Best Buttermilk Pancakes

For last week's Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Pie, I bought the smallest size of buttermilk the grocery store had to offer, but I still had quite a bit leftover with nothing to do with it.  So what do you do when you have extra buttermilk on a Sunday morning?  Make buttermilk pancakes of course.  I used Aida Mollenkamp's recipe for Cakey Buttermilk Pancakes and I think I've found a new favorite pancake recipe.  No other from scratch pancake recipe I've prepared has come out this good.  Plus, you can prepare it the night before, re-stir it in the morning and pour it on your hot griddle for ready-to-eat pancakes in minutes.  Sunday morning breakfast heaven.

This scaled down version made about 5 or 6 good sized pancakes, enough for two people.  For the full scale recipe, visit Food Network's site here.

Favorite Buttermilk Pancakes adapted from Aida Mollenkamp

• 5/8 C all purpose flour
• 5/8 C well shaken buttermilk
• 1/4 C melted unsalted butter (plus more for greasing the griddle)
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

In a medium bowl, whisk all ingredients together until combined and moistened thoroughly (some small lumps remaining are ok). Cover and store in the refrigerator to rest up to 12 hours before using. Right before using, stir briefly before using to loosen it up a bit - batter will have thickened up during rest time.

Heat a griddle over medium heat.  Melt 1 tablespoon butter on the griddle.  Being generous with the butter is what gives them their slightly crispy exterior.   Pour 1/4 cup batter for each pancake and cook until bubbles cover the top, about 3 minutes. Flip and cook until golden brown, another 1 minute. Repeat with remaining batter.  Serve immediately with maple syrup, powdered sugar, whipped cream, fresh fruit or anything else you can possibly think of.

SMS: Mom’s French Pancakes

My very first crepe experience was in Greece.  I know crepes are a French thing but there were crepe shops all over the place in all of the Greek cities we visited.  We tried them in a few cities there and they were all delicious.

My wonderful fiancee enjoying a crepe in Corfu

When I saw that Jaime of Good Eats and Sweet Treats, this week's host for Sweet Melissa Sundays, chose "Mom's French Pancakes" as our recipe, I knew I wanted to bake along.  When I saw the other bakers said they were easy and tasty, I was even more sold on the idea. :)

I made the recipe word for word from the Sweet Melissa book and it came together perfectly. And it was a cinch to make!  Very few ingredients and it all goes in a blender.  The swirling in the pan is what gave us some difficulty...

We used a 12 inch pan just as the book says, but we have a very hard time getting it to swirl across the whole pan without leaving holes.

Attempt #1

Attempt #2

We gradually got a little bit better as we made more, but I halved the recipe and only got about 6 crepes, so by the time we started improving our technique we were out of batter.

When we got to the end, we wanted a nice looking crepe so badly that we took a circle cookie cutter and cut it:

It made one itsy bitsy little crepe!  The butter is there for scale :)  It was a one-bite crepe.

Even if they weren't perfect looking, when spread with a little bit of strawberry jam and topped with homemade whipped cream, they were pretty tasty.  However, I did think the crepes themselves were a little on the bland side.  The jam and cream is what gave it all of the flavor.  Next time I might try adding a little bit of vanilla or almond extract?

Thanks for picking this recipe Jaime!  See Jaime's blog, Good Eats and Sweet Treats for the recipe or buy the Sweet Melissa baking book for all of the recipes.  Jaime, this made for a very lovely Sunday morning breakfast. :)  Be sure to visit the other participating SMS-ers blogs to see how their "French Pancakes" came out!  

Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancakes

After Friday's bakestravaganza, I took Saturday off from the kitchen to work at the candy store, but picked the whisk back up on Sunday morning. We had some buttermilk in the frig, so I decided to make Daniel some special Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancakes courtesy of Foodnetwork.com & Gourmet magazine. I left out the raisins because Daniel isn't a big raisin enthusiast, and halved the recipe since there are only two of us.

Cinnamon Oatmeal Pancakes:
.5 cup old fashion oats
.5 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
A little less than 1 cup buttermilk
1 large eggs
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla, blend thoroughly. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix with the whisk until just combined. Don't worry if the batter is a bit lumpy. If necessary, lightly butter, oil, or spray your griddle or skillet. Preheat over medium heat or if using an electric griddle set to 350 degrees F. (If you want to hold the pancakes until serving time preheat your oven to 200 degrees F). Spoon 1/3 cup of batter onto griddle for each pancake, allowing space for spreading, and use a spatula or the back of your spoon to lightly press the batter into rounds. When the underside of the pancake are golden and the tops are speckled with bubbles that pop and stay open, flip over with a wide spatula and cook on the other side until light brown. Serve immediately or place in oven while you make the rest of the batch.

After Dan's quick run to Publix for eggs (I forgot I used all of them during the bakestravaganza), the pancakes came out perfectly. This version of the recipe made 6 decent sized pancakes. The oats & cinnamon were a nice subtle touch. These were soft and light, but not so fluffy. Nevertheless, I'd definitely make these again!

Mmm steamy!