Melt In Your Mouth Buttermilk Pancakes

I grew up in the restaurant business. My family owns a couple local diners that are famous for their breakfast. Specifically, their buttermilk pancakes. Now these pancakes aren’t your run of the mill, prepacked, just add water type of pancakes. The pancakes we serve at my families restaurants are 100% from scratch and the recipe has been passed down 3 generations. Ask anyone who has tried them and they’ll tell you they have never tasted a better pancake.

Here’s the thing about these pancakes, the recipe is top secret. So top secret, I don’t even have it. It’s been memorized by the cooks and my dad still to this day, won’t tell me what it is. I think he’s waiting until his death bed to finally give me that dang recipe. Bummer, right? Well, me being the stubborn person I am, I set out to recreate my families famous pancakes on my own. Enter this recipe. I thing I came pretty dang close to the original. In fact, some days I feel like my recipe is even better. But shhh! don’t tell my dad that!

The key to the perfect pancakes? Using real buttermilk. Not the cheat method where you add vinegar to milk. You want the real deal. Just trust me on this one. It adds that distinct tangy taste, that you just can’t get without real buttermilk. The second key is cooking them in hot olive oil. I discovered this method by accident, when I realized I was out of cooking spray so I decided to throw some oil in the pan instead. The end result blew my socks off. The hot oil adds the perfect amount of crispness along the edges of the pancakes and the subtle olive oil flavor really puts the cherry on the (pan)cake!

Melt In Your Mouth Buttermilk Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup melted salted butter
• Olive oil for frying

1. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.
2. Warm the buttermilk in the microwave for 45-60 seconds until warm.
3. In a separate medium sized bowl, add buttermilk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract. Whisk until combined.
4. Add wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir gently until no flour streaks remain. Do not over mix.
5. Over medium heat, heat a large skillet. Add olive oil to the skillet just until it covers the entire bottom of your pan. It shouldn’t be more than an 1/8 of an inch deep.
6. Once oil is hot, reduce heat to medium low and dollop 1/2 cup pancake batter into the skillet. Depending on the size of your skillet, you can fit 2-3 pancakes into the pan.
7. Cook pancakes until bubbles start to rise to the surface and pop, about 2-3 minutes. Carefully flip pancakes and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
8. Serve hot with maple syrup and toppings of your choosing.