Mom's Pancakes

I. love. pancakes.

My mom raised me on uh-may-zing pancakes. Father's day, birthdays, and Christmas always involved those beloved, fluffy heart cloggers.

The only major holiday exceptions were Mother's day (which was reserved for blueberry waffle/mimosa brunches at Grandma's house- hello, first taste of real maple syrup), and Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, I don't even remember what we ate in the morning. I think I just snuck ginger cookies or something- Mom was too busy prepping everything. Heh, heh, heh...

My mom always cooked everything for family occasions. The funniest part? She loathes cooking. She'd probably rather be sewing something. Or rescuing poodles. Or gouging her eyes out with rubber-tipped baby spoons. 

So when I call and ask her for a recipe of any kind, she gets all flustered and is like, "Gawd, Meg! I dunno, I just ... ya know... throw a bunch this and summa that in there, sprinkle it with cinnamon and its zucchini bread. But I'm sanding this friggin' cabinet right now, so can I just call you later?!" 

Yes, Mom. Call me later. And elaborate what the #*%$# you just told me to do. 

I decoded and experimented with a basic pancake recipe Mom spewed at me in the middle of her experimentation with her brand new serger, and it is even better than my Mom's. Yes, Mumsie. Oh Yes. They're like IHOP and Jesus got together and whipped somethin' up. I will eat gluten and dairy on pancake days. Gotta make sacrifices for the pancakes you love.

This is the original paper I wrote the recipe on
when my mom gave it to me. I can't throw it away. I can't.

Dry Ingredients:

1.25 C all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp white sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
.5 tsp baking soda

Wet Ingredients:

1 large egg, beaten
.5 C buttermilk
.5-1 C milk
2 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 C sour cream (more if you like a little tang)
squirt of fresh lemon juice

Directions:

1. Mix all of your dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. 

2. In a separate, medium-sized mixing bowl, mix all of your wet ingredients, EXCEPT THE LEMON JUICE.

3. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl that contains the dry ingredients. You can stir with a sturdy wooden spoon, I opt for my 15 year old egg beater (she's still got it!).

4. Once everything is well combined, add the squirt of lemon juice and mix well. Leave the batter alone for 5 minutes, allow the batter to bubble a bit (lemon + baking soda = muahahahaha)...

5. While you're waiting, start heating your griddle. This is one of those things I've learned is simply best to do slowly. Just turn the burner to medium-low and let the griddle/pan get hot.

6. Test a small dollop of batter on the griddle to see if its hot enough. 

7. When its hot enough, make some pancakes. I use my 1/2 cup measuring scoop to scoop and pour the batter, for consistency's sake.

Serve with BUTTER (not that hydrogenated oil whip-in-a-tub crap) and excessively expensive REAL maple syrup. Trust me, it's better.

I justify this gluten/dairy/heart-cloggin' recipe with a big ole fruit salad and some almond milk for the kids. There. That's better.