Pancakes and Homemade Maple Syrup

I used to make a basic Betty Crocker pancake recipe but one day I stumbled upon this recipe and decided to try it out on our family. It was a hit with them so from that point on, this is the recipe we use every time we make pancakes. I hope your family enjoys it as well.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons white vinegar (see note)

1 cup all purpose flour

2 tablespoons white sugar (I used 3)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:


Combine the milk and vinegar in a small bowl for 10 minutes to "sour".This is an important step and it is called "soured milk" which is much different that sour milk. I guarantee you will NOT taste the vinegar in the final product. Set aside. 

**I want to note here that white vinegar here is 9% so for this recipe as well as others, I have to dilute it quite a bit. Just an FYI if you are on a foreign field and have the same vinegar available.

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk the soured milk, egg, vanilla and melted butter together. Pour into the dry ingredients and whisk until most of the lumps are gone, but DO NOT OVER BEAT.

The batter will be thick, don't add any more liquid. Let the batter sit undisturbed for ten minutes.

After 10 minutes, you will see bubbles in the batter, very important DO NOT STIR AGAIN.

Gently dip out (don't pour out) 1/2 cup of batter and place it on a buttered grill or frying pan. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface of the pancake and then flip with a spatula and brown the other side.

NOTE: This recipe only feeds about 3 or 4 people, but doubles or even triples nicely.

NOTE: Don't skip the soured milk part of this recipe, you will not taste the vinegar in the pancakes. The vinegar super-activates the baking soda. You can subsitute BUTTERMILK for the milk+vinegar in this recipe, but I have had the best luck (fluffiest pancakes) using the milk and vinegar.

NOTE: In order to ensure fluffy pancakes it is best not to stir the batter just before cooking the pancakes because it can deflate the bubbles in the batter.  I use a half cup measuring cup and GENTLY dip out batter and put it on the griddle.

______________________________________________________________________________

NEED A RECIPE FOR PANCAKE SYRUP?
One of the other BMW posted a recipe for buttery pancake syrup in the past. I use a simple recipe that is not thick but it works to give you the flavor and sweetness of maple syrup.

1 cup boiling water
2 cups white sugar
1/2 tsp, Imitation Maple Syrup

Bring water to a boil in medium saucepan. Add sugar; cook and stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.
Remove from heat; stir in extract. Serve warm.

Makes 2 cups.