Malted Pancakes

"We are young, we run free, keep our teeth nice and clean. We go out, see the sites, we're alriiiiiiight..."

Oh, how I wish you had smell-o-vision right now because the smell of these malted pancakes baking is like Christmas morning. Really. Think butter browning in a pan with warm, fuzzy pancakes sizzling away...ok, maybe not fuzzy. Fuzzy? That's how I feel, warm and fuzzy.

Now that we've got that straightened out. These pancakes are delicious. They might just be the best pancakes I have ever had. This is most likely due to the inclusion of a generous heap of malted milk powder in the batter. It's not detectable once baked (unknowing eaters will not be any wiser of your secret ingredient) but it gives the pancakes a warm, nutty, yummy taste. I think adding milk chocolate chips to the batter would also be wonderful. Or maybe even crushed up malted milk balls, which I will experiment with on another rainy morning. Ahhh, I think the only good thing about cold, rainy Massachusetts spring mornings is the food. Pancakes and warm toasty home? Win.

Malted Pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup malt powder
1 tbl firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 large egg, at room temp
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
3 tbl salted butter, melted and at room temp
maple syrup and butter for cooking/serving

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, malt powder, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder. In a seperate bowl, whisk the eggs and buttermilk together. Slowly add the butter (make sure the eggs do not cook with the heat of the butter, this is why it must be at room temp-if eggs curdle, strain mixture to remove clumps) and whisk in.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the buttermilk mixture into it. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined, some lumps will remain.

Preheat a skillet over medium heat. Add a generous lump of butter and let melt. Add pancake batter, 1/4 cup at a time to create medium sized pancakes. Cook until bubbles appear at the surface of the pancake, about 3 minutes, then flip to the other side to continue cooking, about 1 minute. Serve warm with butter and maple syrup.

Adapted from Baked Explorations