Dr Oetker Pancake Shakers

I've been craving pancakes the last couple days. I don't know that I've ever had a craving for pancakes before, but there it was. I didn't really know what to do about it because I am pancake-making impaired. I've never successfully made pancakes before. They always end up either burned, raw inside, or really thin and hard instead of fluffy and light. It doesn't matter if I try making them from scratch or if I use a box mix.

Dr Oetker recently brought out these shakers, which I think are a pretty ridiculous idea, actually. There are quite a few of them - pancakes, cupcakes, and muffin mixes. Basically you add water to the container, shake it up, then bake or cook it. It reminds me of this pudding shaker my mom had when I was a kid that you could add milk and pudding powder to, shake up and then pour out into dishes to set. (And also, therefore, reminds me of shaking chocolate pudding once and losing the lid mid-shake so that chocolate pudding flew in a graceful arc across the kitchen. Splat.)

I find these a bit ridiculous because of the method, I suppose. It's no different from a box mix really, but I guess I get annoyed by this sort of disposable single use product. I know it's meant to be convenient; they can sell it on the idea of less clean-up and not having a box of pancake mix sitting around in the cupboard for months on end. But it is wasteful. It can be recycled, if you live somewhere forward thinking enough to have plastic-recycling, but I don't. (Yet. It's coming, but not till closer to summer. I still can't believe a city this size doesn't recycle plastic. Honestly.)

In any case, despite my misgivings about the packaging and also the price (six pancakes for about $4 - I should have just taken myself out for breakfast somewhere) I bought one today. I had a dentist appointment and I'm a bit sensitive about chewing right now so I wanted something light and easy to eat and pancakes do fit the bill. (And fill my craving, I hope.)

I didn't quite manage to cook them properly, they were a bit singed (I photographed the best looking ones, on their best side), but they were cooked through AND (relatively) fluffy. I've had better pancakes, but on the whole, not bad. I won't likely by them again, but it'll probably be months and months before I have a pancake craving again anyway.