Flap Jacks

Day 26: Make Buttermilk pancakes from scratch

Who doesn't love breakfast for dinner?  Anytime my mom would open it up to suggestions for dinner menu options I would most emphatically propose having a delicious spread of breakfast delights.  There was just something about eating waffles and sausage as the sun was going down as opposed to coming up that seemed to make it all taste a little better.  So as my day was winding down and I had yet to attempt a new endeavor I racked my brain for something that I could not only fit in, but even enjoy.  Then it came to me, once again the activities of the past month have paid off in more than one way.  I remembered I had a jar of perfectly good buttermilk sitting in my fridge just waiting to be put to good use and what better way to use buttermilk than to make real honest to gosh buttermilk pancakes.

Sure I've made pancakes before, but it usually consists of dumping some powdery substance in a bowl and adding water until it looked like it was about the right consistency.  For me the directions on the box were more of a suggestion.  I have made pancakes that were a little more involved, but always with a boxed pancake mix at the heart of it.  Tonight's short stack would be made completely from scratch, right down to the homemade buttermilk.

I found a suitable recipe (actually I found the only one that called for the amount of buttermilk that I had on hand) and measured out my ingredients and gave it all a quick stir.  That was pretty much the end of the new stuff, cooking pancakes is pretty universal no matter what goes into the batter. So the true test of this new experience would be the taste.  Would making the effort to take the extra steps required to create a delicious breakfast favorite completely from scratch be worth it in the end?

I pulled the first batch off, and slathered on a generous allotment of butter (homemade of course!)  After I poured a second round into the skillet I couldn't help but take the first taste of my handiwork before it got cold.  And the verdict is...not half bad.  They weren't quite as light and fluffy as I had envisioned, but I have a feeling that may have something to do with my measuring and mixing technique.  I'm not exactly what you would call precise, I'm more of a "good enough" kind of cook.  And so for that reason I will most likely be sticking with pancake mixes of the boxed variety in the future.