Thick and Fluffy Pancakes

After making homemade maple flavored syrup, you had to see the pancakes coming, right?  We do pancakes at our house a lot.  In fact, whenever I ask for suggestions for the dinner menu plan, my boys invariably shout out “PANCAKES!!”

In fact, they pretty much request pancakes for any meal of the day. Unless they ask for steak. Which is their other favorite.

Boys are so easy to please.

But being that my boys are pancake aficionados, I’ve gone through a lot of pancake recipes over the years, before finally coming up with our “go to” recipe. This recipe is the fruit of that labor. The pancakes come out thick, fluffy, and melt in your mouth.  Miles ahead of anything that comes out of a boxed mix.

The recipe makes about 16 medium sized pancakes.  The extras can be wrapped and kept if the fridge to be re-heated for breakfast during the week, or frozen for later. I’ve also included a few of our favorite flavor variations with the printable recipe. Are you in, yet?

Great! Let’s get a mixin’ and a flippin’!

You’ll need:  all-purpose flour, 100 % white whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, 2 large eggs,2% milk, buttermilk, brown sugar, canola oil, and vanilla extract.

Measure all of the dry ingredients into a large bowl–that’s the flours, baking powder, salt, brown sugar, and ground cinnamon. Whisk the dry ingredients to combine. I like to make our pancakes more nutritious by using half 100% white whole wheat flour. 100% white whole wheat flour is a whole grain flour with a lighter taste than traditional whole wheat. If you don’t have any, go ahead and skip the whole wheat, and just use all-purpose flour.

In another bowl, beat the eggs until they fluff up a bit. Pour in the milk, buttermilk, vanilla, and canola oil, and whip it all to emulsify.  The acid in the buttermilk will rub elbows with the baking powder to really make the pancakes moist and fluffy. I highly recommend using it. However, if you are Jones’n for pancakes and you don’t have any buttermilk, just use all 2% milk, and add a tablespoon or so of white vinegar to sour it.  The flavor will be a little different, but it’ll do in a pinch.

Pour the wet stuff into the dry stuff.

Then stir it all together with a fork. Yes, a fork. Sometimes the simplest tool  is the best tool for the job.

Notice that bent tine on my fork? Several of the forks in our house have turned up with this affliction, and yet none of my boys know how this could have happened. Just one of Life’s mysteries, I guess.

Sometimes my tine-bending boys beg me to toss a handful of chocolate chips into the batter.  They say please-oh-please, Mom!  Then I say that I will if they tell me how all of the tines on my forks got bent. Then they say they don’t know, and that I seem a little cranky. Then they suggest that perhaps a little chocolate would make me feel better. Then I throw some chocolate chips into the batter.

I’m a real toughie.

Preheat a griddle over medium heat, or around 225-250 degrees on an electric griddle. Grease the griddle with a pat or two of butter so the batter doesn’t stick, then pour the batter by 1/4 cup-fulls for each pancake.

Let them cook for 2-3 minutes, or until bubbles begin to appear on the top, and the edges begin to dry. Then flip them over.

Cook on the other side for another minute or two, or until both sides are golden brown and pancakes are cooked through.

Serve ’em while they are hot with a little more butter, plenty of maple syrup, and your favorite breakfast meat. Or if being a short-order cook is not your thing, place the pancakes onto a baking sheet, and keep them warm in a 175 degree (F) oven until all of the pancakes are done.

Nothing is better on a lazy morning than hot,  fresh pancakes.  Make them this weekend.  If you are feeling a little sassy, try one of our favorite variations at the end of the recipe.

Quick Tip Alert!

Use a pizza cutter to cut strips across the pancake.

Turn the plate, and cut strips perpendicular to the first strips.

Ta-da! Quick and easy bite-sized pancakes!

Thick and Fluffy Pancakes

http://comfortablydomestic.com

15-16 large pancakes

1 C. all-purpose flour

1 C. 100 % white whole wheat flour

2 Tbs. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

2 Tbs. brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs

1 C. 2% milk

½ C. buttermilk

¼ C. canola oil

½ tsp. vanilla extract

Butter for greasing the griddle

In a large bowl, mix the flours, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon; whisking until well blended.

1. Whisk eggs in another bowl until fluffy.
2. Pour in milk, buttermilk, vanilla, and canola oil and whisk until well combined.
3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, and stir with a fork until incorporated. Batter will be a little lumpy.
4. Allow batter to rest for a few minutes.
5. Preheat the griddle over medium heat (or electric griddle to 225 degrees F.) Preheat the oven to “warm” setting (175 degrees.)
6. Grease griddle with a pat of butter, and wait for butter to sizzle.
7. Pour batter by ¼ cup portions; allow to cook on the hot griddle until bubbles appear on top, and the edges start to look dry (about 2-3 minutes.) Flip the pancake over and allow to cook for another minute or two, or until pancake is golden brown on both sides, and cooked through.
8. Place cooked pancakes onto a baking sheet, and put in the oven to keep warm.

10.  Repeat until all batter has been used.

11.  Serve with more butter, warmed maple syrup, or jam.

ALTERNATE FLAVORS:

• Apple Cinnamon Pancakes: Peel and grate 1 large apple. Stir the grated apple into the batter along with 1 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon.
• Bacon Pancakes: Cook 2 strips of bacon until crisp. Crumble bacon, and stir into batter.
• Blueberry Pancakes: Stir ¾ C. fresh or frozen blueberries into the batter.
• Banana Pancakes: Stir 2 mashed bananas into the batter.
• Chocolate Chip Pancakes: Stir in ½ C. mini-chocolate chips into the batter.
• Pumpkin Pancakes: Stir in 1 C. of pumpkin puree and 1 tsp. of ground cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice into the batter.