Pancakes 101

We eat a lot of pancakes - we love them so much. Plus, I use wholewheat flour and often toss in a banana and that makes wholewheat banana pancakes which are delicious, the kids love them and we are all getting our whole grains and fruit in for the morning. Here is my basic pancake recipe - makes about 8 4" pancakes, so double it if you are really hungry.

1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (if you don't have whole wheat flour yet or just want white pancakes instead, go ahead and use a full cup of white flour instead of half white and half wheat)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tbs. oil (any vegetable oil will do or substitute melted butter)
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 banana (optional)

Mix all ingredients together in one bowl until smoothe (banana will be chunky if you use one, that's good), heat and grease (smear butter around until surface it covered with melted butter) frying pan (I love cast iron pans, they cook really well, they're super heavy and look great, too. Once you've used one for a few years it is the very best and even somewhat non-stickish, but a new cast iron pan needs seasoning) and pour in the batter. I use a 1/3 cup measure to pour in my batter, I can fit 3 pancakes at a time in my pan. The first batch is never the best, so don't despair if they are perfectly golden brown. But here is something important, pancakes are ready for flipping when they have little airbubbles all over them and then the bubbles start to pop. That's the perfect time to flip them. Oooh, you are going to love these pancakes! Serve them with real maple syrup or jam. yum.