Oh, Saturdays...

I love Saturdays. Its the one day of the week that I can count on sleeping in a little and spending laid back time with Joaquin. It is also our catch-up day on chores and such, but thats no matter, I enjoy all of it. We like to make a special breakfast together on Saturdays, and this morning I tried a new recipe. I had a lot of extra buttermilk from a chocolate cake recipe that I made a couple weekends ago, so I hunted around on-line for a buttermilk pancake recipe. The result: these were the BEST pancakes I have ever had. So, I figured I'd share the recipe. Its from Cooking.com, but I had to modify it some because I did not have any sour cream.

Featherlight Buttermilk Pancakes

The secret to making these amazing pancakes is the lumpy batter. So whatever you do, do not overmix the batter! To cook the pancakes, use a heavy large griddle (I used an electric griddle that we got as a wedding gift from Joaquin's best man). A very low-sided griddle, makes sliding your spatula underneath the pancakes and turning them over easy. The griddle's large surface area allows you to cook a large batch of pancakes each time.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups sour cream ***
2 large eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Additional unsalted butter (or Crisco :)
*** All I had was lots of yogurt, and I figured that plain yogurt would work best. Joaquin loves "Fruit on the Bottom," so I scraped the plain yogurt off the tops of the sweet fruit stuff of two yogurt containers. Worked like a charm! And I bet it was a bit healthier too:).

RECIPE METHOD

Whisk first 5 ingredients in large bowl. Whisk buttermilk, sour cream (or plain yogurt), eggs and vanilla in another large bowl. Add to dry ingredients. Stir until batter is just blended but still lumpy (do not overmix).

Melt 1/2 tablespoon butter on griddle over medium heat. Pour batter by 1/3 cupfuls onto griddle, spacing 2 inches apart. Cook until bubbles break on surface, about 3 minutes. Turn pancakes over. Cook until bottoms are golden, 3 minutes. Transfer to plates. Repeat with remaining batter, adding butter to skillet as needed.

Serve pancakes immediately with butter and warm maple syrup.

Recipe created exclusively for Cooking.com by Rochelle Palermo.

Serving size = 1 pancake (This recipe makes about 18 pancakes, so I saved the rest in an airtight container in the fridge)