Road Trip Remnants

A while ago, a friend and I spent a couple weekends driving up and down the state. Rolling along under the stars, watching the occasional pair of headlights flash past, we talked our way through the road trips, stopping every few hours for gas and caffeine.

Before leaving home, I bought a few standard snacks (chips, pretzels, and chocolate) to munch on in between pit stops, but placing them on the floor in the backseat left them out of sight and out of mind. When we returned, I found the 1-pound bag missing only a handful or two of the salty twists.

Still, I snack on a daily basis—not just on road trips—so I bagged up a bunch and brought them to work for when the 3 pm drowsiness set in. After two weeks, my salty taste buds begged for a break, and my sweet and sour ones eagerly jumped at the chance to be employed once again. But the pretzel bad still contained a few serving, which sat in my pantry, slowly staling and losing their crunch.

When I rediscovered them (well before any mold did), I couldn’t bring myself to eat them straight from the bag, so I created a different solution to avoid wasting the snacks: I baked with them! Paired with the stereotypical sauces—mustard for soft pretzels and chocolate-dipped for crunchy rods—these pretzel pancakes were the perfect epilogue to our road trip adventures.

Pretzel Pancakes with a Creamy Dijon Sauce and Balsamic Chocolate Syrup

serves 2 (3 pancakes each)

If either of the two sauces don’t appeal to you, feel free to serve with maple syrup instead.

pancakes

1 egg

⅔ c. milk (skim or 2%)

½ tbsp oil

½ tsp vanilla

½ tsp sugar

⅛ tsp salt

⅔ c. flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ c. crushed pretzels

sauces

1 tbsp plain Greek yogurt

¼ tsp Dijon mustard

1 tbsp chocolate fudge topping

½ tsp Balsamic vinegar

To prepare the pancakes, mix the first six ingredients (egg through salt) in a large bowl. Add in the flour, baking powder, and pretzels, stirring just until incorporated. Lightly coat a large pan with nonstick spray, and heat over medium-low heat. Using a ¼ cup measuring cup, pour about three tablespoons of batter onto the hot pan to make one pancake. Repeat twice more. (You should be able to fit about three pancakes in the pan at one time.) Cook for 3-4 min, or until it turns golden, and then flip. Cook another 2-3 min, or until the second side is golden as well. Turn out onto a plate and keep warm while cooking the remaining pancakes. To prepare the sauces, mix the yogurt and mustard in one small bowl, and mix the chocolate and Balsamic vinegar in a separate small bowl. Top each stack of pancakes with a half of the yogurt, and drizzle with half of the chocolate syrup.