Sundays are a special day in our family. It's my husbands day off, so I like to make it special for him in some way. I usually prepare a nice breakfast so he can relax and just enjoy the day. This sunday was no different, so this week I prepared him some orange chocolate chip pancakes.
One of my favorite memories of my mom making pancakes growing up is my mom spooning them on the griddle and it was always special when she gave me a "baby pancake". Sometimes when you ladle the batter on the griddle, a bit drips and you end up with "little pancakes". My mom always gave them to me while she was cooking the pancakes and I always felt so special that she made me special tiny pancakes while waiting for the big ones to eat. I do it for my kids now, I hand them the little baby pancakes to nibble on while the rest are cooking. I hope they remember it fondly as well.
When I was getting married, my mom put together a cookbook for me of family recipes. It was such a special gift and I constantly flip through it for recipes to make for dinner. I feel like no page of the book has gotten more attention then the pancake page.
Isn't it cute?
When I think pancakes, and maybe this is weird, but I think of old western times in the 1800's..you know, like flapjacks. With a women in a feedsack dress on a prairie with a bonnet, using a triangle to call her kids in for breakfast. But after researching pancakes I learned they go back ancient greece. To quote Wikipedia, "The Ancient Greeks made pancakes called τηγανίτης (tēganitēs), ταγηνίτης (tagēnitēs)[3] or ταγηνίας (tagēnias),[4] all words deriving from τάγηνον (tagēnon), "frying pan".[5] The earliest attested references on tagenias are in the works of the 5th century BC poets Cratinus[6] and Magnes.[7] Tagenites were made with wheat flour, olive oil, honey and curdled milk, and were served for breakfast.[8][9][10] Another kind of pancake was σταιτίτης (staititēs), from σταίτινος (staitinos), "of flour or dough of spelt",[11] derived from σταῖς (stais), "flour of spelt".[12] Athenaeus is his Deipnosophistae mention staititas topped with honey, sesame and cheese.[13][14][15] The Middle English word Pancake appears in English in the 1400s.[16][17]"
Interesting right?
With this recipe, I take my family's basic pancake recipe and add orange zest and chocolate chips for a little fun.
Recipe:
2 cups flour
2 tablespoon baking powder
4 tablespoons sugar
pinch of salt
2 cups milk
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
3 teaspoons of vanilla
zest of one orange
handful of chocolate chips
This is really simple, all I do is mix the dry ingredients together and then add the wet ingredients, and then zest the orange & add the chocolate chips and whisk.
Get out your griddle or pan and add a ladle full of batter...when it begins to bubble on top and brown on bottom your ready to flip it.
As my mom wants everyone to know:
Don't forget to heat the syrup!
You know you did good when you get smiles like this!
Enjoy everyone!
That's a good mommy you've got there! Never use box mix!!!
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