Pancake Party

Oh Amy Karol, you’ve gone and done it again. . . . started me off on a new craze. I should back up and explain better. While we were in Oregon on vacation, we made pancakes. A LOT of pancakes. They had one of those electric griddles and I was so enamored with it that I had thoughts of buying one. The thing is, I am filled to the brim already with kitchen stuff and I can’t see buying another thing just for pancakes. But, oh, the ease of 3 or 4 pancakes cooking at a time. . oh I wanted one. Flash forward to this post by Angry Chicken (Amy Karol) and the lights clicked in my head. Yes, I started immediately researching the grill/griddle that she uses at her house. Grill on one side, griddle on the other, cast iron goodness. That makes it a 2 in 1 kitchen tool and easy to store since it’s flat. Oh yes. . . it weighs about 100 million pounds, but I kind of think it might never come off two of our burners. I am in heart with it. . . and so far, we’ve only made pancakes on it. Pancakes EVERY DAY since I bought it. I plan to grill things and griddle other things on it too, but even just for the pancakes, it’s totally worth it.

Oh Griddle, how I love you!

So, pancakes are a pretty big deal around here. Abby loves cooking, so this was a really great project for her hand egg beater (we got ours at a thrift store for $1). Pancake batter is thin enough that it’s not frustrating for her to mix it up on her own.

Abby mixes pancakes with her hand mixer and grins like a freak.

We use whole wheat flour as much as possible and often, we’ll use whole wheat pastry flour in place of white flour in recipes. Below is our go to pancake batter recipe. I found that it’s easy to take with you car camping or on vacation by mixing the dry stuff in a bag ahead of time.

Our recipe is adapted from this one. Since I don’t often have bananas or pecans on hand, we leave those off. This is also pretty thick. We like our pancakes thinner, so we add extra milk.

Whole Wheat Pancakes
Makes enough for the three of us to eat pancakes 3 times . . . hmm, about 15 or so 4-inch pancakes? I’m totally guessing here! But, make up a double batch and store leftover batter in the fridge for a few days or make all of the pancakes and eat them as snacks. . . yum!

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon sugar (or to taste)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1 1/2 cups whole milk (I like to add one cup and then thin it to my desired consistency by pouring in the rest a little at a time.)
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 cup (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for frying and serving

Whisk first 5 ingredients in large bowl. Whisk milk, egg, and vanilla in medium bowl, then whisk in 1/8 cup butter. Stir milk mixture into dry ingredients.

Heat large nonstick griddle or skillet over medium heat; brush with butter. For each pancake, drop 1/4 cup batter onto griddle. Cook until brown, about 2 minutes per side. Enjoy!