Captains House Inn Banana Macadamia Nut Pancakes with Orange Butter and Praline Sauce

Ingredients for Pancakes:
3 Cups All Purpose Flour
5 Tbsp Sugar
2 ¼ Tsp Baking Powder
¾ Tsp Baking Soda
¼ Tsp Salt
1 ½ Cups Buttermilk, well shaken
4 ½ Tbs Butter, melted
3 Large Eggs
1 ½ Tsp Vanilla
2 Banana, Large and ripe

Topping:
¾ Cup Macadamia Nuts, roasted and chopped

Ingredients for Orange Butter:
½ stick Butter, Softened
½ Tsp Orange Zest, finely grated
1 Tsp Fresh Orange Juice
1/8 Tsp Salt

Ingredients for Praline Sauce:
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Brown Sugar
2 ½ Cups Heavy Cream
2 Tbsp Corn Syrup
4 Tbsp Butter

Ingredients for Tuille:
½ Pound Flour
½ Pound Confectionary Sugar
¾ Cup Egg Whites
1-2 Tbsp Milk

Method (for pancakes):
1. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Whisk together the buttermilk, 2 Tbsp melted butter, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl until smooth. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and whisk until combined. Cut banana into pieces and fold into the batter along with the nuts, (batter will be very thick).
2. Use the griddle and working in batches of 3, pour ¼ cup measure into the hot griddle and cook until bubbles appear on the surface and undersides are golden brown, 1-2 minutes.
3. Flip pancakes with a spatula and cook until golden brown and cooked through, 1-2 minutes more.
4. Serve with orange butter, praline sauce, powdered sugar, and mint.

Method (for orange butter):
1. Stir all the ingredients in a small bowl until well combined.
2. Roll into a cylinder shape to be able to cut discs from to serve on top of the pancakes.

Method (for Praline sauce):
1. Boil first five ingredients for 8-12 minutes until sugars have dissolved, stirring with a rubber spatula.
2. Add butter

Method (for Tuille):
1. Sift flour and confectionary sugar into mixing bowl. Add egg whites and milk. Beat until smooth.
2. Pour batter into a squeeze bottle and pour into favorite shapes onto Silpat panliner.
3. Bake until brown. Remove and “bend” into shapes. Let cool and store in airtight container.

Putting it Together:

Day Before:
1. Make and store tuille.
2. Make praline sauce and store in double broiler.
3. Toast macadamia nuts and chop when cool.

Day Of:
1. Heat praline sauce in double broiler over water.
2. Make pancake batter and cook pancakes.
3. Pour praline sauce onto a warm plate and stack pancakes and a slice of orange butter in layers.
4. Drizzle top with more praline sauce and a dab of orange butter and sprinkle with toasted macadamia nuts.
5. Add tuille, mint, and sliced bananas. Dust with confectionary sugar and garnish with a strawberry fan.

The Logic Behind Inn Policies Part Three

Policy Explanation #3: Hindsight is 20/20 When It Comes to Group Reservations

I’ll never forget one of my biggest rookie mistakes in this business. We were preparing for our first summer season at our original bed and breakfast, the Carriage House, and the bookings were starting to pour in. Every time we filled another week, we did a victory dance and celebrated with a fairly cheap bottle of champagne (we had just blown all our money on the inn). So when we got a call from a family who wanted us to host their family reunion for a week in July meaning they would book all six rooms, we were ecstatic. In fact, I think I offered them something like a 15% discount and waived all third person in the room fees to ensure they would book with us. At first glance, this may seem like a fantastic booking – it did to me. But as a veteran of the business, I can now admit that taking this booking was actually a mistake. A big one.

Don’t get me wrong – the family was pleasant enough. But when booking a group who’s going to reserve the entire inn, the business logistics are a nightmare. First off, all six rooms are going to check in and out on the same day. This means that in order to maximize occupancy, we needed to find six guests who would all be checking out on the group’s check-in day and another six guests who were looking to check in on the group’s check out day. Not only is it highly unlikely that this will happen, but if it does, think of the housekeeping involved. With six guestrooms, we employed one housekeeper who would single-handedly have to flip all six rooms between the hours of check out and check in (a four hour window). At an hour a room, this is mathematically impossible and the end result is an unhappy guest on my doorstep at 3:00 expecting his room to be ready and it’s not. Also, consider breakfast – a group booking typically implies group activities, which means everyone meets up for breakfast at 8:30 before heading off to Nantucket for the day. So, instead of six rooms coming in at staggered times during our breakfast window, we had all six rooms sitting down at once while I frantically raced around fetching drinks and taking orders and James tried to cook 30 flapjacks on a griddle the size of a Monopoly box and refrained from cursing too loudly.

That said, if the group had wanted to book a week in say, March, one of our slowest months, I’d break out a bottle of champagne (a slightly higher end one these days) and celebrate the booking. But in the height of the busy season, when rooms can be filled with individual reservations that are staggered, my advice to all you aspiring innkeepers out there is – go that route.