Apple Pancake Rings

I love apples and I love pancakes. There are so many tasty ways to eat both of them. Thanks to Pinterest, we now have a way to enjoy them at the same time...apple pancake rings! Yuuuummm...Such a simple idea! Why didn't I think of it sooner?

We love making pancakes for breakfast on the weekends and I love experimenting with new variations on the traditional pancake to give us lots of variety (see another favorite here, the pumpkin pancake). So, when I saw this pin the other day on Pinterest, I had to try this method! While I didn't use their recipe for the pancake mix (I really love the basic recipe I use), I used the idea. :)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Bisquick (I use the Heart Healthy version)
• 1-1/4 cup skim or low-fat milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 Tbsp sugar (or 3 or 4 if you like sweet pancakes like me)
• Cinnamon, to taste
• 2-3 medium apples (I used organic gala - my favorite!)
• Butter or non-stick butter spray

Directions:
Peel your apples. Slice them about 1/8" thick. Take the core out of each slice. Or I guess you could core it, then slice it if you want to do it that way. ;)

Preheat your skillet or griddle. Prepare your pancake batter by mixing together the Bisquick, milk, egg, vanilla, sugar and cinnamon. I just eyed the cinnamon until it looked like a good amount in the batter. It was probably around 1-2 tsp if I was to guess.

Prepare your skillet or griddle with butter, or non-stick butter spray. Despite Paula Deen's recent announcement about having diabetes (hmm, big shocker there!), I still used butter in my skillet. Yum. It gives nice crisp edges on the pancakes. :) Next, dip an apple slice in the batter, then place it in the skillet. Repeat until the skillet is full. Next time I make them, to add to the cinnamon flavor, I will first sprinkle the slices with cinnamon before dipping them in the batter.

When bubbles start to appear on the surface of the batter, flip the pancake ring to cook on the opposite side too.

Using the three apples I had, I ended up making three batches of 7 rings each, for a total of 21 apple pancake rings. I ended up with some leftover batter, so I made a few regular pancakes too. Also, so that we could all enjoy them together, I kept the finished rings in the oven (set to 250 degrees) until all of the batches were done. For the finished product, they are good served plain or with syrup. I think they would be super tasty with a caramel sauce on top, so I will probably try preparing one of those next time to accompany them.

Because I decided to also feed Noah with those three apples, I had a few less rings than I normally would have and Noah scored some homemade applesauce! :)

I honestly can't believe I have never made applesauce before now. So simple and the flavor possibilities are endless! Hip hip hooray (as Ethan would say) for apples and a yummy Saturday morning breakfast! :)