Mom’s Buttermilk Pancakes

“Mom” is my mom, Hazel Wright; Grandma to a few of you loyal readers!

Staying at Grandma and Grampa’s house on Bainbridge Island often meant a breakfast of fresh-squeezed orange juice, lots of bacon, and Mom’s Buttermilk Pancakes. It’s a recipe that Mom adapted from the one on a Darigold Buttermilk carton. She used twice as much buttermilk which makes the pancakes very light, almost like Swedish pancakes. The pancakes were cooked on her old electric griddle which did a fine job. We ate them with pure maple syrup, but Mom always had Log Cabin syrup for Dad because that’s what he preferred.

I copied the recipe and have been making them myself for about 25 years. I’ve had a couple of different stovetop griddles over the years. One was a two-burner griddle that worked well, but it had a non-stick coating that eventually started chipping off. Another was too lightweight to heat evenly.

I finally discovered Lodge’s cast iron griddle which works perfectly and should last forever.

The key is to give it plenty of time to heat up over medium – medium high heat. (On my electric stove, just over medium heat works well.) When it’s had enough time to heat up, it will be hot all the way out to the edges. (You could actually use a large cast iron skillet, but it’s definitely easier to flip the pancakes on a griddle.)

You’ll notice in the photo of my hand-written recipe that it calls for sifted flour. I find that sifting the flour is an unnecessary extra step. Mom did sift her flour, but I haven’t done that for years.

Mom’s Buttermilk Pancakes

(printable recipe)

(Adapted from a recipe on a Darigold Buttermilk carton)

Serves 4 – 6 (you can easily cut in half to serve 2 – 3)

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Stir together:

2 cups (240g) flour

1 tsp. salt

1 ¼ tsp. soda

¾ tsp. baking powder

Beat together well:

2 eggs

4 cups buttermilk

¼ cup melted butter

1. Preheat your griddle until it’s quite hot. (A drop of water will immediately sizzle when it’s hot enough.)

2. Combine the dry ingredients and the buttermilk mixture and stir until the batter’s just barely mixed. It will be a bit lumpy.

3. Ladle the batter on the griddle when it is hot enough.

4. Cook until the pancakes are dry around the edges and there are bubbles on the top. The one below is just about ready.

5. Flip and cook a minute or two more.

6. Serve with pure maple syrup, good preserves, or (Bob’s favorite) honey

Leftover pancakes can be cooled on a rack (helps to keep them from sticking together), and refrigerated. They can be reheated in the microwave pretty successfully for a quick Monday morning breakfast.