Pancakes, how do I love thee?

[pax]

I love you sour and tangy and stretchy thin, the better to stand up to robust amounts of butter and maple syrup.

I love you cakey and sweet and not quite done in the middle, topped with fruit and whipped cream.

I love you in your buckwheatedness, with warm honey butter.

I love you whether you call yourself a pancake or a griddle cake.

I love you particularly well when served snuggled up to parts of crunchy pig.

You are all that is good to breakfast.

Please share your favourite pancake recipe, and tell us why it's your favourite.

This is my family's current favourite. Evelyn is my husband's grandmother.

Evelyn's Buttermilk Pancakes

2 1/2 c flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Combine thourougly.

Beat one egg, add to 2 cups buttermilk, mix.

Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture and mix till combined. Batter may be slightly lumpy.

Drop pats of butter onto fry pan.

Pour mixture onto melted pats of butter, let cook till bubbles form, flip and cook until done.

These are in the soft and cakey variety of pancake, and I tend to feed them to my kids with cinnamon and sugar and some vanilla whipped cream. They taste like hot snickerdoodles.

[spaghetttti]

I love thee not just for breakfast

Blueberry Pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 beaten egg

1 cup milk

2 Tbsp. melted cooled butter

4 oz. fresh blueberries

Mix the first four ingredients (dry) together.

Blend together the wet ingredients then add to the the dry all at once. Stir just until slightly lumpy, you don't want the batter to be too smooth.

Pour about 1/4 cupfuls onto a hot lightly buttered skillet/griddle. Then drop blueberries into pancakes - I used about 6-8 blueberries for each pancake. Flip when bubbles have burst. I like high sides on my pancakes and I get them fairly high with this recipe.

This recipe makes about 8 pancakes, your mileage may vary.

Edited December 18, 2007 by spaghetttti (log)

[BarbaraY]

My favorite buckwheats.

Beat together

1 cup buttermilk

1 egg, beaten

1-2 tablespoons molasses

2 tablespoons melted butter

Stir in:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup buckwheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Makes 4 to 6 depending on size.

Keep batter lumpy. If it's very thick add a little water. I like my Buckwheats a bit on the thin side. Love these with pork links and applesauce.

Note: Brown sugar can be used instead of molasses.

Edited December 18, 2007 by BarbaraY (log)

[pax]

Oh, Spaghettttttti, those look yummy.

I'm going to try your buckwheats next weekend, Barbara. I put buckwheat on the list, I love that MOM's carries all the Bob's Red Mill stuff.

(MOM'S in a local chain of organics/whole foods/delicacies ala Trader Joe's.)

[mtigges]

I use my sourdough starter. About 1 cup of that, an egg, salt and a slurry of baking soda just before cooking.

[Katie Meadow]

Excellent thread! I look forward to trying the above recipes. These pancakes are a little different: very wholesome, with good bite.

Apple Oatmeal Pancakes

2/3 cup regular cooking flaked oats

1.25 c buttermilk

1 large egg

2 T brown sugar

1 medium tart green apple (like Granny Smith)

Squeeze of lemon juice, bit of zest

8 T white flour

4 T ww flour (you can adjust the ratio of white to ww as you like)

1 tsp baking soda

1/3 tsp salt or less

pinch cinnamon

2 T veg oil (Mazzola corn is good)

xtra buttermilk as needed

Overnight: soak the oats in the buttermilk in the fridge, covered.

In the morning: in a large bowl whisk the egg with the sugar. Peel and grate the apple, measure to about 2/3 c firmly packed. Sprinkle with a little lemon juice, add a little zest and mix into the egg mixture. Combine the dry ingredients in a smaller bowl, mix well, then add, along with the buttermilk-oatmeal mixture and the oil to the apple-egg mix. It should be thick. Heat a griddle over medium heat, grease with a little butter or oil. Drop batter in approx 1/4 cupfuls. The pancakes should spread very slowly. You will probably want to turn down the flame to med-low. These should cook a bit slower than most pancakes, since they are denser. If they don't spread you may want to add just a touch more buttermilk to the batter.

[pax]

I use my sourdough starter.  About 1 cup of that, an egg, salt and a slurry of baking soda just before cooking.

