Lazy Saturday Pancakes

Posted: January 30th, 2010 | Filed under: Breakfast | Tags: Bread, Breakfast, Pancakes | 1 Comment »

I have this one little problem with Saturday mornings… I love to sleep in. I get up really early most weekday mornings. Really early. And there isn’t much more that I love and look forward to than sleeping in. However… my little brain just can’t seem to sleep that long. Poor brain is just an overactive mess. So on the days when I most look forward to sleeping in, I always inevitably wake up around 8. (Now… yes, that is sleeping in little, but come on, what happened to the days when I could sleep past 10am… or even to noon?!) So I lay there for awhile… trying to will little brain to go back to sleep. But alas, I always get up a few minutes later and start pattering around the aparment.

Pattering does mean one thing… I can start getting things done a little early. Like the sink full of dishes, a load of laundry, and maybe catch a few minutes to read and be quiet and start a french press of coffee.

So this morning I decided to attempt pancakes again. Now… I know what you are thinking… attempt pancakes? Attempt? Pancakes aren’t that hard.. they are a basic that people everywhere have on weekend mornings. But I have a little something to admit. I can make a pancake from a mix like a pancake ninja. I even had a pancake party in college. I was pancake makin’ for hours! But the from scratch pancake has been impossible for me to master. I have tried and tried recipes with reputations of being amazing and have managed to burn, undercook, and toughen all of them. This is just sad. Truly sad… and my poor husband has faithfully eaten all of them.

And then this morning happened. I had been perusing the food blogs this week and noticed a few pancake recipes that looked possibly promising… but seriously, with my track record what could that actually mean. But I tried again. I felt confident in my newly cleaned kitchen… (ok… kind of confident… still pretty shaky.) And thank goodness for this recipe… pancakes can be present in Saturday mornings once more.

So sweet husband got up a few hours later, to the smell of coffee, and fresh pancake batter… and only minutes later, a big stack of sour cream pancakes were on the table, laden with butter and warm maple syrup. And they were good. I mean repeat worthy good. And I am so happy. They aren’t too fluffy, or too flat, or flavorless or doughy… just a nice pancake, with a special little tang from the cream cheese. I can’t wait to try these this summer with fresh blueberries and a blueberry syrup… yum.

Edna Mae’s Sour Cream Pancakes
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks

7 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/ 2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream (I swapped some with yogurt when I realized I was short, to no ill-effect)
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Butter
Maple syrup

Heat a cast iron skillet or griddle over medium-low heat; you want it to slowly get nice and hot.

Stir the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together in the bottom of a medium bowl. Dump the sour cream in on top and stir it together very gently; it’s okay to leave the texture a bit uneven. Whisk the eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl and stir them into the sour cream mixture, once again, being careful not to overmix.

Melt about a tablespoon of butter in your skillet or griddle and pour the batter in, a scant 1/4 cup at a time. Cook for about 2 minutes on the first side, or until bubbles appear all over the surface, flipping them carefully and cooking for about a minute on the other side. Repeat with remaining batter.

Serve in a stack, topped with a pat of butter and a cascade of maple syrup.

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