Who doesn’t love weekends? Long stretches of time (well, in truth, never long enough!) to fill up as we please – spending time with friends and family, staying out late, sleeping in, morning cuddles with no time limit, 3-hour lunches with wine, impromptu jaunts, dressing up, dressing down, naps! You time and your rules.
If you are a Monday to Friday worker bee like I am, you enjoy it even more.
One of my favorite things about the weekend (although I would really be hard pressed to pick only one favorite) are long lazy breakfasts that don’t need to be on the table in 10 minutes or less – breakfasts during which the whole family can sit together and enjoy each other’s company without having to rush off to work. During the week, we are hardly able to have breakfasts together – C is usually rushing out the door to work, little C has breakfast earlier, and I put together something quick that I can eat in front of my computer (shock! I know…I’m a real person, I eat in front of my computer!) as I get started on my workday. Not the ideal situation, but that’s life, and we’re working on it :)
So anyway…thank goodness for the weekends! And there is nothing that says weekend breakfasts quite like pancakes.
Multigrain Pancakes
(slightly adapted from Multigrain Pancakes in SuperNatural Every Day by Heidi Swanson)
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tablespoons dark muscovado sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- Scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/3 cup butter, melted and cooled a bit (plus more for the pan)
- Whisk together the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. I always use a whisk when mixing dry ingredients because I feel like I am mixing and sifting at the same time.
- In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and eggs, add the melted butter and whisk again until everything is evenly combined.
- Heat a skillet (or griddle if you have one…I don’t, but maybe someday!), add a sliver of butter and brush across the surface. Make sure the pan is hot – Heidi says if a drop of water dances across the skillet then you are good to go!
- While the skillet is heating, pour the wet ingredients into the dry while gently stirring until just combined. Do not over-stir.
- When the pan is hot pour some batter on the pan. You can make small pancakes or large ones...your choice. Cook until the bottoms are golden and the edges as toasty then flip the pancakes and cook until the other side is golden as well and the pancakes are cooked through.
- Repeat with the remaining batter, or cook just the amount you want and store the rest in the fridge. Serve with butter and maple syrup, or any syrup you like, or fruits, or compote, or vanilla bean ice cream!
Heidi’s original recipe calls from whole wheat, oat, and rye flours. I only had whole wheat pastry flour on hand so that is what I used, combined with regular all-purpose. I also used dark muscovado sugar for the simple reason that I love it. Another bonus with our local muscovado, especially when you get it sourced directly from the producers with little refinement, is that it is shot through with lumps of clumped up sugar. Hard nuggets of dusky sweetness that can vex a cake batter (I need to whiz the muscovado if I’m to use it for a cake) but are nice surprises when dotting your pancake.
These pancakes are a far cry from those you get from a packaged mix. It is much less sweet with a slight tang from the buttermilk and an earthy taste from the whole wheat. The pancakes themselves are as surprisingly light as Heidi promises and are perfect with any and all manner of sweet toppings, never reaching a too-cloying state the packaged-mix pancakes can sometimes get when drenched in syrup.
Heidi shares that the batter keeps for days in the fridge, and you know what that means – your weekend breakfast can easily turn into a weekday treat. Hope your weekend was filled with only good things – great people, fun times, and pancakes! Have a great week ahead! :)