Best Buttermilk Pancakes

Honestly, I'm not a pancake fan. We don't usually eat pancakes for our breakfasts but after my son watched Peppa pig's pancake episode on ABC Kids, he has been hassling me to cook pancakes for him. And so, I searched for the "best pancake" at Google and these are the few hits I got...

As the location of my search is based at Melbourne, Australia, I had a few popular pancake recipes were from Taste.com and there is one very interesting recipe which is originated from Cook Illustrated Cookbook recommended by Brown Eyed Baker. True enough, these pancakes are indeed very delicious with a slightly tangy taste and this recipe is actually named as "Best Buttermilk Pancakes" in this book. To compliment these pancakes, I'm also cooking maple-glazed apples being part of a ricotta pancake recipe from Taste.com.

In order to serve my family the best quality ingredients with real flavours, I have been using 100% real maple syrup (not maple-flavoured ones) for all my maple syrup related-baking. Ironically and strangely, my son simply refused to eat any of these super delicious maple-glazed apples and requested me to slice the plain apple for him. I told him that his pancakes will be plain without any maple syrup and being a typical sweet tooth kid, he said that he would rather eat to his pancakes plain or with a good squeeze of golden syrup. *sign* What can I say?

For a second thought, I started asking myself... So, is there any nutritional difference between maple syrup and golden syrup? Interestingly, my two bottles of syrups tell me that both of them have quite similar amount of calories and sugar content in every 100g of syrup. The only significant difference is actually their sodium content. Being nice and naturally-flavorsome, maple syrup has only 6 mg of sodium per 100g while the golden syrup has 80 mg sodium per 100g which is 13 times more sodium than maple syrup! So, this is the reason why my son prefer to eat golden syrup and it's all because it is sweet and more SALTY!

Buttermilk pancakes with maple-glazed apples

Cooking the maple-glazed apples

Cooking the pancakes

A closer look of the maple-glazed apples... Yum!

My son's pancakes served with drizzles of golden syrup...

Here are the recipes.

(with my modification in blue)

Best Buttermilk Pancakes from the book, Cooks Illustrated Cookbook

Make 16 4-inch pancakes
(I reckon this amount can serve 3 to 4)

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda (replaced with baking powder)

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups and 2 tbsp buttermilk

1/4 cup sour cream

2 eggs

3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 to 2 tsp vegetable oil, for greasing the pan (replaced with butter)

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl. In a second medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, eggs and melted butter. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients; gently stir until just combined (batter should remain lumpy with a few streaks of flour). Do not overmix. Allow the batter to sit for 10 min before cooking.

Heat 1 tsp of the vegetable oil (or butter) in a non-stick skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Using a paper towel, carefully wipe out oil, leaving a thin film of oil on the bottom of the pan. Using 1/4 cup measure, portion batter into pan in 4 places. Cook until edges are set, first side is golden brown, and bubbles on surface are just beginning to break, 2 to 3 min. Using a thin, wide spatula, flip pancakes and continue to cook until second side is golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Serve pancakes immediately (with maple syrup or golden syrup and extra butter). Repeat with remaining batter, using remaining oil (or butter) is needed.

Maple-glazed apples from Taste.com

20g butter

2 fuji or royal gala apples, thinly sliced

1/2 cup (125ml) maple syrup

Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat until foaming. Add one-quarter of the apples and cook, turning, for 1 min or until golden brown. Transfer to a plate. Repeat in 3 more batches with remaining apple. Return the apple to the pan, drizzle with maple syrup and turn to coat. Remove from heat and set aside.

Note: I reckon the above amount of maple-glazed apples is sufficient enough to compliment the above 16 small-sized pancakes

Happy Cooking

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