Based on the recipe in The Joy of Cooking (which we received two copies of as wedding presents). Yields 10-12 large pancakes. This recipe scales up and down reasonably well (if you cut the recipe in half, the extra egg isn’t a problem).

Whisk together the dry ingredients, then add the wet to the dry. Do not overwork the batter; you don’t want to develop the gluten. Don’t worry about having some lumps, they’ll disappear during cooking.

The popular notion that “the first pancake is always spoiled” is only true if you aren’t familiar with the pan and the stove. Once you know what you’re doing, you can get it right every time. Just make sure the pan is hot before you pour on the batter. A droplet of water should skeeter across the pan: if it sits there, the pan is too cold, if it evaporates instantly, it’s too hot.

A pancake is ready to flip over when it starts to firm up around the rim, and the bubbles that form stick around after they pop.

For miso maple butter, see Miso Maple Butter Is the Condiment You Have Been Missing Your Entire Life.

Variations

Yamcakes

Microwave a yam while mixing up the batter. Moosh up half of the yam (unless it’s rather small), and add that to the batter.

Oatmeal

Replace ½ cup of flour with 1 cup of oatmeal. If you’re using whole oats, soak them in the buttermilk first, preferably overnight.

Blueberries

I prefer to place the blueberries into each pancake by hand right after pouring out the batter, especially if the berries are frozen. But you can mix them into the batter.

Whole wheat flour

Don’t replace all of the white flour with whole wheat, use a mixture.

Same goes for masa; it’s good in pancakes, but keep some of the regular flour.

Spelt flour is great, but you won’t really notice the difference.

Buckwheat?

No, don’t care for it. Didn’t like rye flour either, the one time we tried it.