DAVIDHERSH

Description:
I made these last weekend for Mother's Day and then again this morning. They were awesome! This was my first time making pancakes so I was pleased that they came out so well.

They were actually pretty easy to make, but I did need a few tips from Tracy. One thing that bugs me about cookbooks is that they assume you know how to cook. :-)

The recipe is from Pancakes and Waffles by Kate Habershon. I've added a few extra comments in the directions for the culinarily challenged (like myself).

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 cup sour cream (standard 8oz. container)
2/3 cup milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick), melted and cooled
8oz. blueberries, fresh or frozen (I used frozen)

Directions:
The first thing to do is put a half stick of unsalted butter in a bowl in the microwave for about 45 seconds, or until melted. Once melted, put it in the fridge to cool. Apparently this is so that the hot butter doesn't scramble the eggs when you mix it in a little later.

Sift the flower, baking powder, salt and suger into a bowl. Apparently our flour was pre-sifted, so I just dumped everything in a big glass bowl. You're also not supposed to pack the flour into your measuring cup because you want it to be airy. Just spoon it into the measuring cup and then level it off with a knife.

Put the egg yolks, sour cream, milk and cooled butter into another bowl and beat well with a whisk. To separate the eggs, have two small bowls out and then crack an egg in half. Pour the yolk from one half to other, dumping the egg white from the other half into one of the bowls each time. After a few swaps, all of the whites should be out and then just dump the yolk in the other bowl.

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Now this part threw me a little. I started with a spoon, beating the eggs as fast as I reasonably could. Tracy came in and told me I could do that until the cows came home and I still wouldn't' be seeing any soft peaks. Apparently, I needed to use the KitchenAid mixer. Put it on 8 for about a minute and you'll get some nice soft peaks.

Gently beat the egg whites into the flour mix, and then gently mix in the blueberries. Don't overmix.

Grease up a large griddle or skillet over medium heat. I used some canola oil, wiping the excess off with a paper towl and then using that towel to regrease after each batch of pancakes.

Reduce the heat to low and then cook 4 pancakes at a time by using about 3 tablespoons of batter. I used a quarter-cup measuring cup for each pancake. Cook on one side until small bubbles appear and then flip. For me, I cooked them about 2 minutes on the first side, and then one more minute after the flip. Aside from a few misguided flips, everything went pretty smoothly.