Breakfast Warms the Heart & A Simple but Good Pancake Recipe

There’s just something about a home cooked breakfast. I’ll be honest and let y’all in on a secret –my kids eat cold cereal quite often. It’s not that they enjoy it more than having a nice warm breakfast but it’s quick and easy. They can get it themselves and generally don’t have to wait for anyone else! Some mornings they need breakfast quick.

We do have a tradition in our house, even if it is only between my husband and I. Every single Sunday morning (some Saturdays too) I cook him two eggs, over medium, pour him a tall glass of orange juice and brew up some hot coffee. Don’t worry, I don’t leave out my kiddos.

For them I make breakfast probably more than once a week and it’s very rarely eggs. My dd doesn’t care for eggs and even my ds, who loves food in general, can get tired of eggs. They prefer pancakes, scones and muffin type breakfasts. I’m going to share the pancake recipe that I make for my kids.

Pancakes can be super simple or they can be complex. I’ve made them both ways. Both of my kids know how to make these also. The following is fairly simple with a few splashes of flavor.

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups flour (you can use ww if you like- you can even mix the flours or add wheat germ, flaxseed, oats, etc.)
• 2 TBS brown sugar
• 1 TBS baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp allspice, cinnamon and/or other ‘spice’
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cup milk (any kind- we usually use whole cows milk)- try 3/4 cup yogurt (flavored or plain) and 3/4 cup milk for ‘buttermilk’ pancakes
• 3 TBS oil
• 1 very ripe banana, mashed OR 1/2 cup applesauce (you could lessen or omit the oil if you use either of these –we don’t)

Directions:

• Measure out your flour into a large bowl. I use a spoon to scoop the flour from the bag to the measuring cup to prevent it from packing down and getting too much flour. Scrape across the top of the measuring cup to rid of excess flour. Next measure and add your baking powder, salt, and spices. I honestly don’t measure the spices. I go by smell and look. I prefer allspice for our spice. Don’t add the brown sugar yet!
• In a separate medium bowl, mix the liquids: if you’ve decided on the yogurt/milk route, mix these together first to make them somewhat smooth. Add in the egg (if it wasn’t slightly beaten before now, not a problem, just mix it with the rest –it will be ‘beaten’ by the end!), the banana or applesauce, oil AND brown sugar. I add the brown sugar to the liquids to help it distribute more evenly in my batter. Otherwise I have clumps of sugar in my pancakes. You might not find that to be a bad thing!
• Now I let it rest while I prepare my pan. I use an old square pan that really needs to be replaced…someday. I use oil to grease my pan. Probably 2 tsp worth. I spread it around with the spatula until all of the cooking surface is coated. You could use spray or possibly butter. Butter generally sticks on my pan so I go with oil. With my pan I can just tell when it is hot enough for cooking but otherwise you might try the drop of water that dances trick (drip a drop of water on the griddle, if it dances across the pan, it’s ready!).
• With the pan ready, I give my batter a bit of a stir. I use 1/4 cup of batter per pancake. My pan is large enough that I can make 4 at a time; one in each corner. When the edges are ‘dry’ and the cakes have bubbles throughout, flip them. They should be nice and golden on the underside. They should rise nicely when flipped. Let them cook for a bit, perhaps a minute or so? Check the underside by lifting the cakes with the spatula. When they are golden, they are done.

It makes between 12 and 16 pancakes. Sorry I’m not more specific! Sometimes I get carried away and put more batter than usual on a pancake or two, sometimes they are fairly all the same (that’s usually closer to 16 pancakes then).

Because these are moist pancakes –whether you used banana or applesauce AND  if you used the milk/yogurt option –do not panic if the center seems ‘gooey’. It should not resemble what you have in your bowl but might not be as ‘done’ as the outside of the pancake. I hope you can tell the difference between not done and very moist. And if in doubt, it’s almost better to have burnt pancakes than raw ones –shudder!

I apologize there are no photos in this post. Perhaps when we make pancakes again, we’ll make it a photo shoot!

There are a lot of recipes for pancakes, I know, but I just wanted to share a bit with you a recipe that my kids and I really have enjoyed for many years. Next time, I’ll give my recipe for eggless, but delicious scones!

I’m linking this post up with Making a Home at Linda’s Lunacy, where we can share posts about homemaking ideas, recipes, crafts, decorating, cleaning tips, basically anything that has to do with caring for a home and family.