Buttermilk Oatmeal Pancakes

The sad truth of the matter is that until I married my husband four years ago, you couldn't really get me to eat a pancake and even then, it was initially more of a gentle acquiesce of compromises (i.e. I'll do pancakes if you do goat cheese.. or whatever).. but but but.. as more and more pancake recipes have surfaced in the world of breakfast baking, my favor towards them continues to skyrocket to the point where I almost prefer some hyped- up or hyped- down concoction of homemade or pre-packaged pancakes over any Italian fancy pants or slow-roasted chicken and potatoes.

Really.

And once I discovered the fun in adding chocolate chips, banana chunks, blueberries, white chocolate chips, fresh strawberries, PB, etc etc.. to my pancake mixes while still pouring waterfalls of syrup and sprinklings of chopped nuts over them, well, it's been total fidelity to the world of flapjacks since.

This recipe has a great texture to it; thank you, buttermilk, thank you, oatmeal, though I must confess and am sorry to say that the actual flavor may not knock your socks off in reality. It's all in the fluff, it's all in the toppings which I highly recommend, and it's all in the acute attention to flipping them when they're getting just golden brown around the edges. Those 3 biggies, makes these pancakes what they are.

Enough with my ramblings. They set the scene for a solid day- pancakes just beg for greatness.

Buttermilk Oatmeal Pancakes

{slightly adapted from Williams Sonoma Entertaining, pg 251}

1 cup all purpose flour (we used 1/2 whole wheat, 1/2 white)

1/2 cup cake flour

1/2 cup quick-cooking rolled oats

3 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs

2 1/2 cups buttermilk

5 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted, plus more for cooking

Toppings

1 cup chopped, raw almonds (or walnuts)

1 cup dried blueberries (or currants)

Pure Maple Syrup

2 bananas, thinly sliced

In a large bowl, combine the flours, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a seperate bowl, combine the buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter. Slowly add this wet mixture into the dry and stir until everything is JUST combined. Set aside and allow to sit at room temperature for ten minutes.

Meanwhile, heat up the griddle with BUTTER- a Tbsp or so should suffice and preheat your oven to 200 degrees F (this will keep the first batch of pancakes warm).

To make the pancakes, fill a measuring pitcher with a 1/3 cup of batter and pour it onto the heated surface. Do not crowd the pan-- allow each pancake room to grow. Once bubbles appear and outer edges begin to color, flip them and cook for an additional minute or so on that other side. Place finished pancakes on a cookie sheet and place in warm oven until ready to serve.

For serving, stack pancakes high with choice of toppings.

Cheers.