It’s a universal problem. It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and you need a unique idea for breakfast.  No?  You don’t?  Stop being difficult; I’m on a deadline here.  Anyway, so it’s happened to everybody, right?  Well you’re in luck, because we have just what you need- Last minute scratch Mickey Mouse shamrock pancakes!  Bug would eat pancakes every day, for every meal, if she could.  This simple recipe is my go-to for a pancake breakfast.  No special tools or weird ingredients are necessary. I’ve adapted it just a bit to be thematically appropriate.  Now, I know you’ve wondering what Mickey has to do with St. Patrick’s Day. Nothing.  Nothing at all.  But it’s Mickey; Mickey makes everything better.  And also it’s really difficult to make a good-looking four leaf clover pancake.

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Ingredients for Mickey Mouse Shamrock Pancakes

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 stick of butter (1/4 cup)
• 1 3/4 cup milk
• brown sugar
• green food coloring
• Lucky Charms marshmallows that you picked out by hand because you’re a good parent
• whipped cream

The Process

Mix all the dry ingredients first, except the brown sugar.

Mix up the eggs in a separate bowl, then melt and add the butter, then add the milk.  The milk will cause the butter to partially re-harden, and form nasty looking lumpy things in your mix.  Don’t show anyone this step.  It’s hideous.  Mix this up, then forget you ever saw it.  Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry, while blending.  (Note- you really, really don’t want your mixer set to high for this step, since you’re sticking it into a bowl of what’s mainly flour.  Unless someone else is making them, and you’re helpfully reading the recipe out loud.  Then you totally want them to.  It will be hilarious.)  Mix everything until it’s nice and battery.  Then add some brown sugar.  I usually just dump it in until I’m satisfied, but it’s probably about 1/4 cup.

Add in the green food coloring.  I used about 15-20 drops in this recipe.  It takes a lot, unless you’re cool with pastels.  Just keep adding and blending until you’re happy with the color.  Let it sit for about 10 minutes. Maybe use that time to find out why you should buy Coco and watch it immediately.

The Cooking

Fry those jokers up on your griddle.

If you don’t have a griddle, buy a griddle. Cooking pancakes in a frying pan is an exercise in grief.

Now, when you pour the batter, make two smaller circles a few inches apart.  Remember, these will spread as they cook, so make them smaller than you think, unless you want some strange Mickey/Dumbo hybrid.  They should be about the size of a golf ball, and about 3-4 inches apart. Then, pour a larger circle a bit below them, until it just makes contact with your ears.  I mean, the pancake ears, not your actual ears. It’s important that you don’t let these cook too long, as they will brown, and you’ll lose that nice green color.  But there is a cheat for that. Once one side is good and done, flip them over (carefully, rough handling can cause your ears to fall off.  And this time I do mean your actual ears.) and only cook for 30-seconds to 1 minute on side two. As long as you have them good and done on the other side, they won’t be undercooked, but you won’t get too much browning on this side. Top your pancakes with whipped cream and marshmallows. These are sweet enough to eat without syrup. The whipped cream and marshmallows ain’t hurting anything, either.

And there you have it; your Mickey Mouse Shamrock Pancakes are amazing.

There’s no two ways about it.