Easy pancakes from scratch!

Pancakes are a staple at our house. At 18 months old, Little Bear reminded me to add the oil to the pancake batter when I forgot- when your toddler knows the ingredients, you know you use a recipe a lot!

It's hard for me to imagine using a packaged mix for pancakes- I was talking to a friend recently who had never had pancakes not from a mix. This situation must be remedied. 

I make pancakes from scratch. It's easy. Takes less than 5 minutes to throw all the ingredients together!

Here's how it works: First, dump all the dry ingredients into a bowl. 

Next, add the wet ingredients and stir it up- Little Bear prefers to use the eggbeater, but I just use a fork. Mix until just combined; it really doesn't matter if you have a few small lumps. 

Bake them on a griddle or in a pan on medium low- when it's just the family, I like to use my cast iron skillet, but the griddle is nice for when people are visiting- it goes much faster. Heat the griddle or pan while you are making the batter so it's nice and hot when you are ready to cook. You can add a little oil or butter to the pan, but these pancakes don't stick to my seasoned cast iron, and I have a nonstick electric griddle, so I usually skip it.

To make the pancakes about the same size, I use a measuring cup to scoop approximately the same amount of batter (1/4 or 1/3 cup measure) for each cake.  That generally yields a 4-5 inch diameter pancake. 

Cook on one side until bubbles breaking on the top surface are slow to close and the underside is brown and crispy, then flip! The cakes will puff a little. Wait a minute or two for that side to brown and finish cooking the middle, then scoop them off and serve.

Basic pancake recipe: makes about 8 4-inch pancakes

1 cup flour

1/8 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 scoop soy protein (optional- we eat veg, so it helps supplement our protein intake, but the cakes work fine without it)

1 cup milk

1 egg

2 glugs olive oil (for those of you unfamiliar with the glug unit of measure, this translates to something between 1-1/2 and 2 tablespoons. Probably.)

Pour onto heated griddle or pan. Cook until bubbles rising in the center of the batter are closing very slowly, then flip and cook an additional 1-2 minutes on the other side. Serve!

This recipe is really forgiving- I have forgotten the oil and made it without eggs when we ran out, and the pancakes still work (not quite as well as when you add everything, but 85%). You can also get adventurous and replace the oil with 1/4 cup applesauce, or add things like chocolate chips or blueberries to the batter. Enjoy!