Sunday Brunch Buttermilk Blueberry Pancakes

I have this issue with blueberry pancakes that I know puts me in a solid minority (in the blueberry pancake-eating world, I mean 🙂 ). I just do not like maple syrup (or the imitations) on blueberries. The flavors somehow clash for me. Instead I like my blueberry pancakes sweet–almost, but not quite, as sweet as a muffin. But if you think I am crazy, I still recommend proceeding with this recipe–just use the full 2 cups of buttermilk and ignore my sugar subs.

Either way, this is a fantastic recipe. Which is not a surprise, seeing as I got it from Rose Levy Beranbaum. The pancakes are super fluffy, and the tang from the buttermilk gives them a zip. Alex actually ate 2 whole pancakes, which is unusual for her (Sammy did not, although she certainly ate one, because honestly you have never seen a kid more obsessed with sausage). If you are a fan of butter (who isn’t?), this is a great pancake: because they are not dressed with syrup, an excellent European style butter will really shine. They take a little extra work, with the separated eggs, which is why I consider them a good weekend brunch pancake.

Sweetened Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
Adapted from The Cake Bible, Rose Levy Beranbaum

127 g cake flour*
100 g whole wheat pastry flour*
4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
4 large eggs, separated
1 2/3 cups buttermilk (see comments above)
2 T granulated sugar
1/3 cup minus 2 T Lyle’s Golden Syrup (or corn syrup or honey)**
1/2 t cream of tartar
4 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2-3 cups fresh or unthawed frozen blueberries (we like a lot of blueberries)

*Beranbaum calls for 1 3/4 cups cake flour or 1 2/3 cups AP flour, for a total of 227 g or 8 oz for either. One of the beauties of using a scale is being able to sub without worrying about the potential differences in volume–I just zeroed out my scale, added the whole wheat pastry flour to 100 g and then finished it with cake flour, to reach the total of 227 g. If you do not have a scale, just follow her volume measurements listed here and ignore my whole wheat substitution since I have no idea what the respective volumes are.

**I measured this by filling a 2 cup measure with the 1 2/3 cups buttermilk and then adding the sugar and then adding the syrup to the 2 cup line.

Sift the flours, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Set aside. Beat the yolks, sugar, golden syrup and buttermilk together in a medium bowl and set aside. Using a hand held beater or a mixer (or your arm if you’re in much better shape than me!) beat the eggs whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and whip until stiff peaks form.

Preheat your griddle or frying pan on medium-high heat.

Add the yolk mixture to the dry mixture and mix lightly until the flour is moistened. Stir in the butter. Let sit for 5 minutes to allow the whole grains to absorb the liquid. Gently fold in the egg whites. Do not overmix, batter will be lumpy. Let the batter sit another 5 minutes while you preheat.

When the griddle or pan is hot enough to sizzle a drop of water, turn the heat down to medium and ladle in some batter. Scatter the fresh or frozen*** blueberries into the pancake. There are many tests for when to flip a pancake–bubbles, a dry appearance, etc, but the most reliable is to just peek under the pancake and flip it if it is browning. Even if you slosh batter and need to adjust the temperature, that is better than risking burning one side.

***I keep the blueberries frozen, removing them as needed, the entire time I make the pancakes; otherwise the blueberries will thaw into mush by the time you cook the last pancake.