Pancakes!

A favorite anytime food in my household, particularly for the kids, pancakes are one of those simple foods that are pretty easy to make taste okay – but not so easy to make taste GREAT. For me, the one important piece? Texture!

The trick to turning out perfectly fluffy pancakes every time is not beating the batter to within an inch of its life.  You don’t want a perfectly smooth, lump-free batter. This trick works if you’re making pancakes from a mix (please try from scratch sometime!) or from scratch. And who doesn’t love a cooking tip that involves less work? Check out this video for a fun tutorial!

PERFECTLY BADASS PANCAKES (recipe can be doubled)

Ingredients:

• 2 c all purpose flour (can use ½ c ww flour if you want)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 TBS brown sugar (can use white sugar, or maple sugar if you have it)
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 c buttermilk (or soured milk, or ¼ c plain yogurt and ¾ c milk)
• 3 TBS melted butter
• 1 egg

TECHNIQUE

• Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl
• Whisk wet ingredients together in a smaller bowl
• Make a well in the dry ingredients, then pour the wet ingredients in.
• Mix gently (I almost fold the parts together) with a spatula (NO WHISK!) until the flour is incorporated but some lumps remain.
• Preheat a non-stick skillet or griddle over medium –medium/low heat for about 4-5 minutes. Yes, use the lower setting and let it heat through that way! Brush with oil. Ideally you’ll test the heat by making a dollar-size pancake – should cook through in about 2 minutes on the first side.
• Spoon ¼ c or so size scoops onto the griddle, spreading the batter out. It WILL be thick!
• Cook for 2-3 minutes on the first side, then flip over and cook for another minute or 2 on the second side. You can play with the heat setting on your cooktop but you don’t want it to cook a whole lot faster than this – you’ll wind up with uncooked batter inside.
• Serve with your favorite breakfast meat (if you eat meat), some gorgeous fruit, and warm Vermont maple syrup (from April’s Maple, of course!)