Pancakes

Well...not pancakes, griddle cakes.  Why?  Because a pan is a terrible tool for making pancakes.  Electric griddles make the best pancakes.  They're also awesome for fish, steaks, burgers, eggs, firm polenta and burning yourself horribly.

http://www.amazon.com/Presto-07030-20-Inch-Electric-Griddle/dp/B001078UCC/ref=lh_ni_t_

$20 is a bargain.

I make pancakes for my kids on average of about once a week.  I always make them from scratch and I never measure.  They always come out well, but sometimes better than others.

You can use a whole grain with this.  I like cornmeal or whole wheat.  With cornmeal, you have to cook it first.  Put 1/2 cup cornmeal in a microwave safe container, cover with milk and nuke for 3 minutes or so.  Take out, stir and nuke for another minute.  Add the cornmeal to the wet ingredients, but the wheat flour to the dry.

Here's what I hesitate to call a "recipe".

Papa's Griddlecakes
Preparation
Clean griddle, even if you think it's clean already
Plug it in and start it heating at about 350degrees
If your griddle is old or heavily used like mine, you may need to hit it with some spray-oil.
You'll need 2 mixing bowls for this, one large and one medium

Ingredients

• Some all purpose white flour, maybe 1 to 1.5 cups
• 1/4 cup-ish whole-grain cornmeal or 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• An egg, maybe two
• A couple tablespoons of sugar
• 1 tbs-ish baking powder
• 1/2 tsp-ish baking soda
• 1 cup buttermilk or 1/4cup plain yogurt and 1 cup milk.  Or, you can warm milk in a microwave and add some lemon juice.  Just make a slightly acidic, slightly thickened milk-like substance.
• Cinnamon
• Ground ginger, if you like
• 1/4-ish of veggie oil
• Salt
• Some vanilla
• Optionally blueberries, chocolate chips, bananas or nuts

Directions
The Dry:
In the large mixing bowl, add in the all purpose and whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt.  Mix completely.  If you want, you can sift them together to get a fluffier pancake.
If you are using chocolate chips, add them to now, and stir in completely.  You want the chips to be coated with flour, which will make them suspend in the pancake instead of sinking to the bottom and burning on the griddle.

The Wet:

In the medium bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar.
If using bananas, smoosh them up them add them and beat until smooth enough
Mix in the acidified milk.
Wait until the griddle is heated
Pour the wet on top of the dry
Stir carefully to combine, stirring only as little as you need to.  The more you stir, the more gluten you will create, which makes for a chewy, flat pancake, which is never good.

Cooking:
I use a 1/2 cup measuring cup to spoon out the mixture onto the griddle.
If you're using blueberries, add them to the mixture only after it's been spooned out to the griddle.
You can tell that the side is done when the edges firm up and it begins to smell like breakfast.
Flip and cook until done

I  normally will cook one small one at first, then adjust salt, cinnamon, vanilla and sugar if needed.