Many of my foodie fiction puzzles have come from classic novels but this one is a dish found in a Pulitzer Prize-winning contemporary novel. 

First some clues about the food. As with some of my other foodie fiction, this dish turned up on the tables of ancient Greeks from 600 B.C. It was a favorite of a Greek poet.

When the dish turned up in Britain, it was a food often eaten in the days before Lent. Cooks might include brandy, wine or honey in the ingredients and the dish was common enough that Shakespeare made mention of it in his plays.

There are at least a dozen different words to describe this food and when the dish made it across the pond and into American kitchens, it was an immediate hit.  

The literary scene in which this dish appears unfolds when a young boy lies to an adult about a cozy meal he’s had with his mother:

“This wasn’t what I’d been expecting them to ask,” the boy thinks.  

“The truth was, we hadn’t eaten breakfast at all that morning because I was in trouble at school and my mother was mad at me but I was too embarrassed to say that.”

There’s a clue, this food can be eaten at breakfast.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need: butter, flour, eggs, baking soda and milk.  

You can also get fancy and toss in any number of sweet or savory morsels.

Once you’ve got your mix, keep an eye on the clock. You don't want to scorch this dish!

Here's one more hint about the novel in which this delectable dish appears. The story involves the theft of a small museum masterpiece.

Can you guess the food and the fiction? When you know, tweet me @KerriMPR.

— Kerri Miller | MPR News