When I bake my favourite Chocolate Cupcake recipe, I’m always left with a huge amount of leftover buttermilk and no real idea what to do with it. Often enough, it ends up going to waste.
But I’m feeling a real thrifty phase coming on, and I’ve been watching BBC’s Foyle’s War and thinking about rationing and self-sufficiency and all that, and while not wasting a little buttermilk is really a small thing, it feels good. And a bellyful of delicious, light, fluffy pancakes feels pretty damned good too.
I always think of pancakes as being heavy, boring, and a bit of a hassle to make, but these Buttermilk Pancakes are quick and easy and pretty good even without maple syrup. I bet they’d be great with honey, too, or with a little lemon juice and icing sugar.
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (reduce salt if using salted butter)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 -2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- In a bowl, beat the eggs until they’re sort-of frothy.
- Add the buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla and mix well.
- Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and beat on just until blended. Don’t worry about leaving a few lumps in the batter!
- Heat a frying pan to a medium-high.
- Pour about 3 tablespoons of the batter into the frying pan for each pancake.
- Cook until the tops of the pancakes are covered with tiny bubbles and the batter is set, about 4-6 minutes. Flip pancakes and cook until the undersides are golden brown, about 4 minutes more. Adjust heat as necessary.
- Repeat with remaining batter.