Buttermilk Pancakes with Maple Syrup & Butter

How do you imagine your perfect breakfast? Would it be on Monday, Tuesday or maybe at the weekend? For me, breakfast is the best part of the day. I love having huge breakfast and if it were possible I'd have it at least three times a day :D I try to eat healthy so usually I eat porridge, yoghurt or cornflakes (okay, that's not healthy) but it's so hard when I could eat chocolate, buns, cakes and so much more! And that's how it goes. I get up, drink a cup of water or milk and then I prepare the best breakfast dish - at least for me. Do you know what it is? Oh, yeah, you're right. The good old buttermilk pancakes. So, do you wanna try them, too?

(More on Wiki.) Pancakes are thin, flat, round cakes prepared from a batter, and cooked on a hot griddle or frying pan. They are cooked one side on a griddle and flipped partway through to cook the other side. They are also called hotcakes, griddlecakes, or flapjacks, but mostly you'll find them as pancakes. American and Canadian pancakes are almost often made with baking powder and baking soda. Usually they're sweet, without any spices except for vanilla (or vanilla extract), but sometimes you can find recipes that call for other spices. Traditional pancakes are quite thick compared to e.g. French pancakes called "crepes" or even to our Czech pancake called "palačinka" (read pah-lah-tchin-kah).  Their thickness is aprox. 1cm. The most common topping is usually maple syrup and butter, but you can eat them with chocolate, fruit, ice cream etc. :) Possibilities are endless.

The batter consists of flour, eggs, granulated sugar, milk or buttermilk, butter, salt and raising agents. Much more usual is the use of milk, but I prefer using buttermilk as this gives me the best fluffy pancakes with wonderful taste. Make sure all ingredients are room temperature otherwise the wet ingredients could curdle and you'd have to spend additional time fixing the problem. It is very important not to over mix the batter - when you're combining the dry and wet ingredients there SHOULD BE lumps, not too big, not too small. These lumps will disappear during frying and provide the desired bubbly texture and light taste. Another trick is that you set aside the batter for about 45-60 minutes prior to frying - again, the batter will develop the right texture, bubbles and all flavours will mix together and create the best pancake taste :D

I've made a small research and found out that the ideal size of the ladle (which you use to pour the batter on the pan) is about 75ml - this creates the perfect pancake size and you don't even need a circle form to make them perfectly round. Oh, and make sure you don't spread the batter once you pour it on the pan, just let it spread by itself. By the way, I've noticed that the approximet serving size is five pancakes, 1 tbsp butter and maple syrup to taste. Wow! That's quite a lot! I gotta say I've tried it and it was just too much. I ate the whole portion, left out my lunch and dinner - so full I was :)

For these pancakes I encourage you to only use the real butter - no shortening or margarine will do the trick. Nope, only the real thing works this time. As for the maple syrup, here it depends on your personal preference. I like maple syrup by Steeves Maples even though it's not 100% pure, but it tastes delicious (at least I like it much more than the pure syrup which has a very specific taste that I can't seem to like).

My recipe is a summary of many pancake recipes you can find. Generally, they all are very similar only with small differences. I'd love you to try the recipe without any tweaks to see how wonderful they are and then you can try to change this and that, but please, give this classic a chance and you'll be surprised how perfect it is!

Ingredients:
520g (4 cups) all-purpose flour, sifted
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
110g (1/2 cup+1 tbsp) granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
4 eggs, room temperature
960ml (4 cups) buttermilk, lukewarm
110g (1/2 cup) butter, melted
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
hot maple syrup for drizzling
butter for greasing + serving

Directions:
In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. In another bowl beat together eggs, lukewarm buttermilk, melted butter and pure vanilla extract. Now pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture. Using a wooden spoon, stir until JUST blended. Do NOT over mix the batter - there should be small lumps (don't try to remove them otherwise your pancakes will be tough). Then let the batter rest for 45-60 minutes. Heat a frying pan (or griddle) over medium heat and lightly brush the pan with a teaspoon or so of butter. Using a ladle (75ml), pour the pancake batter onto the hot pan. When the bottom of the pancake is brown, turn over (the first pancake isn't perfect almost ever) and cook until brown again. Repeat with remaining batter (don't brush with butter anymore if using non-stick pan and instead brush the cooked pancake when removed from the pan). Serve immediately (pile up 3 to 5 pancakes with lots of hot maple syrup and a tablespoon of butter)!

• If you don't have buttermilk, pour 4 tbsp of fresh lemon juice into a measuring cup and add enough milk to get 960ml. Mix well and set aside for 10 minutes. Now you have your own fake buttermilk (but the real one is the best, of course).

Verdict:
In my family, daddy is the master when it comes to pancakes. He makes the best crepe-like thin pancakes which are always perfectly round (unlike mines). Since I'm not very good at these I tried the thick American pancakes and now I'm the pancake master :D Everyone loves them and they're our all time favourite dessert when there's not much time. I just can't stop eating these. No matter how over eaten I am, I simply MUST eat one after another. They're fluffly, airy, bubbly, light and absolutely not tough. Oh, and have I told you that I actuallly love the uncooked batter? I can't help myself, I know it's strange, but it tastes so gooood :D And when you add maple syrup and butter these pancakes are your ticket to 7th heaven - I swear! C'mon, I know you have time on Saturday :) Make them and have the best breakfast ever.


Linked to:
Sweet Tooth Friday
Sweets for a Saturday
Sweet Treats Thursday
These Chicks Cooked
Whisking Wednesdays