It's National Pancake Week!

I had no idea, but as it happens, I whipped up these little yummies yesterday just because the boys asked for pancakes.  The boys got faces, but the adults got the awesome trail mix version. I was going to save the faces for a silly post, but pancakes are pancakes and I couldn't pass it up! 

This is a standard pancake batter I got off the Internet years ago, but I have made changes over the years.

Pancakes
2 C flour
3 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 C sugar
2 eggs
2 T oil
1 C milk

Combine the dry ingredients, then add the wet ones.  Mix until well incorporated.  Grease a frying pan with butter or oil and preheat.  Spoon batter into pan.  Cook pancakes until done in the middle, flipping once. 

Yield is entirely dependent on how big you make your pancakes.  It usually yields around 12-14 of my small "silver dollar" size pancakes.

My substitutions/additions:

• I always add another 1/4 C milk.  They're just not pourable with only 1 C.
• I also usually add a healthy dash of cinnamon.
• Pecans, walnuts, and blueberries are nice additions.  I've also added wheat germ and strawberries.
• These were made using 2 C whole wheat flour, 1 Tbs of sweet potato puree (all that was left over from dinner the night before), and a handful of trail mix containing cranberries, almonds, walnuts and cashews.  I just put the trail mix in a piece at a time as the first side was cooking and did the same for the banana slices for the boys'.  They were even cuter before they cooked...

When I was a kid, my Mom used to make our syrup instead of buying the stuff from the store.  She used 1 C water, 1 C sugar, and 1/2 tsp Mapleine.  The result is much more runny than the super thick junk in the plastic bottle.  I love that the pancake sucks it all up so when you bite into it, it's full of yummy maple syrup!  Since we've had kids and I went all crunchy, I buy organic pure maple syrup from a real tree, but I was out so I dredged up Mom's old syrup recipe.  I tried whole cane sugar though, instead of regular white sugar.  It gave the syrup a lovely molasses flavor.  It's not "just like Mom used to make" but it's still great!

Review:
Of course I'm keeping this.  It's a wonderful canvas to paint all my pancake creativity onto!  Happy National Pancake Week everybody!

Edit: Just made some more of these today (June 11, 2011) and had to share!  Try 1/2 tsp lemon zest and 1 pint of fresh blueberries!  You won't be disappointed!