Breakfast With of Pan's Labyrinth

a reworked experience from February 2007

A basic rule of life: If someone is cooking pancakes and asks you "funny shapes or rounds?" you always go for funny shapes. It keeps you young. And what's funnier shaped than the creatures of Guillermo Del Toro's filmography? Surprise your genre loving boyfriend /girlfriend/ spouse / family with a delicious breakfast of Panscakes!


It's going to be a looooong wait before The Hobbit arrives so you'll have to watch Pan's Labyrinth frequently for your Del Toro fix. Or eat Panscakes

Here's how you make them. Get some pancake batter (that's easy -- I'm not typing up any recipe). Keep your griddle on medium --if it's too low your batter will just spread and you won't get good shapes. If it's too hot it'll cook too quickly as you're trying to make shapes. Pour the base face first like you're making a normal pancake ...only smaller. Then pour the horns quickly and carefully. It requires some pretty expert wrist action so practice... (whip up extra batter)

For the tuft of hair and the beard I used coconut. You could also stick a knife in peanut butter and draw them on. If you find a way to make those spirally things above the raisin eyes, it'd be a pretty unmistakable Pan on your Panscake. That detail was too much for me.


The hand with the eye (courtesy of that grotesque Pale Man) is easier to make but harder to flip.

Start again with a tiny base pancake for the palm. Pour very tiny amounts of batter lengthwise so that the fingers will be all spindly. It looks freakier if you allow for mistakes. With Panscakes, the freakier the better. If you can find something bigger or more appropriate for the eye than the raisins I'm using here, more power to you. I had limited supplies in the kitchen.

Your breakfast recipient will think you are the coolest most creative person ever. Either that or they'll run screaming at your complete transformation into über film nerd. [The Film Experience™ is not responsible for any breakups or carbs that may occur. -editor]

previously on Breakfast With...