Monday Makings: Hearty Pancakes

When Jane and I were dating she told me that she would marry me but only if I gave her a lifetime supply of chocolate chip pancakes. She held up her end of the bargain, so I have tried my best to hold up mine. The recipe below has been my default for pancakes for the last 5+ years. It is slightly tweaked from a recipe that my brother used to use when we lived together during the summer of Root Side Up.

The Recipe!

3/4 c. Flour (Optional: substitute 1/4 c. of the flour with whole wheat flour)

1/4 c. Traditional Rolled Oats

2 T. Brown Sugar

1/2 T. Baking Powder

3/4 c. Milk

1 egg

1/2 T. Vanilla (Optional: increase or decrease the amount of vanilla as you see fit)

2 T. Melted Butter (Optional: substitute butter with canola oil or peanut butter)

Optional: Chocolate chips, blueberries, or pecans to put in the pancakes

Optional: Maple syrup (pairs well with pecans) or peanut butter (pairs well with chocolate chips) as toppings

The Directions!

1. Whisk together all of the dry ingredients.
2. Whisk together the milk, egg, and vanilla. (If you are using canola oil or peanut butter add that too).
3. If using butter, whisk into the dry ingredients.
4. Put your whisk aside and grab a mixing spoon.
5. Pour the rest of the wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and mix until everything is wet, it is okay if it is still a little bit lumpy.
6. Heat a skillet or pan to medium heat (every cooking surface is different, you might need to play around with this a bit). I put this step here so that the baking powder can have a little bit of time to work before being cooked.
7. Pour or ladle the batter onto the skillet, the batter will spread a little bit, but not much.
8. If you want to put stuff in your pancakes you can do this once bubbles start to form on their surface (see picture below).
9. Turn the pancakes when the bottoms are golden brown (again this is something that you will have to figure out on your own, a good starting point though is about twice as long as it takes for the bubbles to form)
10. Take your pancakes off of the skillet when the second side is also golden brown.
11. Put the pancakes on a plate, apply your favorite toppings, and enjoy!

Everything Ready to Mix Together

Bubbles Starting to Form on the Pancakes

Adding the Goodies!

First Side Done

Second Side Done

Ready to Eat