Dave's Online Living Cookbook Presents 'Buttermilk Pancakes'

“Life, within doors, has few pleasanter prospects than a neatly arranged and a well-provisioned breakfast table.” ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

It’s hard to resist the aroma of a neighborhood coffee house and the smell of fresh baked bread and pastries.  On the weekends, and especially when out of town, I love to spend the morning enjoying a cappuccino, reading, and people watching at a small bakery or neighborhood café.  When home with my boys on the weekend, the first thing they request when they wake up is pancakes.  Everyone should have a good, simple pancake recipe in their repertoire, because pancakes are just plain good!  Here are a few of our favorite breakfast ideas….

Buttermilk Pancakes

These are very soft and tender pancakes, unlike the chewy, grainy mix restaurants use.

3TBS butter melted

1 egg

1 cup buttermilk

¾ cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

Whisk the egg with the melted butter and buttermilk.  In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking soda.  Slowly pour and whisk the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients till you have a medium thick batter, leave the lumps.  Heat a greased skillet or griddle to medium and spoon out the batter to make the size pancake you desire.  Turn when they bubble on top.  Cook till desired doneness.   

Orange and Vanilla Scented French Toast

A deliciously different take on the classic.

6 slices good quality bread

3 eggs whisked till smooth

½ up cream, milk or half and half

Zest from an medium orange minced

Juice from the orange that was zested

1tsp vanilla

Pinch of nutmeg

Confectioners’ sugar

Cinnamon

Butter

Combine the eggs, cream, zest, half the juice, vanilla, nutmeg.  Grease a pan with butter and heat to medium. With tongs, dip bread into egg mixture on both sides.  Fry the bread on both sides till lightly golden. Butter and dust with confectioners’ sugar and cinnamon and a drizzle of the remaining orange juice.

Buttermilk Waffles

My 3 year old woke up one morning and said: “Let’s have waffles!”  I didn’t even know if we had a waffle iron, but he found it buried away in the cabinet, still in its unopened box.  My oldest son loved these so much that we had them every day afterwards for 3 weeks straight.

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 TBS sugar

3 eggs well beaten

1 ½ cups buttermilk

3/4 cup melted butter

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Whisk the eggs, buttermilk and butter in a bowl till smooth and slowly mix in the dry ingredients till you have a semi thick batter.  You can add a bit of milk to thin the batter if it is too thick.  Pour about a half cup into the waffle iron and cook to your preference.  Top with butter and syrup!

For more delicious recipes from Dave visit his page at http://coppergazette.blogspot.com/p/dave-mcelhennie.html