Best Buttermilk Pancakes
The other day I realized that I had half a bottle of buttermilk at the end of its expiration date—not the worst food dilemma I’ve ever had. What to make with it?
I dismissed my chocolate cake recipes because they called for only one cup of buttermilk, and I had two plus cups of buttermilk to use up. Ditto for any number of dips. What next? Buttermilk pancakes from scratch to the rescue!
When my kids were little, my husband made pancakes most weekends. Instead of buying pancake mix, I came up with a dry buttermilk pancake mix that was a fraction of the cost. All you do to make the batter is add water, an egg, and a little melted butter. It was quick, easy, and inexpensive.
Obviously, I needed a pancake recipe that called for real buttermilk. A quick search led me to this recipe called “Best Buttermilk Pancakes.” I am a sucker for any recipe that has the word “best” in the title! There have been times, however, when I’ve been disappointed in the recipe and wondered what the originator was thinking.
That’s definitely not the case here! Hubby and I agreed that these were the best pancakes we’ve ever eaten, and we’ve eaten a lot over the decades. They turned out thick but fluffy—just the way I prefer them. On top of that, when I, of course, poured maple syrup over them, they were moist and delectable and just melted in my mouth.
I am retiring any and all recipes for pancakes in my voluminous files. Folks, this one goes into the Pancake Hall of Fame!
Best Buttermilk Pancakes
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 3 tbl. sugar
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 1/4 cups buttermilk
- 2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 4 tbl. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Directions
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, until well-combined.
In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla.
Take your melted and cooled butter and slowly drizzle it into your wet ingredients while whisking, stirring until well-combined (the butter may separate and curdle if your other ingredients are cold. This is OK, just whisk to combine.
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and use a wooden spoon to stir until just combined — do not overmix your pancake batter or your pancakes will be flat. Use a light hand when stirring, and a few lumps and/or flour streaks in the batter are fine.
Spray a non-stick skillet with cooking spray or lightly brush with canola oil and place on burner on medium-low heat.
Allow skillet to preheat before adding batter. It’s good for your pancake batter to sit several minutes as well which is why you prepared that before preheating your pan. To be sure your pan is hot enough, you can put a couple of drops of water on it and you should see the water sizzle or dance on the top of the pan. Once the skillet is heated, scoop pancake batter into the pan. I have a griddle, so I was able to make four pancakes at once.
Allow the pancakes to cook until edges begin to appear cooked and bubbles in the center begin to burst. Using a spatula, carefully flip pancake and continue to cook several more minutes until pancake is golden brown.
Repeat until all batter is used — I recommend spraying or brushing the pan between each batch of pancakes. I was able to make a dozen 5” diameter pancakes from this recipe.
Serve warm topped with salted butter and maple syrup.
Fran’s Notes
- Feel free to add things like chocolate chips, blueberries or other fruit to the batter. Just make sure any cut fruit you add isn’t too watery. In that case, I would pour the batter onto your pan or griddle first and then scatter some of the fruit over the top.
- I always have a can of Saco’s dry buttermilk powder on hand which I reconstitute for recipes. For this recipe, I used real buttermilk. Since I haven’t tried the recipe with the buttermilk powder, I can’t say whether the results would be the same.
- Before dry buttermilk powder came along, if I didn’t have real buttermilk in the fridge, I would make my own by adding 1 tbl. of white vinegar to a liquid measuring cup and then add enough milk to bring it up to 1 cup. Then I’d let it sit for 10 or 15 minutes until the milk would sour. I will give you the same advice as above—since I haven’t tried this substitute buttermilk, I don’t know if the results would be the same.
- I refrigerated several leftover pancakes and gently rewarmed them in the microwave the next morning. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were almost as good as the morning before. I microwaved one pancake at 50% power for 22 seconds as I thought they would get rubbery at full power. It turned out just right for me. Keep in mind that microwaves differ in power, and yours may need more or less time to reheat.
Source: A recipe from Sugar Spun Run