Waffle variation shown
As served Tuesday mornings at Pixar's Luxo Cafe, with minor tweaks by Recovery Dad, and based originally on the Fanny Farmer Cookbook recipe. See notes below on converting to waffles, and other variations.
Ingredients
- 5 ounces flour, (1 cup)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 large egg
Method
1. Whisk the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and any optional dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Beat the buttermilk, butter and egg lightly in a mixing bowl along with any optional wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredients all at once, stirring just enough to moisten the flour. Be careful not to overwork the batter.
3. Lightly butter or grease a griddle or frying pan and set over moderate heat until a few drops of cold water sprinkled on the pan form skittering globules. If using an electric griddle set it at 375º F.
4. Pour about 1/4 cup per pancake on the griddle; bake until the cakes are very bubbly on top and the undersides are lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Turn with a spatula and brown the other side. Serve at once if possible. If holding, place finished cakes on a heated plate in a very slow (200º F) oven until ready to serve.
Notes:
Pecan Pancakes:
Toast some chopped pecans in a 300º F oven for about 5 minutes, or until fragrant. This can be done in a large batch and then kept in the refrigerator for later use.
Right after pouring pancake batter on the griddle (Step 4), sprinkle each with a generous teaspoon of pecan pieces. Serve with real maple syrup.
Banana Pancakes: Cut a banana into 1/4" slices and fold gently into the finished batter.
Waffles:
Add 1 tablespoon cornmeal to the dry ingredients in Step 1. This works with any of the variations below.
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes:
Whisk the zest from 1 lemon with the egg before adding the buttermilk and butter in Step 2. Then whisk in 1/4 cup ricotta cheese.
Pumpkin Pancakes:
Add 1/8 teaspoon allspice to dry ingredients in Step 1.
Whisk 2 1/2 ounces (about 1/3 cup or, to make it easy, 1/4 of a can) of pumpkin puree with the egg before adding other wet ingredients in Step 2.
You may need to allow a slightly longer cooking time.
Nutella Pancakes:
Place 64 grams (4 tablespoons) Nutella in a small sauce pan with the buttermilk and butter. Warm it up until the butter melts, then whisk the ingredients before adding them to the beaten egg in Step 2. This is especially convenient if you are thawing frozen buttermilk anyway. The temperature softens the Nutella to let it combine with the batter.
A nice, easy variation is to brown the butter. Use a small stainless steel skillet (avoid non-stick, as it's too dark to see what's happening to the butter). Melt the butter over medium-high heat, then swirl constantly until it's just browned. With only 2 tablespoons this will go fairly quickly.
Tip: Put 1 cup measures of buttermilk into paper cups, freeze, and store in a freezer bag. The night before making breakfast move one cup to the refrigerator. In the morning put it and the butter in a small sauce pan and heat just until the buttermilk has thawed and the butter has melted. You can also divide a can of pumpkin puree into 4 paper cups and do this same trick, allowing you to have pumpkin pancakes or waffles on a whim any time.
Servings: 4
Source: Luxo Cafe/Recovery Dad