←

Can you define "slurry" just a tad more?

No flour at all? I am not currently a lucky sour dough starter person. I had one for a long time that I loved for making something called "Amish Friendship Bread" which was delicious, now that I think about it.

Hmm. Maybe I need to cozy up to somebody with a sour dough culture that's willing to swap out on some organic lamb. "Get yer chops 'ere!"

[nibor]

I love any pancake as long as it is a banana walnut pancake.

[pax]

Oh man, Katie Meadow, I just read your recipe and I am drooling. That's got to be Sunday's breakfast.

I am sorry to bump the buckwheats but maybe I'll do those for "Junk Food Night", which is tomorrow.

I'll be the only one who knows they aren't junk at all, as they gobble them up. : I LOVE it when it works out like that.

Seriously, we need a drooling smilie.

[potsticker]

This takes me back to my younger days when we would go raid all-you-can-eat pancake places.

Ah, good times. *drool*

[mtigges]

I use my sourdough starter.  About 1 cup of that, an egg, salt and a slurry of baking soda just before cooking.

←

Can you define "slurry" just a tad more?

No flour at all? I am not currently a lucky sour dough starter person. I had one for a long time that I loved for making something called "Amish Friendship Bread" which was delicious, now that I think about it.

←

Water and baking soda. How much depends on how risen you like your pancakes, how much batter you have etc. But I use about 1/2 tsp for one eggs worth of batter.

I don't use any raw flour in my pancakes. Only starter, though of course a lot of flour went into it.

As for the starter ... purists will kill me: one cup of flour, a table spoon of active plain yoghurt, enough water to to make a thick paste, three days @ room temp. Use half each week or two and refeed with more flour and water. Using it for bread is only a little more difficult than making the above pancakes.

[JimH]

They all look good and here I am stuck at work.

[Stephanie Brim]

I think I may have finally stumbled onto the best non-buttermilk pancake batter I can make. I prefer my pancakes in the middle between thin and thick, richly flavored instead of sweet, and soft enough to soak up the syrup you'll be pouring over top. So here's what I've come up with:

2 cups all purpose flour, dipped and leveled

2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg and one yolk, lightly beaten

2 1/2 tbsp butter, melted

1 1/2 cups milk

Stir together dry ingredients. Beat eggs, slowly drizzling butter in as you do. Add milk and beat until combined. Add wet to dry and stir until combined, but lumpy.

Finished product. That was the only one left by the time I got to take the picture. Hunger. You know how it is.

[runwestierun]

I will chime in with another no buttermilk recipe: Thin Swedish style pancakes

1/4c melted butter

1/4c sugar

pinch salt

4 large eggs

1 1/8c all purpose flour

2c warm milk

cream butter and sugar

whisk in eggs and salt

whisk in flour

whisk in milk

(the flour first makes it easy to avoid lumps)

This is a very thin batter but the pancakes are eggy and delicious. They are a little more substantial than a crepe but not as chewy as a '49er-type pancake. They are my family's favorite.

[ChrisZ]

For something slightly different, I like to make potato pancakes as a dessert (ie. not a roesti or hash brown).

They're so fragile it's difficult to turn them properly but they melt in your mouth and have a distinctive flavour that compliments sweet sauces. I've traditionally served them warm with bananas and a caramel sauce. The recipe is approximate but simple:

1 cup mashed potato

1 cup milk

1/3 cup plain flour

2-3 eggs

Mix together until smooth, season with salt. The mix will be quite runny so it's best to make small pancakes so you can turn them without them disintegrating. Best eaten warm, fresh out of the pan!

[&roid]

Made the best pancakes I have ever made this morning:

Mix the following into a batter:

115g plain flour

3 egg yolks

2 heaped tsp baking soda

170ml buttermilk (plus a splash of water if it looks too dry)

Whisk the 3 remaining egg whites to stiff peaks then fold these in to the batter gently. Fry over a medium heat in a little oil or butter and serve with smoked bacon and maple syrup :) perfection.

The whisked egg whites and baking soda really add a superb lightness to them though they HAVE to be eaten immediately, never had a problem with that mind!