After a year of feeling senior in undergrad, the past few days on my new medical school’s campus have flipped my perspective. So in the spirit of Pancake Yancake’s third year, cheers to feeling young again (and hopefully always)! This recipe is inspired by the plate of pancakes I set out for in Osaka earlier this summer.A cross between the fluffiest all-American flapjack and spongy Japanese cheesecake, they are the ultimate dessert for breakfast.At the café in Osaka, there were only two people manning the restaurant. One was on pancake duty, each batch of 9 pancakes required 20 minutes, and each plate got 3 pancakes. With exactly nine orders before ours, we waited 1 hour 20 minutes before our pancakes were within fork-striking distance. On the bright side, we got to watch the lady make three batches of pancakes (and take notes).With these clues and some online research, I created this recipe. However, my pancakes didn’t end up as cotton soft. The texture was more macaron-y. The sugar-egg white chewiness reminded me of my favorite macarons from Sugar Philly on Penn’s campus. But perhaps this was a more fitting way to celebrate Pancake Yancake’s 3^rd birthday after all!

Macaron Pancakes

Makes 8 pancakes

Ingredients

• 4 large eggs, refrigerated
• ¼ cup granulated sugar, divided
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 60 g (½ cup) all-purpose flour

Directions

1. Separate eggs– yolks into a large bowl, whites into a medium bowl. To the yolks, add 2 tbsp sugar, baking power, vanilla, salt. Sift in flour. Whisk to combine.
2. Using an electric hand mixer, beat the whites until foamy, slowly stream in the remaining 2 tbsp sugar, and continue beating until stiff peaks.
3. In four portions, gently whisk the whites into the yolk mixture.
4. On low heat, butter a nonstick pan (ideally a pancake griddle). Laddle mounds of batter in 2 rounds of roughly ¼ cup-sized dollops. Cook on the first side uncovered for 5-6 minutes; flip and cook on the second side covered for 5-6 minutes. (Note: I used two frying pans to cook the pancakes two at a time, but this still took me 48 minutes to cook all the pancakes… refrigerate your batter in between batches if needed)
5. Pancakes are best served warm with whipped cream.