Cook's Illustrated Whole Wheat Pancakes
This recipe will make about eight 3 inch pancakes and serve 3-4.
(Perfect for two adults and two kids)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup milk
1 large egg, separated
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips (optional) or
1/2 cup blueberries (optional)
Instructions:
1. Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl
2. Pour buttermilk and milk into a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup
3. Whisk in egg white into the milk mix
4. Melt 2 tablespoons butter
5. Mix egg yolk with melted butter
6. Stir egg yolk/butter into the milk mixture
7. Dump wet ingredients (all in the 2 cup Pyrex cup) into the dry ingredients.
8. Whisk until just mixed
9. Add dark chocolate chips or blueberries (optional)
10. Heat griddle or large skillet over medium heat. Brush griddle or skillet with oil.
11. When a few drops of water sizzle on pan, it is ready to pour the batter on.
12. Pour batter, about 1/4 cup, at a time onto griddle.
13. Cook for about 2-3 minutes or when top surface begins to bubble and bottom of pancakes are brown.
14. Flip pancakes and cook until other side is brown - about 1 to 2 minutes.
Mark's Notes
This has become a popular item on our Saturday morning family breakfast that I always make. The kids prefer the chocolate chip pancakes to the blueberries. The original Cook's Illustrated recipe did not say anything about adding blueberries or chocolate chips. I have just added that as an optional ingredient.
One mistake that I commonly make that does not appear to have much consequence is that I confuse the baking powder for the baking soda and use 1/4 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda. I have the entire recipe memorized except I can never remember which of the two gets 1/2 teaspoon and which gets 1/4 teaspoon.
According to Cook's Illustrated the baking soda gives the pancakes a 'coarser crumb' and makes the pancakes 'light and tender', and the baking powder helps with the rise.
This recipe is perfect for our family of 4. If you want more pancakes just double the recipe. I've done that before when we've had guests over, wanted leftovers, or if everyone was hungry.
Remember if you do not have buttermilk readily available do one of the following:
1. Use yogurt. In this case 3/4 cup buttermilk is replaced with 3/4 cup yogurt.
2. Mix milk with lemon juice. In this case, mix 3/4 cup milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice and let sit for five minutes. Pancakes won't turn out as thick, but it does work.
I prefer the yogurt substitute and have used that many many times.
I almost lost my printout for this recipe, and so when I found, it I decided to add it to my blog.
I have also slightly changed my blog. I added a search option to my blog. This will help me (and whoever else comes to my blog) to look for a recipe within my blog. I am still learning about blogs too.
