The secret to great pancakes

For breakfast this morning we had some of the best pancakes that we have ever had.

Where, you might ask? Actually, we had them right here at home.

Usually, we go with the easy pre-made mixes. We frequently use Uncle Tom's wholewheat pancake mix, or Arrowhead Mills multigrain pancake and waffle mix or even Aunt Jemima's whole wheat pancake mix. But today, with fresh blueberries to toss in, we were in the mood for pancakes - but with no pancake mix!  

So instead of tossing the towel in, we decide to turn to my favorite cooking consultant, America's Test Kitchen, who spurts out a pancake recipe that looks fairly easy, but one that calls for buttermilk, which of course we do not have. But what is great about my consultant is that they always give you a great option for substitution. So instead of 2 cups of buttermilk, we use 2 cups of milk plus 2 Ts of lemon juice, as suggested. The rest of the ingredients were pretty standard, 2 cups of flour (which we used AM whole wheat flour), 2 ts baking powder, 1/2 ts baking soda, 2 Ts sugar (which we substituted Splenda for) and 3 Ts of melted butter. (I usually use canola oil for the oil requirements of the pancakes but from today's experience,  I think that butter is the way to go.) And into this we stir in the lemon-milk mix. 

I've made pancakes from scratch before and usually, they turn out a little flat and tasteless. But today's pancakes were better than any I have ever made from a mix or even had at a brunch place. I think it has to do with the butter and the lemon. Mostly the lemon, which adds flavor as well as altering the texture of the milk, making it slightly curdly. 

So the morale of this story today is, try mixing some lemon into your milk when making pancakes. It makes a world of difference.