Country Breakfast

My youngest daughter is on spring break, if you can call what we are having "Spring".  The calendar says it is...the weather has not cooperated.  My husband has to work so the two of us are here; communing with the wildlife (see my previous post) and just working on projects and enjoying ourselves. 

We sleep in a little later here in the country than we do at home.  And we often fend for ourselves for breakfast during the week.  We decided to make pancakes which we hardly ever do at home (never enough time) and pair them with the beautiful succulent red strawberries I found at the market before we left the city.  These are not my mother's pancakes.  She used Biscuick mix.  These are so much better.  They hardly take any more time to put together than a mix does, and I always have the pantry staples on hand.  This is our favorite recipe.  It's from Marion Cunningham's out of print cookbook ,"The Breakfast Book".

The key to light and fluffy pancakes is to not overmix the batter.  You want the dry ingredients mixed in but don't mix too long or you'lll develop the gluten in the flour and the pancakes will be tough; leave some small lumps in the batter.  Let them cook on the griddle until bubbles break the surface and the pancakes are set around the edges.  Flip them and let them cook for a minute or so longer.  The heat lights on my hood work so well for keeping the cooked pancakes warm while I finish the cooking the rest. 

Cooking and baking in my farmhouse kitchen is such a joy.  It's so much larger than the one I have in the city.  The griddle on my Viking range is great; another reason why I usually only make pancakes here.

Unfortunately, you will have to imagine the succulent red strawberries.  I accidentally left them home, but they would have looked and tasted great with these pancakes.  Good maple syrup is really all they need.

Oh, and maybe some good orange juice...and utensils.  We only added the pats of butter for the photo.  These pancakes have a lot of butter in them so we don't usually put butter on them; they don't need it.  We wouldn't even think of making pancakes from a mix anymore.  The pancakes looked pretty good by themselves even without the berries, don't you think?  They tasted heavenly.  Try making pancakes from scratch and you'll never go back to a mix again.

Marion's Classic Pancakes
2 eggs

1 Tab. white sugar

5 Tab. butter

4 tsp. baking powder

1 C. milk tsp. salt

1 ¼ C. all-purpose flour

Beat the eggs in a bowl until blended. Put the butter and milk in a pan and warm over low heat until the butter is melted. Cool a little. Stir the butter mixture into the eggs and mix well. Put all dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir only until the ingredients are well moistened. Don’t over mix.

Heat a griddle or skillet until water dances on it, then lightly film with grease. Drop 2 or 3 Tablespoons of batter onto the griddle and cook until bubbles break on the surface. Turn the pancake over and cook until the bottom is lightly browned.

Fresh berry pancakes:

Use 2 cups berries. Make sure they are clean and cut into desired size. Sprinkle some berries on top of batter on griddle after there are bubbles breaking on top. Press berries down with a spatula. Turn.