I come from a long line of pancake lovers. My Dad ate pancakes every day of my growing up years that I can remember. Except on Sundays when he made us cornbread muffins. And then one year when he got tired of pancakes, he made waffles for that time. But, it's back to pancakes again. I recall waking up to him scraping the batter out of the bowl and flipping pancakes all my life. Now the pancake lover in our house is Greg. He goes into withdrawl if we don't have them at least once a week. So it's no doubt that we eat alot of them in our house now.
A few weeks ago he had asked for pancakes for breakfast on a Saturday, but then time was short, so we ate something else instead. He was gone all day, and then when he came home, asked for them for supper. When he did, James started jumping up and down yelling, "pancakes, pancakes, pancakes!!" The funny thing was that I had planned something else for dinner, but deep down knew that since Greg missed the breakfast pancakes, he'd be wanting them for supper! And he did! He makes them most of the time, adding extras as he sees fit.
I'll post my favorite recipes, because they are easier to make than one might think. No need to buy mixes, because you can have a batch whipped up before you know it. Dad's old standby recipe is first. Just 6 ingredients; 3 dry, 3 wet.
Basic Pancakes
1 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt (or hearty dash)
1 c. milk
1 egg
1/4 c. oil (or a hearty splash)
Mix dry. Mix wet. Add wet to dry, mixing minimally. Pour on griddle and fry then flip. We double this recipe for our family.
You can use any type of flour you'd like. We usually mix half white with spelt, or else add cornmeal to white. Just equal 1 c. of flour.
Blueberry Sour Cream Pancakes (my absolute favorite!)
2 c. flour
1/4 c. sugar (optional)
4 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. milk
1 c. sour cream or plain yogurt
1/3 c. melted butter
1 c. blueberries
In a bowl, beat eggs. Add milk, sour cream and butter. Mix well. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in separate bowl. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix just until blended. Fold in berries. Cook on hot griddle flipping once.
Blueberry Sauce1/2 c. sugar
2 T. cornstarch
1 c. water
4 c. blueberries
Combine sugar and cornstarch in saucepan. Gradually stir in water. Add blueberries. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 2 minutes, or until thickened. Serve hot over pancakes, ice cream or cake.
(these pancakes are great without blueberries, just with butter and syrup)My Uncle R is also a pancake expert like my Dad. His recipe is here:
Grandpa R's Saturday Morning Pancakes
1 c. flour
1 c. mixture ground grains (flax seed meal, 10 grain cereal, cornmeal, etc)
2 T. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 T. sugar
1 1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. oil
3 eggs
1 t. almond extract
Mix wet in one bowl, dry in another. Mix together and fry.
For waffles: put egg yolks in with the other liquids, and then beat egg whites separately and fold into batter.
Our favorite on pancakes is butter with maple syrup. But since maple syrup is costly, we've tried many other things. We love honey too, but lately have been using Roger's Golden Syrup, which we were reintroduced to while over at Uncle R's house recently. It's a Canadian product that you can't get down here, but is very tasty and yummy so we had my Mom bring a few bottles on her last trip.
