Next to oatmeal I think pancakes are my favourite breakfast. In fact, when my husband takes me out for breakfast I always order pancakes. Some times I think, “Today I will get something different.” But when the waitress comes I always end up getting the pancakes. What can I say? I love pancakes – buttered and dripping in syrup.

As we had more children and they got older and started eating more I started doubling and then tripling my recipe. I finally developed the recipe I’m sharing today. It makes 30-36 pancakes. I usually use the time while the pancakes are on the griddle to fold laundry, wash dishes, nurse a baby, do a French braid.

 

It takes about an hour from the time I start mixing the recipe until I have it on the table. We usually have some form of eggs to go along with it. I like a tea, but the rest of my family love their coffee (well, the little ones love coffee, but they’re not allowed to have it yet ☺).

 

I usually stack the pancakes on a cookie sheet as I make them and then put them in a warm oven. Sometimes I transfer them to a fancy serving platter. Most times I just bring them to the table on the cookie sheet. They’re generally gone in about fifteen minutes. If there are any left, the children eat them cold with peanut butter for a snack later in the day. (I say later. This does not mean what you think it does. It can actually be only a half an hour since we finished breakfast.) Leftover pancakes do not usually make it to lunch time.

 

One of my sisters likes peanut butter and syrup on hers. Pancakes are easy to do add-ons. You can add banana slices or blueberries or chocolate chips. I’ve made different kinds of syrup. They are just so easy to personalize which is one thing that I think makes them fun.

 

Pancakes

 

6 eggs

3 tbsp. honey

1/2 cup applesauce or oil

2 cups water

2 cups yogurt (or substitute 4 cups buttermilk for the water and yogurt)

1-2 tsp. cinnamon (optional)

7 cups whole wheat flour

2 tbsp. baking powder

1 tbsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

 

Whisk the eggs and then add the honey, applesauce, water and yogurt. Mix the dry ingredients and add them to the wet ingredients. Mix well. Use 1/4 to 1/3 cup of batter for each pancake on a medium-high griddle. When bubbles break on the surface and the bottom is golden brown, flip. Cook for another couple of minutes. Serve warm with butter and syrup.

 

 

ready to be flipped

 

Here is some more about pancakes from another Laura Ingalls Wilder book – The Long Winter.

“Almanzo and Royal were eating supper. Almanzo had stacked the pancakes with brown sugar and he had made plenty of them. Royal had eaten halfway down his stack, Almanzo was nearing the bottom of his, and one tall stack of two dozen pancakes, dripping melted brown sugar, was standing untouched when Pa knocked at the door. Royal opened it.”‘Come in, Mr. Ingalls! Sit up and have some pancakes with us!’ Royal invited him…

“After some talk about it, Almanzo charged a quarter and Pa paid it. Then he did sit down, as they urged him, and lifting the blanket cake on the untouched pile, he slipped from under it a section of the stack of hot, syrupy pancakes. Royal forked a brown slice of ham from the frying pan onto Pa’s plate and Almanzo filled his coffee cup.

“‘You boys certainly live in the lap of luxury,’ Pa remarked. The pancakes were no ordinary pancakes. Almanzo followed his mother’s pancake rule and the cakes were light as foam, soaked through with melted brown sugar. The ham was sugar-cured and hickorysmoked, from the Wilder farm in Minnesota. ‘I don’t know when I’ve eaten a tastier meal,’ said Pa.”