One of our favorite Saturday or Sunday traditions in our house is homemade pancakes. I stopped making these with the store-bought mixes looooong ago. I've tried so many of them and some are wonderfully genius (think the shaker bottle brand) and some are just plain jane, nothing special about them. But, the one thing that always holds true is that none of these even come close to comparing to the flavor, texture, and price of homemade. Additionally, if you have the motivation you can make this recipe in bulk and just add the wet ingredients when you prepare them.
You'll want to ensure you have 2 separate bowls to prepare this. Please do not just throw everything in a bowl and call it good. These ingredients need to be combined separately and stirred as little as possible so your pancakes will be light and fluffy. Tough pancakes are never any fun!
The photo here shows the egg lightly whisked. Be sure to do this step before adding the buttermilk.
Combining buttermilk with egg.
I love Vanilla in my pancakes. On top of it, while the pancakes are cooking they release the aroma of the Vanilla and the kitchen smells sweet and delicious. It's an addicting scent.
When adding the wet to the dry, make sure you make a well in the ingredients and add the wet into the well you've created. When I stir, I start from the outside and go around the edge of the bowl, then bring my fork to the center and back out again. I try to keep the stirs to around 15 or just until the dry is fully mixed into the wet. Be gentle with the batter, you'll be glad you did!
I always add some butter to my griddle, which helps the pancakes form a crispy shell which we like. If you like the outside of your pancakes soft, don't do this step. Also, don't press down on the pancakes to make them cook quicker. They'll cook quickly anyway, but pressing down on them will release your air bubbles and you want those.
Orange flavors go so beautifully with Vanilla, so naturally I serve mine with sliced oranges on the side. These are Cara oranges, they're bright and sweet and incredibly juicy. When I saw a bag at Target this week for $1.99, I couldn't pass them up! Aren't they gorgeous?
Voila! Beautiful, fluffy, and deliciously flavorful Vanilla Buttermilk Pancakes with Cara orange slices. Also, if you've never tried it, oranges are extra flavorful when sliced very thin like this. It's almost as though the flavor is more concentrated which seems like a contradiction...but try it, you'll be surprised! Be careful when slicing though, you want to keep those fingers. :)
Vanilla Buttermilk Pancakes
