Make Your Own Pancake Lens

DIY Pancake Lens from Mark Toal on Vimeo.

Panasonic Rep and great mirrorless pancake lens photographer Mark Toal recently got an inspiration for all of us who yearn to make our own hand built pancake lens. Mark uses conventional store bought Aunt Jemima brand frozen pancakes in his pancake lens construction. I personally prefer nothing but genuine organic home-baked frozen pancake lens products myself. My wife always likes to make everything from scratch. So I enlisted her help for this challenge. We started with her grandmother’s pancake recipe we modified for the freezer. Let’s get started!

HOMEMADE FROZEN PANCAKES

1 1/4 cups whole wheat or buckwheat flour (organic and unbleached)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup + 2 tablespoons milk
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons vegetable oil + a little extra to grease the griddle

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt and whisk to combine. In another bowl, combine the milk, egg and oil. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir just until combined. Brush the griddle with a little of the oil (just enough to barely coat it) and heat on medium-high. When the griddle is hot, pour about 1/4 cup of batter to make pancakes. When the bubbles on top begin to burst and the undersides begin to brown, turn quickly with a spatula and finish cooking.

This recipe makes 10 5-inch pancakes, and you can double it if you want to make extra pancakes for friends to build their own lenses.

To freeze, cool the pancakes completely and arrange them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Cover and freeze for at least three hours. Wrap in waxed paper or parchment paper and seal tightly in a bag or container in the freezer. Once frozen stiff, follow Mark Toal’s instructions to complete the construction of your own HAND BUILT FROM SCRATCH lens.

EDITORS NOTE: My wife usually adds blueberries and other fresh fruit to the above recipe but I have eliminated those ingredients here. Crumbs are bad enough to clean from a camera sensor. Mushed blueberries are more than I care to deal with.