sprinklefingers

i realize i talk about pancakes a lot. and i can’t help it. my kid eats a lot of pancakes. at least once a week i’m mixing up a new batch and packing them up for my freezer.

this weekend - no exception. EXCEPT i had some sour cream in the fridge. the sour cream made me think of ina garten, because i could recall - from deep in the fuzzy depths of my brain - that i saw a sour cream pancake recipe in one of her cookbooks. i went digging, and i found it. a few tweaks based on my ever-growing knowledge of pancake batters later, and we had delicious pancakes with (seriously) the most amazing vanilla scent…so delicious that i ate 4 (or maybe it was 40) of them in one sitting.

if you haven’t made a double (or triple!) batch of pancakes and stowed some in the freezer for later, you really don’t know what you’re missing. not only is it easy, but (to me) there’s something totally comforting about having a freezer full of pancakes. [and a fridge with a half gallon of pure maple syrup…that’s comforting, too.]

sour cream pancakes
with a bit of help from ina*
makes 24 small ‘cakes

you need:

• 2 cups AP flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour 
• 1/4 cup PLUS 2 T vanilla sugar 
• 1 T PLUS 1 t baking powder 
• 1 T kosher salt 
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1 cup sour cream 
• 1 1/2 cup 2% milk (whole is fine, too. just don’t use skim!)
• 4 eggs 
• 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

make pancakes:

1. in a large bowl, whisk together the two flours, sugar, baking powder salt & cinnamon.
2. in a medium bowl, whisk together the sour cream, milk, eggs and vanilla extract.
3. pour the dry ingredients into the wet and stir until combined. don’t over stir, you’ll want things a bit lumpy. [my best advice: stir until you no longer have giant pockets of dry ingredients. then stop stirring. seriously, stop.]
4. allow your batter to rest while you’re heating up the griddle to 375 - approximately 15 minutes.
5. using real, actual butter - hold a stick in your hand, remove the wrapper from one end, then rub the stick all over the surface of the griddle so that it’s uniformly buttery.
6. using a disher or 1/3 cup measure, pour the batter onto the heated, buttered griddle. 
7. leave the pancake alone until you see it start to dry around the edges and bubble in the middle.
8. after it’s bubbly, flip it over and continue to cook until golden (you can lift up the edge with a spatula to check progress.)
9. eat as many pancakes as possible. with pure maple syrup, of course.
10. follow these directions for stowing your leftovers.

* ina didn’t use whole wheat flour or vanilla sugar. i omited her lemon zest AND decided against banana (her recipe is for banana sour cream pancakes.) ina doesn’t ask you to allow the batter to rest (but you should!)

here’s how the kid loves to eat his pancakes (pre-syrup!)