Our Favorite Pancakes

Do any of you remember the first blog you started following faithfully that didn't belong to someone you knew personally? I do. I'm not even sure how I stumbled upon Smitten Kitchen, but several of her recipes have become favorites since then. Usually, if I want to try out something new, I check her site first to see if she has any relevant recipes. 

One of our family favorites has become her Blueberry Yogurt Multigrain Pancakes. We love brinner (breakfast for dinner) at our house, and these pancakes are always present in some form whenever we have it. I've modified it just a bit for our particular tastes, swapping apples and cinnamon for the blueberries and leaving out the lemon zest (see this post to find out why). 

Mmm...now I want brinner again. 

Smitten Kitchens's Multigrain Pancakes

2 large eggs

1 cup plain, full fat yogurt

2-4 tablespoons milk

3 tablespoons melted butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup (62 grams) whole wheat flour

1/2 cup (68 grams) all-purpose flour

1/4 cup (32 grams) rye flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 apple, cored and thinly sliced (or 1 cup blueberries, or a sliced banana, or or chocolate chips, or anything else you think would be good)

Generous sprinkle of cinnamon

Preheat oven to around 200 degrees with a baking sheet inside to put your already cooked pancakes on while the rest are cooking. This keeps them all warm until you're ready for them! 

First, melt the butter. SK recommends melting half the amount first, then stirring in the remainder to melt it without the result ending up too hot to stir into the rest of the ingredients (you want scrambled eggs with, not in your pancakes!)

Whisk the eggs and yogurt together and add between 2-4 tablespoons of milk, depending on what thickness of yogurt you use (Greek yogurt's a little thicker, so more milk, etc). Honestly, I've taken to just splashing enough milk to create a stirrable liquid-ish mixture. Add the melted butter to this, then the vanilla extract. 

Swirly vanilla.

For the next part, you have a choice. If you don't have a kitchen scale, you can use cup measures for the amounts of flour specified. If you do have a kitchen scale, I recommend using it- I haven't made these any other way, mostly because I figure if I have the luxury of a scale and the weights are given, I might as well use it. Anyway, whatever your measuring method, in a separate bowl, mix together the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet, and stir only until ingredients are moistened- don't overmix!

At this point, I usually sprinkle some cinnamon on top of the bowl of batter. If I had to guess how much, I'd say about a teaspoon? Just eyeball it 'til it looks something like this:

 Using whatever skillet/pan you prefer (cast iron, non-stick, etc), melt a pat of butter over medium heat. Spoon batter into pan- SK recommends 1/4 cup at a time, I typically make mine a little larger. Again, this is a preference thing, so play with it until you're comfortable with your results. While the first side is cooking, gently press whatever fruit you've decided on into the top side, which will spread the pancake out to make it a little flatter:

Decided it needed a little more cinnamon. 

Once the edges of the pancake look dry and small bubbles have formed and burst leaving holes, it's time to flip! Example:

See those bubbles? Almost time to flip!

This is the part that always gets me- my pancakes typically stop looking pretty at this point. I'm not a great flipper, but it helps to use a large spatula. Continue to cook flipped side until the bottom is golden. Again, adjust temperature and time as needed to achieve your desired results. Continue with rest of the batch, sliding each one onto the preheated pan in the oven when done until the batter's gone. 

Then stuff 'em in your face!