My Dad has the hands that feed. My Mom can make a bundt cake that might make you want to slap your Grandma, but Dad has the love for cooking. You can tell whether or not someone loves cooking by observing a few simple movements: the way they look at ingredients and the way they stir a pot. My Dad will look at an unrolled pie crust like he’s looking at a newborn baby. He stirs a pot of his famous spaghetti sauce like he’s melting down gold. Not one ounce of that affection for food was lost on me growing up in his kitchen.
But there’s a problem. As much as I adore sitting down to a plate full of food, I rarely if ever finish everything on my plate. I always leave at least a bite or two untouched. Why? I have a theory. It’s solid.
My love for food is rivaled only by my father’s love for food. Let’s face it, the man can eat circles around me. Sitting to the left of my Dad at the dinner table for 18 years was a heroing (ok, I’m totally exaggerating) task. Without fail, I would get down to my last few bites of food, I might take a moment, set down my fork, relax, have a sip of juice, all perfectly normal dining practices. In those moments, my Dad would look over, with an irresistible smile on his face and say, “You need help finishing that?”
Whether of not I ever needed assistance finishing the food on my plate, I don’t remember, but my Dad always, always ate the last few bites on my plate. After a few years of this sort of training, I suppose I just started leaving food on my plate for him to finish. There were exceptions of course, anything involving french fries, ice cream or pancakes were mine all mine.
Don’t get me wrong. I certainly didn’t go hungry. I simply learned to put more on my plate than I could eat, knowing my Dad would eagerly finish my scraps.
These days, I don’t get to share a dinner table with my parents every night, but I still manage to leave a few bites on food untouched on my plate. I do love to talk my Dad into making Saturday morning pancakes. By the time I make the spontaneous call and drive the 30 minutes to their house, the pancakes are already half way to the skillet. One thing is for sure, on pancake mornings, I finish my plate all on my own, and sometime even cast a longing look at my Dad’s plate. Funny how that works.
Dad’s “Clean Your Plate” Buttermilk Pancakes
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
4 teaspoons light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Whisk together milk, eggs and vegetable oil in a medium bowl, then whisk in the butter.
Stir together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in another medium bowl. Whisk in egg mixture until combined.
Spray a griddle or skillet with nonstick vegetable spray. Working in batches of 3 (or 6 if your griddle will allow) pour 1/3-cup measures of batter onto skillet and cool until bubbles have formed on the top and sides of the pancakes and broken, about 2 minutes. Flip pancakes with a spatula and cook until undersides are golden, about 1 minute more. Lower heat if pancakes brown too quickly. Serve with maple syrup or molasses.
I think it’s amazing that so many of you have fond memories of this salt shaker. I know that it’s been in our family kitchen for as long as I can remember. Funny what fond memories you share with strangers!
jody s
We just made these with some added strawberry chunks and they were devoured. Yum!
Renee @ Awesome on $20
I just had to say that my dad’s pancakes are my favorite thing. I hardly ever get to see him, but every time we get together, I have to have his pancakes. It’s one of my favorite memories.
Rumi
Hi Joy.. I’m a long time reader of your blog, and first time commenter.
I just made these and they turned out AWESOME! This was my first time making pancakes from scratch, and I only reduced the butter a lil bit (ran out to be honest) and increased the buttermilk by 1/4 cup…
Also beat the egg whites separately and folded them in at the end, and they came out perfect!
Thanks so much :-)
Erin Fulks
OH MY!!!!! I was craving pancakes this morning, but sadly found no milk in the fridge… I drove to the store and was thinking, I doubt the pancakes are gonna be worth getting dressed, brushing my teeth, and driving to get milk….. Boy was I wrong. These pancakes are FANTASTIC. There is no reason to look for another recipe or tweak this. I can’t wait to make them again!
Whitney
I made this recipe yesterday. My husband mentioned for the first time that my pancakes have always been good, but not great. I’ve been making him pancakes for over three years and had no idea he though they where just ‘good’. Then I made this recipe and he, including myself cleaned our plate and wanted more even though our stomachs were plenty full. My husband said, ‘these are awesome’ with a mouth full over and over again. I should mention that I did add blueberries because it’s summer and I think blueberry pancakes should be eaten as often as possible in the summer. :) Thank you for a lovely recipe and a lovely story about your dad.
Andrea
Joy, I just made these with my soon to be 4 year old daughter – and yes we are eating them for dinner! Sooooo yummy. My daughter is on her second helping!
Kayleen
This was my third recipe of yours that I’ve tried! The first was the apple pie which was my very first homemade pie. The second was the apple crisp and third was these!! Everything has turned out yummy and my family/boyfriend has loved everything. :) The next thing I’m going to bake is your blueberry-blackberry pie for my boyfriends family!
Thank you for these awesome recipes :)
Jordana
I made these for my fam this morning and they were a massive hit! Thank you thank you thank you.
Monica Hunsberger
First, we too have the same salt shaker and what a lovely memory to see it! Second, you father’s pancakes sound buttery delicious. The dietitian in me said, “an entire stick of butter with a little oil and buttermilk too”… wow!
Aurora
Hey Joy made these this morning! And they were really good, even though I made one change( only ONE! yay:) I reduced the butter to 4TB total- 3 in the batter and 1 to cook all the pancakes in. It was a good decision- I would reduced it further to 2 TB next time. I added an extra TB of buttermilk to compensate for the loss of moisture from the butter. These pancakes were not super fluffy, but fairly thin and very buttery, which of course made them delicious. Powdered sugar was the perfect topping because of the buttery-ness of the pancakes- it provided a foil in texture. Would make these again! And it fed the 4 of us perfectly btw.
Zoe
Loved the pancakes, Joy!!! Loved your great ideas, Aurora – I made the recipe as per your changes, and added 1/4 cup bran to the pancakes, and they were scrumptious!! Perfect winter morning Saturday morning food to treat us with!! :)