Pancakes

For lunch today I made blueberry pancakes at Sadie’s request. She’d never had them, but was intrigued by the blueberry pancakes in a Curious George book. The kids absolutely adored them, and they were right to do so. That was half or so of the batter, matched to the amount of blueberries remaining from a recently on sale pint the kids had been enjoying.

While I was at it, I used strawberry pieces in some of the batter, for strawberry pancakes, which are something I don’t recall ever having or hearing of before, though I could be mistaken.

The last of the batter made four plain pancakes.

This is intended in large part to be an audience participation post, and it occurs to me it goes beyond what fruits or other things you might have tried in pancakes, to the very stuff of pancakes themselves.

We buy industrial size boxes of Bisquick at BJ’s and have them around for months to use when the need arises, for pancakes or otherwise. I tend to add far more milk and often more egg than called for by the box recipe, but otherwise it’s that simple and they are pretty yummy. Sometimes we have corn pancakes, made from small boxes of Jiffy corn muffin mix, also quite yummy. I haven’t tried making pancakes from scratch, but surely it’d be no big deal. Ironically, I have made crepes from scratch; similar enough. My father has at times made excellent pancakes out of a grainy mix that he further embellished. How about you; box, scratch, something unusual?

The most common fruit pancakes I’ve made, or had as a kid, are banana. Blueberry would have to be next. We had wild blueberries right around the house so in season there would be no shortage, Ditto for both wild and cultivated strawberries, which is why I am intrigued that I don’t recall strawberry pancakes. They were good today. I believe I’ve had peaches in pancakes. Not sure what else. Do you have a preferred addition to your pancakes, or something you tried that may or may not have been such a good idea?

I found myself wondering why we don’t eat them more often, apart from wanting to sleep afterward. We were low enough on syrup, I also used some boysenberry jam on some of mine, and shared it with the kids. That was good! Brings back memories of boysenberry syrup at IHOP when I was a kid.

What do you put on your pancakes? Real maple syrup? Fake or sugar free syrup? Other syrup flavors? Jam? Butter? Something else? Cold or warmed syrup?

Look at how something so simple as pancakes can turn into such a variable culinary delight.

4 Comments

  1. john of sparta

    ingredients for pancakes….sub soda water
    for milk One Time. that’s all it takes.
    superlight.

    Reply
  2. Kathy

    Saute peeled, thinly sliced apples with little cinnamon, little nutmeg if you like.Pour batter over and finish cooking or finish them in the oven. I have also added oatmeal to the batter. Add can of pumpkin that I have added cinnamon, nutmeg and a little sugar to batter.

    Reply
  3. jen

    I grew up on Bisquick pancakes – imho, there’s no pancake better than a Bisquick pancake. That said, I have made them from scratch on occasion and I still prefer Bisquick.

    I tend to keep my batter a little thicker – I light dense pancakes. What I add is maybe 1 tsp of sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

    Side note: I also add a wee bit of sugar to the egg mixture for French toast – this causes the toast to brown better without overcooking the eggs.

    Like Kathy, I’ve made pumpkin pancakes – delish and perfect for Thanksgiving or Christmas morning.

    Reply
  4. triticale

    We haven’t made pancakes in decades, but we go out for breakfast now and then. Nothing but butter on them; I tell the waitress “No syrup; she’s sweet enough already.”

    Reply

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