Pancakes, a Breakfast Tradition

            I turn the electric burner on medium under the frying pan. It takes a while to warm up a cast iron frying pan, but cast iron spreads the heat evenly, so I prefer it. I get the pancake batter ready while the frying pan heats. I prefer cooking pancakes on a wood fired cook stove, but I have cooked pancakes successfully over an open, outdoor fire and on gas and electric stoves. When only three are eating breakfast, I usually use one frying pan. If more join us, I use two or three pans.

            I get a large bowl from the pantry and whole wheat flour, dry milk, cornmeal, rolled oats, nutritional yeast. I never do this by a recipe; I just pour all the dry ingredients into a bowl in amounts that seem about right, but I will make you a recipe when I’m through with breakfast. Right now, I’m hungry and not willing to slow down. Baking powder. I don’t think I’ll add chopped almonds this morning. It takes too long to chop the almonds.

            I use our largest spoon to mix the dry ingredients together. I scoop most of the dry mix into a gallon glass jar. I’ve made enough to last a week or more.

            I’ve left enough dry mix in the bowl for this morning’s breakfast. I add water and stir. Pancakes for three this morning. I add two eggs to the batter and stir aggressively.

            An advantage of not using a recipe is that this mix is quite variable, according to what is available to put in the mix, according to the cook’s mood. I oil the pan with olive oil, though any good cooking oil will do, and I wipe out the excess oil with a paper towel. I flick a drop of water into the frying pan at the center, and another drop near the edge of the pan. The drops sizzle and dance about as they evaporate. The pan is hot enough, so I pour in enough batter for one large pancake.

            These pancakes are a tradition in my family, part of what I brought to our marriage. I usually mix them and cook them. We ate them, most breakfasts, from when our two daughters first began to eat solid foods until they left home to go into the world on their own. Because the pancakes are so variable, nobody got tired of them. Almost. I think Juniper wanted to wait a couple of years until she had pancakes again, but now she always asks me to fix them when she comes for a visit, as she has done now.

            Anything goes, as long as it’s whole grain. I have added rice flour, barley flour, rye flour, corn flour, fine-ground cornmeal, coarser cornmeal, oat flour, buckwheat flour. Rolled wheat or triticale can substitute for or be used in addition to rolled oats. Sometimes I chop almonds, pecans, or hazel nuts and put them in. I have added sunflower seeds. Dried fruit, chopped into small pieces, makes a good addition. Fresh huckleberries or blueberries are good.

            The pancake mix in the hot pan forms bubbles, and the bubbles break. Around the edge of the pancake, the mix begins to dry. I turn it. The heat and timing is just right, and the cooked side, now up, is golden brown. It takes much less time to cook the second side. I pick the pancake up with the steel spatula after about two minutes, and the golden brownness of the second side shows that my timing has been accurate. It is best to develop a correct sense of timing, because pancakes should not be turned until they are ready, to keep them at their most tender, done but not dried out. Juniper is waiting, and I serve this first pancake to her.

            These pancakes, with butter and honey or jam or jelly, are a hearty food, lasting active people quite well until a late lunch. Our daughters often brought friends home with them during college breaks, and some of those friends became long term friends of the family, who hope for and get Jon’s famous pancakes when they come to visit.

            When mixing these pancakes, with all the possible variations, keep the proportion of dry milk, baking powder, and eggs in the completed mix about the same.

            I have made mix, without eggs and milk, for vegans. Pancakes without milk do not brown well, and without eggs they do not rise as well, but the vegans who have eaten them say they are also good.

            Juniper has had enough breakfast. Laura is working on a pancake that will probably be sufficient for her, so the last one is for me. An advantage of being last is that I have continued to adjust the heat of the pan. The earlier pancakes were very good, and this one that I sit down with is perfect. Please pass the butter and honey. I am ready for breakfast and ready to continue a long tradition.

Basic Pancake Recipe:

2/3 cup dry milk

½ cup cornmeal

2/3 cup oatmeal

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup soy flour

2 level tablespoons nutritional yeast

1 rounded tsp. baking powder

2 or three eggs

water until the right consistency.

            Stir all dry ingredients together. Stir in eggs and water enough to achieve the right consistency. Cook in a preheated cast iron frying pan until bubbles that form in the cooking batter break and edges of the pancake begin to dry. Turn over and cook about two minutes. If temperature and timing are right, the pancake will be golden brown on both sides.