Pancakes and Sausage on a Stick

Spring semester started Tuesday. The new schedule includes a new independent study with Dr. Choi as the one-on-one course she’d offered me in November — just the two of us, every Thursday afternoon from four-thirty to six PM in her third-floor office, working on a single long-form piece across the whole semester. The first session this past Thursday was a syllabus review and a discussion of which long-form piece I want to develop. I told her I wanted to expand the fall workshop final into a thirty-page magazine submission — the essay about Mama and the green envelope and the kitchen-as-classroom thread, but stretched out into a full piece long enough to read as a feature essay in a national magazine. She agreed without negotiation. The deadline she set is May fifteenth, the day after spring-semester finals end.

Sunday I made pancakes-and-sausage-on-a-stick because Priya’s little brother Arjun was visiting for the weekend — her parents had driven him up from Houston for a long-weekend family visit and were staying at the same Hampton Inn near campus that Mama had stayed at in August — and we needed kid-friendly Sunday brunch in the dorm kitchen. Arjun is eleven years old, all elbows and questions, and Priya had warned me Friday that he was a picky eater whose entire personality revolves around two things: video games and corn dogs. I’d planned the menu around the second.

The technique is the breakfast version of a corn dog: pre-cooked breakfast sausages (the small breakfast-sausage links from the dairy case, three-something-a-pound, ten in a package) skewered on wooden skewers (the long skewers used for kebabs, soaked in water for ten minutes first to keep them from charring), dipped in a slightly thicker-than-normal pancake batter, and deep-fried in oil at three-fifty until golden brown.

The pancake batter: two cups of all-purpose flour, two tablespoons of sugar, two teaspoons of baking powder, a teaspoon of baking soda, a teaspoon of salt; whisked together. In a separate bowl: two large eggs, two cups of buttermilk (homemade, naturally), three tablespoons of melted butter, a teaspoon of vanilla. Whisk wet into dry. The batter should be slightly thicker than normal pancake batter so it clings to the skewered sausage; if too thin, add a tablespoon of flour at a time; if too thick, a tablespoon of buttermilk at a time. The right consistency is the consistency of soft-serve ice cream — it holds its shape when you pull a spoon up.

The frying setup: a deep pot or Dutch oven with about two and a half inches of vegetable oil heated to three-fifty (a candy thermometer is useful; if you don’t have one, drop a small piece of bread in the oil and time how long it takes to brown — fifteen seconds means the oil is at three-fifty). The skewered sausage gets dipped in the batter, holding it by the wooden handle, rolling it gently to coat all sides evenly, then submerging it in the hot oil for two to three minutes per side until the batter is deep golden brown and puffed.

Out of the oil to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain. Serve immediately with small bowls of warm maple syrup for dipping. The corn-dog format works for breakfast because the salty-sweet ratio of pancake-coating-and-sausage matches the salty-sweet ratio of pancake-with-syrup-and-bacon, just reorganized into a hand-held format that an eleven-year-old can eat one-handed while also operating a Nintendo Switch.

Arjun ate four. Priya ate two. I ate one. Dustin came up at noon and ate three. The dorm-floor breakfast crowd is now forming a Sunday-brunch habit — eight or nine of us regularly congregate in the second-floor kitchen between ten AM and noon on Sundays for whatever I’m cooking. Priya’s parents called Sunday night from the Hampton Inn before driving back to Houston Monday and said Arjun would not stop talking about my cooking on the drive earlier in the day. Arjun himself got on the phone for thirty seconds to ask if I’d be willing to email him the recipe. I emailed it Sunday night.

Skewers soaked first. Batter slightly thicker than normal. Three-fifty oil. Here’s the build.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 20 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 6 (2 sticks per serving)

Ingredients

12 fully cooked breakfast sausage links
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Non-stick cooking spray
12 wooden craft sticks or skewers
Maple syrup, for serving

Instructions

Prep the sausages. Cook sausage links according to package directions if not already fully cooked. Let cool slightly, then insert a wooden stick lengthwise into each link, leaving about 2 inches of stick exposed as a handle. Set aside on a paper-towel-lined plate.
Make the batter. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, egg, melted butter, and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined—a few small lumps are fine. Do not overmix.
Heat the pan. Warm a large non-stick skillet or griddle over medium heat and spray lightly with cooking spray. Pour about 3 tablespoons of batter per stick into the pan, spreading slightly into an oval shape.
Cook the sticks. Lay a sausage-on-a-stick in the center of each batter oval. Spoon another tablespoon of batter over the top of each sausage to cover. Cook 2–3 minutes until bubbles form and edges look set, then carefully flip and cook another 2 minutes until golden brown and cooked through. Work in batches to avoid crowding.
Cool and store. Transfer finished sticks to a wire rack to cool completely. For meal prep, arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet, freeze for 30 minutes until firm, then store in a zip-top bag or airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days (or freeze up to 1 month).
Reheat and serve. To reheat from refrigerator, microwave on a paper towel for 45–60 seconds, or warm in a 350°F oven for 8–10 minutes. Serve with maple syrup for dipping.

Nutrition (per serving)

Pancakes and Sausage on a Stick