Pancakes From Scratch Are the Best

I am one of those people who wakes up hungry and one of my first concerns in the morning is what I will eat. As a child, pancakes were my favorite. I would cry if we went out to a restaurant and they didn’t serve pancakes…for dinner. My perplexed young mind wondered, “What kind of a dump doesn’t serve pancakes? What’s the point of going out to dinner?”

One of my favorite simple meals, I could still eat pancakes any time of day. Once when Michael and I were dating, he called at 10 PM and asked what I was doing. “Making pancakes,” I answered nonchalantly. “Making pancakes?!” he exclaimed incredulously. “Do you know how fattening those are?” I thought to myself, “What’s so fattening about one egg and 2 tablespoons of olive oil?” (And that’s for a batch that would feed at least 2 people.) It took me years to realize his understanding was that pancakes were made with bacon fat. If that’s the way you make them, that’s fine. But that’s not the way I grew up eating them.

Measuring

For pancakes and baked goods, I make an exception to not following a formula. If you don’t measure properly, you won’t get the desired results and you can’t taste along the way to see if it’s right. I made the mistake of not explaining this to my young friend once who so kindly volunteered to make us some pancakes when I wasn’t feeling well. From bed, I called out the instructions, eagerly anticipating her creation.

Bless her heart. I didn’t even recognize what she brought me. After inquiring about the process, I realized that she didn’t know how to properly measure dry ingredients. Flour must be leveled off with a knife. Baking powder must be leveled off with its lid. Salt and sugar should not be heaping spoonfuls–just level with the top of the measuring spoon. Sift through a mesh strainer to break up any lumps of baking powder or baking soda.

The Foundation

Mix together dry ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 3 teaspooons baking powder
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Mix together wet ingredients:

• 1 beaten egg
• 1 cup milk
• 2 Tablespoons oil

Combine everything and mix just until the batter is wet. Lumpy is fine. Don’t overmix it.

If you have buttermilk, that’s even better! I use it so infrequently that I don’t buy it often. If I’m not too impatient to get cooking, I might add a bit of lemon juice to some milk and let it sit for 20 minutes instead. To the batter described above, you can add any number of fruits, spices and/or nuts. Be sure to mix fruit with dry ingredients before combining with the wet ingredients. You could experiment with different kinds of flour. My favorite spice is cardamom. It works so well in both sweet and savory dishes, so I love to add it to my pancakes.

If you don’t have milk, try oat milk. It’s not exactly the same, but it works. Try with a little yogurt too. I have experimented with all kinds of concoctions when I have been out of an ingredient for pancakes. You don’t have to be intimidated!

Michael likes his pancakes topped with coconut syrup, which we discovered on our honeymoon in Hawaii, but I prefer real maple syrup. Growing up, we often didn’t use syrup at all. My mother thought molasses or honey was healthier, so that’s what we used. You could skip syrup altogether and make a fruit compote instead. Or you could….here I go…on and on once again…

How do you like your pancakes?

If you enjoy simple meals for breakfast, please read Ode to Oatmeal next.