Sunday, December 29, 2013

The Buttermilk Cookbook

Of all the lovely holiday gifts I received, I am really enjoying The Animal Farm Buttermilk Cookbook. This book is full of information about buttermilk, amazing recipes and beautiful photographs.

As you know, my dairy CSA share provides one quart of buttermilk a week and finding what to do with it has been a challenge. (There are only so many batches of buttermilk biscuits we can eat in a week, every week for months on end!) Needless to say, I was super excited to open this gift and have been reading the glossy pages as I nurse ever since.

There are so many recipes I would love to try but buttermilk pancakes were on my list for a while. Alas I hadn't mustered the energy until this morning and am I eternally glad that I did wait to try them because the recipe in this cookbook was amazing. Had I tried a different recipe with less than amazing results, I wouldn't have taken the time to try Animal Farm's recipe.

Before I tell you all about the spongy, sweet pancakes, let me tell you that in the process of making them, I had to hunt down and move the baking soda from the huge bulk bin, into a smaller container. Then, I pulled out a bowl to melt the butter in and it slipped from my hands and shattered into literally a million pieces. With the little ones underfoot, I had to stop, sweep and vacuum up every stray piece (and still I managed to get a shard in my heel that needed to be removed later by my husband.) The end result was that the quick and simple recipe took well over an hour to make. It was worth it and I really wasn't expecting it to be.

I have a love hate relationship with pancakes. Basically I love light, fluffy pancakes with the crispy edges, smothered in sweet cream butter and warm maple syrup. I absolutely hate that I am rarely able to make them like that. I have to get the at a restaurant in order to have the perfect combination of fluffy and crispy, however not all restaurants can make them either. So when we go out (rarely) for breakfast, I have a hard time deciding whether I want to order them and risk being disappointed/pleasantly surprised or go with something else I know I would like. (Spoiler alert: the something else usually wins.)


Back to the recipe: It delivers the light, fluffy pancakes I crave. I did change the sugar to maple syrup and added some frozen organic wild blueberries to the kids' and husband's. Everyone loved them. I didn't eat any of the first two batches out of the pan, then I was called away by the baby, who also wanted breakfast. Finally, I made myself two:

 
What is your favorite pancake recipe?

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