A whole lotta faith

One of our favorite breakfasts here at the Haub house is something we call “puff”. Four eggs, one cup flour, one cup milk and some melted butter make for a very tasty morning treat. The big kids typically help with the measuring and mixing, so they know the recipe: 411, as we call it.

This morning, Mercy really, really wanted a puff for breakfast. I was happy to make one, so I asked her to check and see if we had enough eggs. She walked over to the refrigerator, opened the door and pulled out the carton of eggs.

“We only have three eggs,” she reported sadly, looking inside. “Well,” I replied, “I guess we can’t make a puff today.”

Mercy stood there, still holding the open carton in the middle of the kitchen, looking down at the three eggs. “But Mommy,” she finally pleaded, “you could just be like Jesus…”

14 comments

  1. Melt the butter (half a stick, or less if you want) in a 9X11 glass pan in the pre-heating oven; mix the flour, milk and eggs in a bowl. Pour mixture into the pan once the butter is all melted and bubbly; bake for 12-15 minutes at 425. Mmmmm….yum. Oh, and Doug is all about lemon juice (we used to just pick the lemons form our neighbor’s tree in L.A.–not as easy here of course) and powdered sugar; I like it with syrup as well.

  2. I have faith in the mathematical reasoning God gave us, so I wonder if just reducing the recipe woulda worked?

    3/4 stick butter
    3 eggs
    3/4 cup flour
    3/4 cup milk

    Something smaller to bake it in to get the same volume/height ratio. You use a baking pan with 99 sq. in., so something around 75 sq. in. would work. A 9″ pie pan would be roughly 64 sq. in., a 10″ pie pan would be 79″, a 9″x9″ baking pan would be 81 sq. in. Somewhere in there should be the right size. Perhap reduce baking time to the low end of the range in the recipe, too?

  3. Ooh, ‘scuse me, I thought you’d said a stick of butter. So of course adjust my remark to “3 Tbs butter”, not 3/4 stick! :o)

  4. Yes, Jim, I had that same thought…a day later. Something about pre-coffee, lots of interrupted sleep brain wasn’t quite able to think that through in the moment 🙂

    And the irony was that we actually had a whole other carton of eggs literally right next to the other one that I just didn’t see. So I guess I could have pulled of Jesus if I had been paying attention!

  5. Erika, Doug has (reasonably) “family-sized” the original David Eyre’s pancake, which was 2 eggs, half a cup of flour, half a cup of milk, and two tablespoons of sugar. It’s perfect in a 9-inch square pan, but just for a light snack.

    Amy’s family has picked up on the power of the puff, and they learned the Haub way with sugar and lemon juice, but they also love whipped cream and strawberries. Yum.

  6. We were just at your Dad’s and he made two 9X11’s, splitting our recipe between the two pans. That was the first time I had the thought that ours was a beefed-up version 🙂

  7. I’m happy to know the recipe so that next time I visit and cook breakfast Aaron won’t be so annoyed with me making pancakes because I don’t know what “puff” is!

  8. We made it tonight as part of a “breakfast as dinner” night, and the consensus is, in Homer Simpson voice, “Mmmmm – fluf”. I liked the ease, and as a cook was immediately thinking of all the ingredients that would fit in it. The thing it reminded me most of as it puffed up was Yorkshire pudding.

    Fluf…Good…

    Thanks, Erika! New recipes are always welcome, and those easy to teach to kids even more so!

  9. Jim,

    Ah yes, the breakfast for dinner nights–some of my kiddos favorite dinners! Glad it was enjoyed!

  10. I had a 9×9 one last night all by myself for a late-night snack. And we had a 9×11 the day before for dinner.

  11. Erika, when I made the two 9 x 11 pans, I whipped up 4 eggs, 2 cups flour and 2 cups milk in the bowl, melted 2 half sticks of butter in each 9 x 11 pan and split the egg mixture between them, so basically it was double the standard recipe, divided between the two pans. I used lemon juice and powdered sugar, plus added some blueberries for extra pizzazz. The classic David Eyre pancake recipe that was originally published in the NY Times does allow for the addition of fruit fillings, or marmalade or other tasty treats, but the botom line recipe is just the eggs, flour and milk, baked for about 15 minutes at 425. The thing that makes it work and gets it to puff is the butter. Margarine doesn’t work nearly as well, and if you skimp on the butter, you don’t get as much puffing up.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *