This is our best tasting pancake recipe for when you want to add fruit! How is this recipe the best? Let's count the ways:
We add a pinch of coriander, a pinch of cinnamon and lemon juice. That may seem strange, but that's because lemon, corriander and cinnamon have linalool.
If you scroll to section 11.1 from that link, you'll see it's a key ingredient that laboratories use to synthesize the flavor of blueberries.
Linalool is not just for taste, it's also very healthy. Research suggests that linalool has many health benefits such as calming stress and boosting the immune system to name only a few. The linalool in the other igredients pile onto that flavor from the blueberries while adding complementary flavors of their own.
It has just the right amount of sugar to complement the sweet delicious taste of the fresh blueberries while countering tartness any of the berries may have.
It uses lemon juice instead of vinegar to make a buttermilk taste for the batter. Besides the already mentioned linalool, this also allows us to reduce the amount of baking powder needed to fluff them up. The fresh lemon complements the fresh blueberries and we don't want vinegar in our pancakes. Another bonus of using lemon instead of vinegar is that you can also add lemon zest to the batter since you already have that lemon out. It adds a "professional chef" dessert type flavor to your pancakes.
Since you're zesting the exterior of the lemon, we recommend getting organic lemons to avoid pesticides or herbicides (also avoid the non-organic "apeel" coating that some organic produce may have). If you're worried about pesticides or herbicides on your lemon peel, you can leave out the zesting. The zesting is an important delicious ingredient, but experiencing an amazing taste is not worth the hit to your health from those chemicals.
Another reason we like this recipe over others is that it has cream cheese, which goes well with blueberries. For instance, most people would rather have blueberries and cream cheese than plain blueberries. If that's you, then you'll like this. If it's not you, then you can substitute sour cream or just nix the cream cheese.
It has vanilla, which is a classic blueberry pairing.
Finally, we recommend beating the egg whites so that the pancakes are a little fluffier. If you want to make pancake art with this recipe, skip this step.
We scoured the internet and this is the only recipe we know of that uses all those important elements. Enjoy!
Ingredients
SERVES 3
1 lemon
1 cup of milk
1 tablespoon of melted butter
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1 egg
2 teaspoons of white sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
pinch of corriander
3 tablespoons of cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
Directions
Mix your lemon juice and milk together. This will form a 'buttermilk' substitute as they blend together. Let this sit a while as you complete the next steps. Don't be too much of a perfectionist about this, we made a batch where we skipped this step (but still added these as ingredients) and couldn't tell the difference.
Melt your butter so it will be cooled by the time you're ready for it. If your butter is soft and at room temperature, you can just mix it in like that.
If you like your pancakes fluffy, you can whip the egg whites into soft peaks. Otherwise, you can skip this step. If you plan to make pancake art with the batter, you should skip this step.
Mix all of your dry ingredients together. Don't add the blueberries yet, you'll add those as they cook. If a child that hasn't mastered chewing or swallowing will be eating these, be sure to cut the blueberries. You may also want to cut the blueberries at least in half to help with even cooking of the pancakes and avoid explosive bites. On the other hand, big explosive blueberries can be fun and that's the style the pictures here convey.
Add in all of your wet ingredients. Don't add the blueberries yet. This is where you can zest your lemon into the bowl. Mix your ingredients together lightly while leaving some bubbles and lumps. If you want to draw shapes with a pancake pen, do the opposite and mix these until the batter is smooth or even use a blender.
Add a small amount of cooking oil to your cooking surface and heat it up to medium heat. Pour the batter onto the cooking surface. Add your blueberries at this phase and press each one down with your spatula, spoon or a fork as you add them so that the blueberries contact the cooking surface through the pancake. Look for bubbles in the batter and flip them a little after the rim starts to brown and when you know they'll hold together.
Now add your favorite pancake toppings and enjoy! We recommend a little bit of butter, some of the remaining fresh blueberries, syrup and powdered sugar over each serving.
Mouth wateringly delicious blueberry pancakes.
Here are some common questions people have related to Blueberry Pancakes:
Is it better to use fresh or frozen blueberries in pancakes?
Fresh blueberries. We don't know of anyone who would rather have frozen blueberries than fresh blueberries cooked into their pancakes. We realize sometimes frozen blueberries are less expensive and/or more available and this recipe would still taste great with frozen blueberries. When cooked, the ice from the frozen blueberries will turn to water and the pancakes will lose some of their blueberry flavor and could have a streaky appearance.
It could be interesting to try some still frozen blueberries placed over hot blueberry pancakes. Frozen blueberries would have a popsickle-like taste and could be an eccentric addition to your finished hot pancakes. The textural contrast would be very harsh and it could be tough on your teeth though. If you substitute frozen blueberries for fresh ones, you can reduce the amount unless you want to top your finished pancakes with frozen blueberries.
Do I need to thaw frozen blueberries before baking?
No. Any advantage of letting the ice melt away would be negated by the time it takes to do that. Most of the melted water will still be there blending in the goopy melted blueberry runoff. For recipes like this where you're already zesting a lemon and possibly also whipping an egg white, make it easy on yourself and just let it unfreeze as it cooks. Depending on how frozen they are, you may need to dethaw them a little and/or add them right after pouring batter on the heating surface and much earlier than you would fresh blueberries.
Should you put blueberries in the pancakes or batter?
This will affect the appearance and texture more than the taste. Do you want to clearly see the blueberries in the pancake and have some of the juice pop out of them as you bite? Then add them as the pancake cooks. Do you want the blueberry taste and texture blended in with the pancakes? Then add them to the batter as you mix it. On the extreme end of blended texture and smoothness, you can put the blueberries through a blender before adding them to the batter. Some batter mixers on a high setting would have a similar effect.