blueberry pancakes

A sweetened batter is prepared thick in viscosity that contains all of one's favorite things that one would like to see in a pancake except blueberries. 

A simple blueberry sauce is prepared from fresh blueberries, its own pectin thickens sufficiently. 

*  1 cup sifted A/P flour

*  3 level tablespoons sugar

* 1/8 teaspoon refined sugar

* 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

* 1 level teaspoon cardamon 

* 1 level tablespoon vanilla extract

* few drops almond extract

* 1/2 large lemon (juice, should be about 1 tablespoon or so)

* baking soda by the 1/3 teaspoon. 

Here's the dealio: the baking soda is not included immediately here, but rather, the batter is scooped out by the 1/3 cupful. A little bit short of a level 1/3 cup because room is needed to stir, and for batter expansion. See, the batter sits there un-levened in its bowl, the baking soda is added incrementally to each  scoop and stirred in immediately before that portion of batter is poured into the hot pan. 1/3 teaspoon baking soda for each 1/3 cup pancake-worth of batter. By doing it this way, adding the leaven to each separate scoop,  the batter can sit there unactivated indefinitely. The reason for this is that baking soda and acid, lemon juice in this case, activate immediately upon contact. If the batter sits there then those bubbles are wasted. Whereas with baking powder on the other hand, the larger portion of baking powder is activated by heat. Remember, baking powder is baking soda balanced with usually at least two types of acid that activate at different temperatures, along with corn starch to keep it all separated. 

Now, if you would rather not bother with this technique, admittedly it is a bit of a mess, then you can use baking powder only and mix it all at once. In that case, skip the lemon because the lemon would throw off the predetermined balance that baking powder possesses.  We're playing on the acid/alkaline bubbling volcano balance here. If you want the lemon and you also want to mix it all at once, then FINE! Either use the batter with baking soda quickly as possible or else  triple balance the acid/alkaline combination with lemon +baking soda + baking powder, though that does get a little bit tricky.

Cardamon was added here because I wanted to see what it would do. I keep hearing how strong it is, but I honestly don't know what is being talked about. Is it the tiny black seeds being spoken of? Is it the entire pod, mostly husk by weight with its tiny black seeds inside? The black seeds are powerful, yes, but they are hard to remove and the husks all chopped up not nearly so. This full teaspoon of husk with tiny seeds was barely appreciable. The few drops of almond extract was stronger than the full teaspoon of cardamon. Still, they're very good pancakes. 

Cardamon. That's a funny word. Sounds like a type of Pokemon. 

Blueberries are added to the pancakes after the batter is poured into the pan, not directly into the bowl of batter. Otherwise the whole batter turns blue. Do you want that? Then go ahead, see if I care. 

The syrup is a handful of blueberries, probably 3/4 cup. A little water, probably 1/4 cup, 1 tablespoon refined sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, a pinch of salt. 

You know what? We ought to try this with bananas and banana liqueur. 

Previous blueberry pancakes.

1. Blueberry pancakes.

2. Blueberry pancakes.

3. Blueberry pancakes.

blueberry pancakes

Alas, for I am griddle-less. The large cast-iron pan is too tall to be useful for pancakes, so Farberware it is. Not the best cooking surface choice for pancakes, but it'll do.

Yesterday I watched Food Network's Dinner Impossible with Robert Irvine. The challenge was to use candy in preparing dinner for a million a lot of people. Along the way he intended to tempura some kind of candy bar the way the Scots deep-fry Mars Bars. To be honest I wasn't paying close attention, but I did notice Robert pull out a box of tempura mix. My jaw dropped upon seeing a famous chef rely on a prepared mix which we all know to be nothing more than what any reasonably provided kitchen would already have. See, this is what I am talking about here. It bears on the raisin de tree, I mean the raison ďêtre of this humble blog. Robert pulled out the kind of box with which  I was well familiar. Our family had them all, basically the same thing for all types of different purposes, tempura, fish and chips, various pastas with their sauces, hamburger helpers, potato flakes, reconstituted rice, instant oatmeals, chicken coatings, prepared bread crumbs, prepared stuffings, biscuit mixes, cake mixes, everything you could imagine from the convenience aisles. They are slipping from my memory now because I do not even bother going through those aisles anymore. But I did grow up assuming that pancakes started with a box of prepared mix. Best to make your own. I urge you to try it.  Com'on, be a sport, you'll thank me for it. 

Base recipe:

*  1 + 1/2 cups A/P flour

*  3 + 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

*  1 teaspoon salt

*  1 tablespoon sugar

*  1 + 1/4 cups milk

*  1 egg

*  3 tablespoons melted butter

Present mutilation, but be mindful, it can be anything your creative spirit contrives.

* 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
* handful of blueberries.

Hint: with an addition like blueberries, drop them into the pancake after the batter is poured onto the griddle or the pan. Otherwise it will turn the whole batter blue. Maybe the kid in you wants blue batter. Who am I to judge?

Consider any fruit that seems good to you. In high school I used to make pancakes (from a box) and at the half way point upon turning, smeared it with preserves and folded it in half before the second half had fully cooked, so it took two turns instead of one turn and cooked on three sides, producing a semicircle. Or did the same thing with two whole pancakes. The point was to get preserves inside two cooked pancakes.

I also grew up thinking maple syrup was maple-flavored corn syrup, and I did wonder what the BFD was with maple flavor because it wasn't that great, and why was it automatically associated with pancakes? Imagine the shock when I learned the real thing is actually the sap of trees. Why were we misled so sorely down that wayward path? Why did my parents punk us like that? The whole thing was a considerable setback. Being not much more than kids themselves when they married, maybe they never knew any better.