Buttermilk
Pancakes are wonderfully thick with a light and spongy texture and their
flavor only hints of the richness and tanginess that buttermilk offers.
You begin these pancakes as you would any regular pancake batter; by
whisking together the flour, baking powder/soda, salt and sugar. Only
instead of using milk, eggs, and melted butter to bind the dry ingredients
together, you replace the milk with buttermilk. Buttermilk
has this nice thick and creamy texture with a rich tangy buttery flavor
that makes these pancakes so tender, fluffy, and soft.
In the past buttermilk was actually made from the liquid left
over after churning butter, but now it is commercially made by adding a
bacteria to whole, skim, or low fat milk. But you really do not need
to make a special trip to the grocery store every time you need buttermilk
to make these pancakes. One option is to buy buttermilk powder so you
always have it on hand or you can just as easily make your own
buttermilk by adding 1 tablespoon of white distilled vinegar, cider
vinegar, or lemon juice to 1 cup of milk. Just stir the vinegar or
lemon juice into the milk and then let it stand 5 to 10 minutes before
using.
Although pancakes are mainly served for
breakfast they take center stage on Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday (Mardi
Gras), when they are often served for supper. The ingredients used to make
pancakes are forbidden during Lent so making pancakes is a great way to
use up these ingredients. We have come to think of this day as the 'feast' before
the 'fast'. It is interesting to note that the word 'Shrove' comes
from the word 'shrive' which is the Tuesday before Lent and the day on
which parishioners shrive, or confess, their sins.
In a large bowl whisk together the
flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. In a separate bowl whisk together the
egg, buttermilk, and melted butter. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, all at
once, and stir or whisk just until combined. The batter should have some small
lumps. Make sure you do not over mix the batter or the pancakes will be tough.
Heat a frying pan or griddle over
medium high heat until a few sprinkles of water dropped on the pan or griddle splatter. Using
a pastry brush, brush the pan with a little melted butter.
Using a small ladle or
scoop, pour about 1/4 cup of pancake batter onto the pan, spacing the pancakes a few inches from each other. When
the bottoms of the pancakes are brown and bubbles start to appear on the top
surfaces of the pancakes (2-3 minutes), turn over. Cook
until lightly browned (about 1-2 minutes).
Repeat with remaining
batter, brushing the pan with melted butter between batches.
Serve immediately
with butter and maple syrup or your favorite jam.
Machine
Translations are provided by an automated service and the accuracy of the
translations are not up to the standards of human translation. Machine
translations are provided for use by people with little or no English
skills. We recommend that people proficient in English use the English pages
rather then the machine translated pages.
Use of materials on Joyofbaking.com is
entirely at the risk of the user and Joyofbaking.com, Stephanie Jaworski or
Rick Jaworski
will not be responsible for any damages directly or indirectly resulting
from the use.
This
website and the contents are not endorsed or sponsored by the owner
of the "Joy of Cooking" series of books or its publisher Simon & Schuster,
Inc.
Content in any form may
not be copied or used without written permission of Stephanie Jaworski,
Joyofbaking.com. Students and non profit educators may use content without
permission with proper credit.
Page loading ... Please wait.
