Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
House of Pancakes
A while ago, I had the bright idea of drafting the Cooks Illustrated buttermilk biscuit recipe into the service of a better pancake. (If you like biscuits and haven’t tried that recipe yet, try it.) Here is the successful result:
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1.5 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar
0.5 teaspoon salt
0.5 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for frying
1.25 to 1.5 cups buttermilk
Combine the dry ingredients with the melted butter and mix well. Pour maple syrup onto a microwave-safe plate and microwave about 30 seconds to heat it up — or heat the syrup separately in a bowl. Point is, DON’T pour cold syrup on hot pancakes. Such a buzz kill.
Melt butter in a frying pan over medium high heat. While the butter is melting, mix the buttermilk into the dry ingredients. Mix quickly and don’t overdo it.
Ladle or spoon out batter to form four or five 2-inch-diameter pancakes. Fry until crispy and dark brown on the bottom, then plate them out onto the hot syrup. Serve ASAP.
I used 1 cup of buttermilk today, but the batter looked too thick, so I added more buttermilk. Hence the “1.25 to 1.5 cups of buttermilk”.
Oy, these are diet-killers.
D.
PS: Remember — tomorrow, Bare Rump holds forth on Smart Bitches Day in a post entitled, “Let’s Talk Consummation,” and no one knows consummation better than she does, nosirree.
actually, I used to have a roommate who swore that next to oatmeal, pancakes were the healthiest thing you could order for breakfast at a hotel restaurant. Course, I don’t think she was talking about these.
I can’t get buttermilk here, but I heard putting a little lemon juice in regular milk and letting it sit for a bit works too. I’ll have to try that, because this sounds Yummy!
You’re not making these on a school morning, are you? Oh, yeah, I forgot–no getting up early because of bus schedules for you. *sigh*
Monday mornings here are pancakes, waffles, or French toast days, but I can just imagine the result if I tried to make these at 6 a.m. Maybe for a weekend brunch or something.