Breakfast is a favorite meal at our house. Between the cereals, fruits, breads and other breakfast delights, you will have plenty of choices and never go hungry.
On Sundays, we tend to take some time preparing breakfast going between french toast, eggs, muffins, scones or pancakes. Recently we had gone out to breakfast at one of our local restaurants and decided, we make these dishes just as well if not better than when we go out.
Jeff took out the Fine Cooking's Breakfast Cookbook the following morning and inside was a simple and classic buttermilk pancake recipe. Sometimes simple can mean delicious. With a pint of blueberries ready to go, buttermilk pancakes were on the menu.
We have made buttermilk pancakes before, but normally use the powdered buttermilk. I think there is a difference sometimes. There was definitely a smoothness to the pancake batter and natural can work better than powdered. Most people will say you probably can't tell the difference...I thought this was the best batch of pancakes we had ever made. The pancakes were light and melted in your mouth...not too sweet and the blueberries were a perfect tartness for the maple syrup. Jeff felt the key was not to over mix the batter.
Everyone who moved through the kitchen that morning had 3-4 pancakes. By 11 AM, we had no pancakes left and one very happy family. Put a smile on your family's face tomorrow morning, make a batch of pancakes!
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons of unsalted butter; more for serving
9 oz. (2 cups) of unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of granulated sugar
2-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
2 cups of buttermilk (We usually use powdered but we did you fresh buttermilk this time.)
2 large eggs
1 cup of fresh blueberries
Vegetable oil for the griddle
Pure maple syrup for serving
Preparation:
Heat the oven to 200°F. Melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave or in a small saucepan on the stove and set aside to cool briefly.
In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk the buttermilk and eggs. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Whisk gently until the dry ingredients are almost incorporated, add the blueberries; stop before the batter is evenly moistened. Add the cooled melted butter and mix just until the batter is evenly moistened (there will be lumps). Let the batter rest while you heat the griddle.
Heat a griddle or a large skillet over medium heat (or set an electric griddle to 375°F) until drops of water briefly dance on the surface before evaporating. Lightly oil the griddle. Working in batches, pour 1/4 cup of the batter onto the griddle for each pancake, spacing them about 1 inch apart. Let cook undisturbed until bubbles rise to the surface and the edges look dry, 1 to 2 minutes. Check the underside of each pancake to make sure it’s nicely browned; then flip. Cook until the second side is nicely browned, about 1 minute more. Transfer the pancakes to a baking sheet and keep warm in the oven while you repeat with the remaining batter.
Serve hot with butter and maple syrup.
