Oatmeal Pancakes

The boys eat pancakes just about every day.  They LOVE pancakes.  Between the two of them, most days they eat 3 pancakes and a whole banana for breakfast.  And God forbid Mama doesn't get them onto the trays fast enough, watch out!

When they aren't eating pancakes with veggies in them, they are eating oatmeal pancakes.  These pancakes are almost completely oatmeal.  Two cups of old fashioned oats to just 1/2 cup of flour.  Even so, they are nowhere close to being bland like plain oatmeal.  The buttermilk and melted butter in the batter make these pancakes so so good.  Alex and I love them just as much as the kids do.  This is definitely my favorite pancake recipe. A warning though: these do take some advanced planning. The batter needs to be made at least two hours before you can actually fry up the cakes.  This is necessary in order soften the oatmeal.  I make the batter the night before so it is ready to go first thing in the morning.

Buttermilk Oatmeal Pancakes, adapted from Bon Appetit, August 1999
2 cups old fashioned OR quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups buttermilk**
2 large eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
additional butter for frying

**if you don't have buttermilk, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar for each cup of milk called for in your recipe.  Stir them together and let sit for 5-10 minutes.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.  Beat eggs slightly and add them, the buttermilk and the vanilla and mix the batter together.  Once the melted butter is slightly cooled, stir that in as well.  The batter will seem very runny, don't worry.  The batter has to sit at least 2 hours so the oats can soften.  I make this the night before, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and just give it a stir before frying up the pancakes in the morning.  By then the batter will be much thicker.  Spoon it on to a hot buttered frying pan or griddle.  Flip the cakes when they begin to bubble and seem cooked on the edges.

Tip!  As I've said in the past...if you want to make a bunch and freeze them, let them cool completely then put them on a parchment paper-lined baking try in a chest freezer for about an hour.  Once frozen you can put them into freezer bags without any danger of them sticking together.  If you don't have a freezer drawer or chest you can stack them with squares of parchment paper in between each cake.