I love pancakes. Years ago, pancakes were a family ritual on the weekend, and I'd whip up a batch for lazy dinner. Sometimes we'd douse them with syrup or top them with eggs and if it was a really special day I'd add bacon. Pancakes were king in our house for awhile, and then gradually they stopped. I'm not really sure why.
Back in June, a conversation with Michael Smith got me thinking about pancakes again. He relayed how his family makes pancakes just like ours used to, and shared that he thinks "every family should have a pancake day." He's right, too. All that mixing and pouring is something kids can do, the warm scent of them cooking, the syrups and toppings and gathering around the table. Even when I was growing up, we had a pancake day of sorts. Mom would be at work, and Dad would make his special "thin pancakes", or crepes.
As I wrote up a recipe over at BC Eggs on Sunday morning, I began craving pancakes in earnest and remembered this book that I reviewed, and how there was a whole wheat pancake recipe in there I wanted to try.
Mmm.... pancakes. Maple syrup. Eggs. Hot crispy bacon.
These are the easiest pancakes you'll ever make. Don't tell me that from a box is better because you don't have time; if you can make pancakes from a box you can make these, because they have hardly any ingredients. Plus when pancakes are from scratch they are so much better and have no weird preservatives, etc. You can add nuts, chocolate chips, fruit, or just cook them up as is and then add toppings. To make mornings easier, you can even do up the dry mix in a ziplock baggie ahead of time, and write the measurements for eggs and milk right on it with a sharpie. Then all you need to do is dump the dry mix in a bowl, add the wet mix, and voila! Pancakes.
Mornings should always be this easy.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
Directions:
Set a cookie sheet in the oven and turn it on to about 170 F.
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set it aside.
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. Dump the milk and eggs into the flour mixture, stirring until just combined. You want to leave a few lumps; if you stir the batter too much, the pancakes won't be as light and fluffy.
Get a non stick pan hot over medium high heat, and melt about 1 tsp of butter in it. The trick is to let the butter melt, but not burn. When it's liquified and you've swirled it around the pan, scoop about 1/4 cup of batter into it. Let the pancake cook until there are tiny bubbles around the edges and it's golden, then flip and cook the other side. Between cooking the pancakes, wipe the pan and add more bits of butter, letting them melt before you add more batter. The reason you wipe the pan is so that the butter doesn't burn and make the pancakes taste funky. When the pancakes are cooked, remove them to the cookie sheet sitting in the oven in a single layer.
Repeat until you've used up all the batter, and enjoy!
Makes about 10 pancakes
Adapted from How to Feed a Family
