Pretty much all of my life, a pancake breakfast has been enjoyed on at least one of the two weekend days. I have a feeling many of you could say the same thing.
It's tradition - the boxed mixes, the family recipes, bacon sizzling on the stove top until that ever so enlightening day when we all realized it was much neater (and easier) to bake it in the oven.
Growing up my parents had a few kitchen rules in this house - no fake maple syrup allowed, mashed potatoes do not come in a box, pinch pennies every which way you can but never buy cheaply made paper towels.
And, pancakes must always be made in the blue pyrex bowl.
For thirty five years this bowl has been sitting on the bottom shelf of the top middle cabinet in this kitchen. The custom made oak cabinets were one of two splurges when mom and dad built this house. (The second being hardwood floors throughout.)
A built to last bowl housed in built to last cabinetry. Those were the good ol' days.
Most designers would agree that although these cabinets (and those harvest gold counters!) are kind of a time capsule at this point, never has there been a more quality set of kitchen cabinets. They would last another hundred years if the house surrounding them remains standing.
When Mom and Dad moved out of this house last winter and we moved in, I asked Mom if she could leave just one thing - the blue pyrex pancake bowl.
It belongs here.
And so she did.
We use it each and every weekend for pancakes, and hardly ever reach for it at any other time during the week (even though it is a great all round mixing bowl).
I just remembered... Mom also baked her Spanish Rice in here. I should make that too. Oh! She also soaked beans and would let bread rise in this bowl. (We never bought bread or canned baked beans at the store. I did not think these things were hip at the time, but now I do, of course.)
Pancake recipes change over time.
Over the decades homemade recipes were replaced by boxed mixes. Those boxed mixes were replaced by fat-free versions of the same. Then, once everyone realized they weren't getting any thinner on all that fat-free food, family recipes were pulled back out again.
But... wheat has changed so much over the years, it's hardly recognizable anymore. So, many of us look for a different pancake recipe.
Honestly, most weekends still find us pulling our tried and true wheat flour pancake recipe from the recipe box (our flour comes from here, ordered through our local food co-op). Our daughter reminds us that the pancakes she grew up on are still the pancakes for her. We are each on our own journey, there needs to be space and respect for that. My parenting (and life) mantra, these days.
However, forty year old me has had enough wheat to last a lifetime. I'm so over it. Once a week or so is not a problem, but daily wheat intake leaves me feeling bloated, sluggish, and as though my brain is in a vise. So, I mostly skip it. But on Sunday mornings, alongside my girl, I serve myself up a (short) stack of her favorite pancakes.
But sometimes, just for varieties sake, she (understanding of other people's needs) doesn't mind if we mix it up a bit, making one of our "crunchy" pancake recipes using coconut or oat flour.
This is actually kind of funny because although she likely realizes this at fifteen years old, most people would think the whole wheat pancakes she grew up on are pretty "crunchy" themselves.
In particular, I'm a big fan of these pancakes right here, Blender Banana Oat Pancakes.
I'd love a tall stack of these.
Blender Banana Oat Pancakes
A retired Whole Food Kitchen recipe.
makes 12-16 pancakes
Ingredients:
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 1 1/4 cups milk (nut or raw dairy)
- 1 ripe banana
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 egg
butter or coconut oil for cooking
Directions:
- Place all ingredients, except egg and cooking oil in a blender and blend until smooth. Add egg and blend a few seconds more.
- Let stand 10 minutes or longer to thicken batter.
- If batter becomes too thick to pour easily, add some milk.
- Heat oil in frying pan or skillet.
- Pour batter, by 1/4 - 1/2 cup, into pan and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side.
Print Recipe - Blender Banana Oat Pancakes
The pancake bowl's place of storage has changed since we moved in, now sitting one shelf up. Surrounding the bowl is no longer the Tupperware of my youth, but healthier eco-friendly glass storage containers. Next generations are always doing things like that - making "improvements" as they see fit - allowing for progress, new beginnings, and change.
All the while, this steady and true pancake bowl sits in waiting, ready to do the same job its done for nearly forty years... offering up Sunday morning pancakes.
