Fluffy, moist yogurt pancakes

  

It is only half the way through the week and I am already dreaming about the week end.

First of all I get to sleep in. Not until past 11:00am like I did in the old, disco days. Not even until 9:00am with a 14-month old and a 4-year old. Usually these means we get to sleep till 7.30-8:00am, not bad with kids. I am not an early morning person, don't get me wrong, but considering I am usually at the office by 7.10am, by my standards it is a luxury.

Second, it means I have two whole days to spend with my family, starting with breakfast. During the week my whole family is still sleeping when I leave the apartment so sitting around a table sipping coffee, giggling with my daughter and just enjoying each other's company is a real treat.

Last, but not least, I have time to cook. In daylight, so I can take some halfway decent pictures. Without little hands grabbing at my legs in my baby's attempt to stay in an upright position (yes, 14 months and still not walking) while I am handling hot pots and pans and constant "Mooooommyyyyys" from the other room. It is all happening anyway, but F is there to save the day while I sift flour and get my hands greasy.

Breakfast+week end+cooking+flour= pancakes

You don't need to be a genius to figure out that equation. I know it is a staple American breakfast, I know it is so simple you don't need a recipe and you don't want yet another blogger publishing one. But I stumbled across this recipe with yogurt in it on One Green Generation, attracted by its title. And a food blog cannot be considered a food blog in its own right without a pancake recipe on it, n'est-ce pas? So forgive me and skip ahead, if I am boring you. Or read more if you are already dreaming of that sweet-salty-buttery fluffines on your tongue.

I do not keep a ready-made stash of pancake mix in my cupboard, but I am planing to start making some. When you fall out of bed and stumble to the kitchen without having a drop of caffeine in your system, it suddenly seems like the best idea in the world. And it makes so much more sense than buying it. I am all for taking short cuts when they make life easier, but in this case there really is no labor involved and it is cheaper and healthier to make it. If you don't want it sitting around for weeks in your pantry, make it the evening before. But make it yourself, please!

Ingredients
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (add a little more if you like thicker pancakes)
1 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt (I used a little less)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup plain, unsweetened yogurt
1 tsp vanilla (I had vanilla baking powder so I didn't add any)

Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda). Then make a hole in the middle and add the wet ingredients (eggs, yogurt), barely mixing them. Then mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, barely mixing them either. Leave the batter a bit lumpy.

Let the batter sit for at least 5 minutes, or more if you are not in rush. Put on your coffee in the meantime and enjoy that first sip! You can see the yogurt reacting to the leavening ingredients. The batter will grow and bubble. This is when you can add in fruit if you want to. Then start making he pancakes in a pan where you will already have melted some butter. Wait till the pancakes form bubbles and solidify around the edges before you flip them over. The other side will take less. My first ones never turn out as good as my last ones, they get better as you go along. Stack them, spreading some butter between the layers, douse with maple syrup and enjoy every last bite. This amount made 6 normal sized pancakes and 3 smaller pancakes for my daughter. My son doesn't really eat sugar and salt yet, but I think I will have to make him one too the next time, considering how he was oogling us.



Sorry, the light in my kitchen is terrible