Blueberry Wheat Germ Pancakes

We love pancakes in my house. My husband makes classic buttermilk pancakes every few weeks. I like to mix it up with some variations. I made these pancakes for Mother's Day this year. I adapted them from a King Arthur Flour recipe. As you can see from the picture, my recipe makes quite a stack of pancakes. This is half the King Arthur recipe. People must have very large families or else plan to feed all their neighbors in Vermont!

These are not sweet at all. I put real maple syrup on my pancakes. I vacationed in Vermont as a kid and only the real stuff will do. If the pancakes are sweet, breakfast tastes more like dessert. As much as the Vermonters like dessert for breakfast - pie for breakfast is a local tradition - I don't like sweet things for breakfast.

Blueberry Wheat Germ Pancakes

(serves 5-6)

Dry Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour

1 Tablespoon sugar

¾ teaspoon baking powder (1 ½ teaspoon at sea level)

½ teaspon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda (same at sea level)

½ cup toasted wheat germ

Wet Ingredients

2 eggs

2 cups buttermilk

3 Tablespoons vegetable or nut oil (walnut is particularly good)

1 ½ cups fresh or frozen blueberries (no need to thaw frozen ones)

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix together all the wet ingredients in a large measuring cup until well combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until there are no large pockets of dry ingredients. Add the blueberries, and stir gently to incorporate. Do not over-mix. Heat up a griddle using a medium heat. Too hot and your pancakes will burn before they are cooked through. Too low, and you'll be waiting forever and they will dry out. Grease the griddle lightly with butter or oil before each set of pancakes. For medium-sized pancakes, use a scant ¼ cup of batter per pancake. Do not crowd them; it becomes very hard to flip them if they are too close together. Cook until bubbles pop through the top and the holes formed don't close up. The edges will be cooked and the pancakes nicely browned. Flip and cook until the other side it toasty brown. Repeat until all the batter is gone. Serve hot.

Can be reheated in a microwave or oven but they are at their best fresh from the griddle.

Adapted from The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook by Brinna B. Sands, Countryman Press, 1992.

What's in Season Now: Blueberries

Blueberries, those tasty little packages jam-packed with nutrients, are in season right now. I got them this week for $1.49/pint. And, when they are that cheap, I snap them up and stash a bunch in the freezer for the winter. Out of season, they can be absurdly expensive, but they freeze beautifully. To freeze, give them a rinse, drain well and gently roll them on some absorbent toweling. Put in a freezer bag and label. They will be there when you want some home-made blueberry muffins. You can thaw them and mix them into plain yogurt with a bit of granola. Any place that you use fresh blueberries, you can use frozen berries. In most recipes, you don't even have to thaw them.

This blueberry muffin recipe can be made with either frozen or fresh berries. They are not very sweet but have a good hearty flavor. I recommend you use muffin cup liners because it's really annoying to lose the bottom of your muffins in your muffin tin. The liners are cheap and will save you a lot of aggravation. You can freeze the baked muffins, if you can't eat them all within a couple of days. Especially in the summertime, muffins will mold quickly so I freeze most of them after they have cooled completely.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins
(makes 10, costs $2.50)

1 cup all purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour (regular or pastry)
2 Tablespoons wheat germ (optional)
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder (use 2 teaspoons at sea level)
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ cup sugar
1 egg
¾ cup skim or lowfat milk
⅓ cup vegetable oil
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
½ Tablespoon fresh or frozen lemon zest, about ½ lemon
10 paper muffin liners

Place the muffin liners in a muffin tin. Preheat oven to 400°F.

Mix together the flours, wheat germ (if using), baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large mixing bowl. In a small bowl, beat the egg with a fork until well-blended. Add milk and oil and mix to combine. Pour the liquid mixture over the flour and mix until just combined and there are no big lumps of flour. Toss the blueberries with the lemon zest. Add to the batter and gently incorporate the berries, mixing only to distribute them in the batter.

Evenly divide the batter in the 10 muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Remove the muffins from the tin and cool completely before freezing or storing in a plastic bag.

Adapted from Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of small breads by Bernard Clayton, Jr., Simon & Schuster, 1998.