Published January 1, 1996.
When it comes to pancake recipes, we are definite fans of buttermilk, which adds flavor depth and its characteristic tang. After exhaustive testing with chemical leaveners, we opted for a combination of baking powder and baking soda to leaven our pancake recipe. The small amount of baking soda gave the pancakes a coarser crumb and made them light and tender. The baking powder helped with the rise.
This batter serves four perfectly for a light weekday breakfast. You may want to double the recipe for weekend pancake making, when appetites are larger. If you happen to be using salted butter or buttermilk, you may want to cut back a bit on the salt. If you don’t have any buttermilk, mix three-quarters cup of room temperature milk with one tablespoon of lemon juice and let it stand for five minutes. Substitute this “clabbered milk” for the three-quarters cup of buttermilk and one-quarter cup of milk in this recipe. Since this milk mixture is not as thick as buttermilk, the batter and resulting pancakes will not be as thick.
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