Buttermilk Pear Pancakes

Contains:  Dairy, wheat, gluten, eggs, added sugar.  Is: Quick and easy,  breakfast.

Wishing all the mothers and moms out there a Happy Mother’s Day!

Since you are not likely to take Mom out for a sit-down brunch this year, here’s an at-home idea for a late breakfast or brunch you might be able to make for her:

I adapted this from a Martha Stewart buttermilk blueberry recipe.  Had pears.  Didn’t have blueberries.  Not going to a big box supermarket during COVID.  Is COVID as bad as people say??  I don’t know.  But I’ve never been interested in playing the wheels at Vegas, either.

I made the mistake of making her full recipe… but the batter IS freeze-able.  Theoretically will last three months once frozen.  And at least the pear and the egg are healthy!

I had used buttermilk here for another recipe, and wanted to use this bottle up before it went bad.

So, here we are.

These pancakes are adapted from Martha Stewart’s recipe, here.   As noted, no blueberries nor her alternate choice of bananas, but hey… pears were here.  They turn out not to be as flavorful in pancakes as blueberries are, but at least in my case they are a little less sweet than bananas.  Frankly, I don’t appreciate sweet breakfasts anyway.  BUT I was glad to have a fruit to put into these pancakes.

I didn’t have milk, but there was sour cream lurking in the fridge.  Hey, why NOT?  The substitution ended up working.

Battered up and ready to cook!

I also subbed her whole milk ingredient out for whole sour cream.  I mean, also lacking milk here. This made the mixture thicker… but pancakes were light and tasty anyway.   Possibly more tart than the recipe calls for – but not enough that I noticed this.

Prepped April 27th, 2020.

Prep Time:  15 minutes, maybe.
Cook Time:  Each skillet-full – 6 minutes.
Rest Time: not essential.
Serves: 4.
Cuisine:  American, Western.
Leftovers:  Refrigerate batter for up to four days, or freeze up to around 3 months.  Actual pancakes do NOT reserve well.

• 1.25 cups all purpose flour.  Spoon it into the measuring cup and lightly level it out.  (Next time I make this recipe, I’ll weigh it for both metric and US weight measurements… I was too hangry to stop…  Plus it doesn’t need an extreme level of accuracy.)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar – I use coconut sugar.
• 1.5 teaspoons baking powder.
• 0.25 teaspoons baking soda.
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt.
• 1 and 1/4 cup buttermilk, low fat.
• 1/2 cup whole fat sour cream (or as recommended, 1/2 cup whole milk)
• Unsalted butter – 2 tablespoons for the batter mix, and some for the cooking oil, and if you like butter atop your pancakes, a pat or two more for that.
• 2 eggs, beaten.
• 1 pear, de-cored and chopped into portions around 1/4 inch cubes. (Alternatively, an apple, treated the same.)
• Maple syrup to taste.  I’m not really a sweet tooth.  An approximation of one tablespoon is more than enough for me!!!

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix with a fork or whisk.

Combine the buttermilk, sour cream (milk!), 2 tablespoons melted butter, and eggs in another bowl.  Mix.

Pour the liquids into the dry bowl, and mix until combined.  Lumps are okay.  Overmixing will dry out your pancakes and render them less fluffy.   Add the chopped up pear bits, and gently incorporate.

Meanwhile, turn up the heat on your cooktop – a good solid medium will usually be fine. Add some butter for cooking to a skillet, and allow it to melt.  Test the skillet by dropping a drop of water – if it sizzles, your skillet is hot enough.

With a ladle, lay in anywhere from 1 to 4 scoops of pancake batter.  I made mine small – three small ones fit fine in a medium-sized skillet.  Allow them to cook until bubbles appear, about five minutes.  Gently flip each pancake, and allow them to cook to about two minutes in conclusion on their reverse sides.

Remove each pancake, and add a pat of room temperature batter to each top, as you add each next pancake to the stack.  Drizzle with real maple syrup, and serve.   (Okay, if you want to swamp your pancakes with maple syrup, I’m not telling!)

If you are making MORE pancakes than fit in one skillet, you can keep them in a 200 F oven until all are done.  The amount of batter this recipe creates serves four – and you can indeed freeze any excess batter for a few months.

Linking to:

Fiesta Friday.

Full Plate Thursday.

What’s For Dinner – Sunday Linkup.

Homestead Blog Hop.