Sunny skies & pancakes

Today I woke to a perfect Sydney summer day.

The sky was blue, a slight breeze kept the early morning cool. I opened our bedroom French doors that lead out to the garden.

It was that sweet moment in the early morning, when calm prevails, the day is sleepily unfolding, and our bed is a tangle of warm little ones cuddled up in our arms…..heaven. And yet, such domestic bliss must always come to an end, in search of cups of tea and happily, today, pancakes.

In my previous, pre-baby life of working full-time, pancakes were a weekend luxury, usually enjoyed in a cafe. It feels nice to have a new kind of luxury, of being able to cook a beautiful breakfast for my family. On a pretty summer weekday. Just because.

Our family’s favourite pancake is my adaptation of Orangette’s oatmeal pancakes. I’ve added in brown sugar and vanilla essence and this gives them a warm, fudgy sweetness that I adore.

Here’s the recipe…..

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats
2 cups buttermilk
½ cup plain flour
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
Pinch table salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
115g unsalted butter, melted but not hot
Unsalted butter, for greasing the pan
Maple syrup, berries & banana for serving
Method

The night before:

Combine the oats and buttermilk in a medium bowl. Stir to mix. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.

The morning of:

Take the bowl of buttermilk and oats out of the fridge. Set aside.

In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Add the eggs, vanilla essence and melted butter to the oat mixture, and stir well. Add the flour mixture, and stir to blend. The batter will be very thick.

Heat a large non-stick pan over medium heat and add a small knob of butter. Using a 1/4 cup measure, scoop the mixture into the pan. My pan fits 3 comfortably, with room to flip. When some bubbles appear on the surface of your pancakes (generally after a minute or so), it’s time to flip. Let them cook on the other side for a minute, then remove to a warm plate. Add another knob of butter to the pan and cook the next rounds, until your mixture has gone and you have a stack of gorgeous, golden pancakes.

Serve warm- we always have ours with berries, Greek yogurt and maple syrup. Today we added fresh banana too. Beautiful.

Makes about 12 pancakes. Serves 4.