buttermilk pancakes

Whenever I crave good pancakes, I always assume this means I have to make a trip to either the Flying Biscuit (great oatmeal pancakes) or to the Original Pancake House in Atlanta. I associate at-home pancakes with the crappy Aunt-Jemima all-in-one mix or Bisquick or whatever, and those don't come even close to "real" pancakes. This morning I realized I had some buttermilk, some flour, some eggs -- why not try to make them from scratch? I found this fairly generic recipe on foodnetwork.com, and made a half batch (the half batch is listed below), which made 6 pancakes.

Grocery list: 1 cup a/p flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 2 T sugar, 1 egg, 1 cup buttermilk, 2 T melted butter, extra butter for cooking.

Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Stir the buttermilk, melted butter, and 1 beaten egg together. Stir the wet ingredients in with the dry *but don't overmix the batter!* You want to keep it lumpy; if you over-stir it, the pancakes won't turn out fluffy.



Melt a T of butter in the bottom of a fry pan, then spoon the batter into the pan. You'll know it's time to flip when the pancakes are bubbling and you can see the edges are golden. This entire process took about 3 minutes longer than making the "instant all-in-one" pancakes, so I've got a great back-up plan next time I don't feel like trekking across Atlanta for a buttermilk pancake fix...



Side note: I served this with a simple side of fried bacon. I prefer the Maverick Ranch hormone- and antibiotic-free bacon, it's delicious.