Blueberry Pancakes

Do you have good pancake flipping skills? Can you make picture perfect round pancakes that are evenly golden brown and beautiful? If so, please leave your flipping techniques in the comments because my pancakes always go splat when I flip them!  It doesn't really matter though because even if these pancakes have uneven edges, they taste amazing.  Plus it helps that I have this really nice, well seasoned cast iron griddle that I absolutely love cooking on, although I do have a bit of a gripe. My stove has one of those "power" burners in the front and a "simmer" burner in the back, do you even know what I am rambling on about? The front burner runs about 50 billion BTUs and the back one is like a measly 7.  In other words, the whole time I am making pancakes, or french toast, or quesadillas, or panini sandwhiches (oh man, I just made myself so hungry, I'll stop listing delicious foods now) I have to stand there and fiddle around with the heat levels on the burners.  Most of the time I end up having to shut the power burner off after a bit and just let the residual heat in the cast iron finish the cooking!

These are the best pancakes that I have ever eaten. They are sweet and fluffy with those perfect crispy edge bits.  Most of the time we make them plain but we had some fresh blueberries in the fridge so little K and I tossed some into ours. Big K stuck with the plain pancakes, of course.  For a super special treat you could add some mini chocolate chips!  I know a lot of people don't like to make pancakes from scratch and think that the box mix tastes just as good but I am telling you, these pancakes are absolutely worth the extra five minutes it takes to measure the ingredients for the batter. Stack these delicious pancakes up and drizzle maple syrup all over! Make sure you use the real stuff, you only use really maple syrup right?!?! (sorry New England food snob over here).  I hope you love these pancakes as much as we do!  Our favorite time to eat them is breakfast for dinner :)

Pancakes

1 cup milk
1 large egg
2 tbsp white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp melted butter plus more for cooking
Blueberries, chocolate chips, or other toppings of your choice
Maple syrup, if desired for serving

In a large glass measuring cup or medium bowl, whisk the milk, egg, sugar, and vanilla together.  Add the baking powder, salt, and flour and mix until just barely combined.  Stir in the melted butter.  The amount of flour you use will depend on how thick you like your pancake batter.  If you add the lower amount you will have a thinner more runny batter and if you add the higher amount you will have thick, denser pancakes.  If you mix the batter in a liquid measuring cup with a spout, you can easily pour the pancakes onto the griddle.  Or you can use a 1/3 measuring cup and get nice evenly sized pancakes.  Spoon the pancake batter onto a well buttered griddle or frying pan, over medium heat.  When little bubbles start showing up on the top surface of the pancake it is time to flip.  If you are adding blueberries or chocolate chips put them on the pancake right before you flip.  Cook the other side for about another minute, or until fully cooked through and golden brown.  If desired serve with additional butter and maple syrup. Makes about 8 medium pancakes