Delicious and Tender Pancakes

No, I absolutely did not eat this huge pile of pancakes!  I ate TWO piles.  Just kidding.  I ate two pancakes!

Yesterday, while perusing the farmers' market, I was handed a flyer about an upcoming pancake breakfast(scroll down to April 3) featuring local ingredients.  Driving home I couldn't stop thinking about pancakes for this morning's breakfast!

Royally delicious, light and tender, these babies were made with Brookford Farm's (Rollinsford, NH) stone ground, soft white, fall planted wheat berry pastry flour.  Oh...my...dog were they good!  Full disclosure on the localness of this morning's breakfast: the chicken sausage*, baking powder and brown sugar were not local.  Everything else = local sources!

*We have yet to find locally raised and produced chicken sausage, so those that you see in the picture are from the Smart Chicken line of organic meat products.  They were really tasty.

For the BEST pancakes ever, follow this recipe that I adapted from an old Laurel Robertson cookbook:
2-1/2 cups flour*
1Tbsp brown sugar**
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

2-1/2 to 3 cups milk
2 lg eggs
2 Tbsp vegetable oil (Henry's Organic Sunflower oil was delicious in this recipe)

butter and maple syrup for serving

Mix dry ingredients together in one bowl.  Mix wet together in another.  Gently stir wet into mix, taking care not to overmix.  Let batter stand for a few minutes before ladeling onto hot griddle. Water drops should spatter and sizzle when griddle is ready.  If griddle is well seasoned, no additional fat is needed for priming the griddle.  If not, use a little butter to prime it.

Ladel puddles, allowing for spread space.  Flip only after small vent bubbles have appeared on the surface of the cakes.

Stack and serve with pats of butter and lots of maple syrup!  Yum!

*Laurel's recipe uses 2 cups of flour and a 1/2 cup of wheat germ, an ingredient that can easily be omitted when using Brookford's stone ground flour.

**Brown sugar can be omitted.  We prefer a hint of sweetness in our pancake batter so it was kept.  Next time, when my brain is operating better, I'll use a Tbsp of maple syrup in the batter, then I'll be just one ingredient away (baking powder) from an entirely locally-sourced pancake recipe.



Organically grown and locally sourced cold-pressed sunflower oil from Bull Ridge Farm in Albion, ME