I found that my pancake batter proved to be too thick for the smallish spaces and didn't completely fill the mold from a central pour. I adjusted by trickling in more batter, nearly overflowing the mold. Way more cake'ish than I was aiming for, though I thought it seemed the lesser of two evils than eating a half-formed X-wing fighter.



I distinctly remembered the words NON-STICK advertised alongside a glossy image of a perfectly formed Millenium Falcon. Could not be farther from the truth.

The half-cooked batter stuck to the mold like you wouldn't believe. I found myself tracing the outline of the mold with a butter knife to pry the pancake from the frame just so I could cook the other side. My once 'rebel rebel' Jedi Knight X-wing fighter looked like it had been struck down by the Death Star. Next time I'll need to generously coat the mold with a non-stick spray or bathe it in an immersion of vegetable oil.



Not wanting to disappoint my 3-year-old son, I fell back on an old standard: the three-pour Mickey Mouse pancake. Despite having a busted appearance, the X-wing fighter was quite tasty with a liberal dousing of butter and Vermont maple syrup. A pancake breakfast never fails.