Success: Freshly-Churned Buttermilk Pancakes

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The Scots have a word for this dreary, rainy, cold weather we've been having. It's dreich, and the word sounds like every gloomy, damp day I've ever experienced. It's the perfect word for this weather. Just like these warm pancakes, made with freshly-churned buttermilk, covered in freshly-churned butter, are the perfect way to thaw your body after a brisk walk in the cold mist.

How To: Homemade Butter + Buttermilk
Materials: 1 pint heavy cream, some salt, and a food processor.
Makes: nearly 1 cup of buttermilk, ~8 table-spoonfuls of butter

1. Pour heavy cream into food processor.
2. Add salt to heavy cream, to taste (I think I used a teaspoon or two).
3. Process in food processor for 15 minutes or so. The heavy cream will pass through a 'whipped cream' phase, and then eventually the butter fat will separate from the buttermilk. You can stop processing once it's separated.
4. Pull the butter out with your hands and squeeze over a bowl. Some more buttermilk will come out, and you want to catch it in the bowl.
5. Rinse the butter in the sink. Excess buttermilk will cause your butter to spoil if you don't rinse it properly.
6. Wrap butter in plastic wrap and refrigerate
7. Pour buttermilk from food processor and bowl into a combined container and refrigerate.

How To: Buttermilk Pancakes
This is the recipe I followed, since it only uses 1 cup of buttermilk, which I had from making butter, but feel free to follow your own recipe.
Materials: {1 c flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 tbsp white sugar}, {1 large egg, 1 c lightly beaten buttermilk, 3 tbsp melted butter}, {butter for greasing the pan, butter/syrup for topping, etc}.
Makes: about 8 4-inch pancakes

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, and melted butter.
3. Pour all of the egg mixture into the flour mixture, and mix until just combined. There should be some small lumps.
4. Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat, then put enough butter on the pan to cover the entirety of the surface.
5. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter onto the pan.
6. Cook the first side for 2-3 minutes, until bubbles begin to form.
7. Flip the pancake and cook the other side for 1-2 minutes, until light brown.
8. Repeat steps 5-7 with more batter, putting more butter on the pan between each pancake.
9. Serve with some freshly made butter.

Enjoy.