Bacon Fritters

    First, I love bacon and pancakes on my plate, with syrup on them both. Yum.
    Second, when I was growing up my Dad would make pancakes (there was 10 or more kids at any given time, and he'd make his pancakes from scratch, so it was a labour of love!) every Sunday, but he would also make fritters. A fritter is a small piece of food that is covered in batter and fried. He would usually make apple and banana fritters.
   I make pancakes for my kids on Saturday mornings, and decided to combine my love of bacon and pancakes, and my fond childhood memories of pancakes and fritters, and make me a bacon fritter. Double yum.   

Bacon Fritters

Ingredients:

• 8 Pieces of bacon cut in half, cooked (be sure you cook them as strait and flat as possible. Cooking in a pan slowly, and on med-low heat usually does the trick. Or cooking them in the oven). Set them on paper towel to get some of the grease off.
• A quick, from scratch pancake recipe, like this one here, or make batter from a box mix. I used gluten free pancake mix (I used Bob's Red Mill g.f. Pancake Mix). The only adjustment that will need to be made for any recipe is that you will want the batter to be a little runny (if it's too thick, it's hard to dip the bacon). I thin it out with an extra egg, and a bit more milk. This may also only be a gluten free batter problem, so gauge it yourself based on how your batter looks. 

Method:

1.  Make THIS pancake batter (it's the easiest ever!), or use a box mix and set aside
2. Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pan.
3. Once the oil is getting hot, move your batter bowl and plate of bacon close to the pan (less distance for dripping!)
4. Take a piece of bacon (and a spoon or fork in the other hand to stop some dripping), and dip the bacon in the batter. Be sure it is covered 
5.  Place the fritter in the pan, and quickly repeat with as many pieces as will fit into the pan you're using 
6. The fritters are ready to be flipped when you see the bubbles that were forming on the top turn 'dry' (it'll look like little craters in your fritter). About 4-6 minutes 
7. Flip 'em over!
8. They don't need a lot of time on the other side, 2-3 minutes should do it 

If you run out of bacon, but still have batter, don't worry! Just make some regular pancakes, silly! 

I served mine with warm syrup from the St. Jacob's Market.

Ready, and dip! :) Be sure to give your hands a good washing before you start-you can see some batter on my fingers!

     I've seen these done where you pour out batter into the pan in an oval shape, then you put your bacon piece on top, then dazzle more batter on it. I'm not a fan of this idea because A: it would be a very pancake-y thing, and I want more bacon-iness. B: It would be a lot more work. So, my Dad's fritter method works for me!  

   Unless you are like my husband who hates (HATES!!!) his bacon getting syrup on it, you will love this! Love! : )