Basic Pancakes

With the weekend quickly upon us I thought I'd post a couple breakfast recipes. I know pancakes are pretty basic and many would say not even worth posting a recipe for, but I do love my pancake recipe so I thought I'd share it with everyone anyway. They're nice and thick and have a touch of sweetness in every bite. In fact, I like the taste of them so much that I like to eat them fresh off the grill with a little butter on top. Though if you're anything like my hubby you'll want to slather them in as much syrup as possible!

Basic Pancakes
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp + 1 tsp double acting baking powder
1 1/2 tsps salt
2 eggs
2 1/2 - 2 2/3 cups milk, depending on how thick you like your pancakes
6 tbsps oil

Combine first four ingredients. In a separate small bowl, beat egg slightly then stir in milk and oil. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until flour is just moistened.

Preheat griddle or non stick frying pan and spray with PAM, then pour batter and cook over medium heat (I use level 4 or 4 1/2 on my stove) until bubbles form, then flip over and cook the other side.

Serve with syrup, fruit, peanut butter, or anything else you like on your pancakes.

Makes approximately 10-14 pancakes (depending on how thick you like your pancakes).

Modifications:
* Instead of 6 tbsp oil, use half oil and half apple sauce, or even 4 tbsp apple sauce and 2 tbsp oil
* Add any of the following to the batter: fresh or frozen blueberries (w/ lemon juice and lemon zest), chocolate chips, cinnamon, or anything else you like;)

* Note: I've learned the trick to getting really thick pancakes is to pour the batter onto your pan (amount depends on how big you want the pancakes) and then wait for it to set for a minute and then pour a little more batter into the middle of the pancake. This way the pancake won't get bigger, but will get thicker. Can you tell I love my pancakes nice and thick;) I usually use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to pour and end up using about that much per pancake, sometimes a little more.

* Note: I keep any left over pancakes in the fridge and warm up them up later in our toaster oven OR sometimes I leave left over batter in the fridge if I want to make more fresh pancakes later that day or the next day. The batter may start to separate a little, however if you mix it with a fork it will be just as good as the first day. I've never had my batter in the fridge for more than one day so I can't guarantee how the pancakes will turn out if you leave it longer than a day and then try to use it.

*Note: I always spray PAM on the cooking surface before I make the first set of pancakes, but not between making each set.

*Note: Place cooked pancakes in a glass casserole dish with a lid or in a tortilla warmer and in a warm oven (200 - 225 degrees) to keep warm until ready to serve.

Enjoy!