Good (and Good for you) Pancake: Step 1

As a kid, I never really liked pancakes. Strange, cause my mother loves them, and my dad makes great pancakes (apparently). I think syrup was the root of the problem. I just don't like syrup. I would eat my pancakes with butter and jam. Still, I preferred Swedish pancakes--flat and rubbery, to regular fluffy pancakes.

At some point I had some tasty pancakes on a visit to Austin (I tried Ross's, I would never order pancakes!). I started to rethink my ideas about pancakes. Pancakes became my post-call treat when I was in Maryland. The hospital food was disgusting, but I loved the fluffy, buttery pancakes with jam on them.

I don't make fluffy, buttery pancakes. Instead I make apple-oat-flax pancakes. Healthy, yet not as fluffy and yummy as those cafeteria pancakes I'd come to know and love. My quest is to come up with a good for you pancake that isn't hard, flat, and rubbery.

Step 1: Make a good pancake that might not be so good for you. For this, I called my dad. Seems I take after him--he doesn't measure either. He gave me his pancake recipe and I tried it (with modifications of course) out tonight. Fluffy, yummy. Not as buttery as those ones in the caf--but I know they were just adding water to a mix, so they probably had some kind of imitation butter flavor in them.


The Fluffy Pancake

1 1/4 c all purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder

1 egg
3 Tbl. melted butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c milk
vanilla

1. Warm griddle over medium heat.
2. Whisk together flour and baking powder in a large bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, beat egg. Stir in melted butter, salt, milk, and vanilla.
4. Whisk wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Do not over mix the ingredients--leave a few lumps.
5. Pour/spoon batter onto griddle. Flip pancake when you see a bunch of bubbles forming.
6. Cook other side for a minute or so.
7. Smear on butter, jam, or syrup if you have to.
8. Eat. Eat. Eat!

Oh--I had oj with my pancakes in an effort to conserve milk.