Pancakes - it's what's for breakfast!

Grab your whisks and fire up the griddle - it's Pancake Week!

According to www.allrecipes.com this is an ancient tradition from the Middle Ages. In preparation for Lent, people cleaned out their pantries of rich foods, like butter, eggs, and milk. They feasted on big batches of pancakes until the pantry was empty. Sounds pretty good to me. These days, many communities around the globe still follow this tradition, all the way through Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras.

Pancakes come by many names - flapjacks, hotcakes, johnnycakes, griddlecakes, blinis, blintzes, crepes. You can make them with chocolate chips, bananas, pumpkin, fresh berries, or buckwheat. And lather them with butter, honey, jam, whipped cream, chocolate ganache, sour cream & caviar. It doesn't matter - it all adds put up to good eating!

I'm particularly partial to wolfing down my breakfast pancakes with lots of Maple Syrup. The real deal, not some fake stuff. During a recent walk, my husband and I came upon a grove of Maple Trees being tapped. Each tree had a bucket attached to it. And in each bucket, drop by drop, it was being filled with tree sap. We thought it a bit early in the season to begin this process, but, maybe the Maple syrup season started earlier this year due to the unusually mild winter. From what I remember; the starch in the trunk and roots of the trees is converted to sugar that then turns into sap in the spring. When this sap is heated, the water evaporates, leaving a syrup. The American Indians collected Maple syrup and taught the European settles how to use it.

Homemade Pancakes with Maple Syrup

Recipe adapted from Barefoot Contessa - Family Style

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups Anna's GF Cake Flour Blend,* or your own favorite flour blend

2 tbsp sugar

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 cup Kefir, or yogurt

3/4 cup milk

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

butter

1- 2 bananas, diced, for serving, or fresh fruit and berries

Pure maple syrup

Directions

In a medium-sized bowl blend together the GF flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl, beat together the sour cream, milk, eggs, and vanilla.

Pour the wet ingredients to the dry ones, whisking until combined.

Melt butter in a large skillet, or griddle, over medium heat until the butter bubbles. Pour some off the pancake batter into the pan to make 4, to 6, small pancakes. Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes, until some bubbles appear on top and the underside is lightly browned. Flip the pancakes and then cook for another minute until nicely browned. Add a little more butter to the pan, and continue until all the batter is used. Serve with maple syrup, sliced bananas, and/or fresh berries.

Anna's GF Cake Flour Blend:

2 cups brown rice flour

2 cups white rice flour

1 cup potato/or corn starch

1 1/4 cups tapioca starch

I'm grateful for this luxurious liquid gold!