Blue Cornmeal Pancakes

I've always loved blue cornmeal pancakes- ever since having them at a quirky little cafe for breakfast in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, over 8 years ago with my husband and then-baby girl.  My husband had challah bread french toast, starting another one of my food loves.  After that trip, I found blue cornmeal at a little hippie town near Jackson Hole (on the Idaho side) and starting experimenting with different recipes.  I tried a few recipes for blue cornmeal pancakes, and they were all good, but none were as good as the recipe I tried today- all because this one contained buttermilk.  I LOVE any pancake recipe with buttermilk- it makes such a difference in taste and texture.  These were, hands-down, the best blue cornmeal pancakes I've ever made at home.  (BTW, I order my blue cornmeal online now....right now, Vitacost offers it, but it goes in and out of stock.)

My blue cornmeal is whole-grain, and I used whole-wheat pastry flour in this recipe also, making these 100% whole-grain.  My whole family loved these and we ate them all.  Even my pickiest eater, who thought he didn't like pancakes before, LOVED these, ate two (they are filling!) and kept talking about them all day.  I added blueberries to some of them, which made them even tastier, and we ate these with some butter and real maple syrup.  (And turkey sausages, and OJ.)

Blue Cornmeal Pancakes

from Culinate.com

1¼ cups blue cornmeal

1 cup whole-wheat, ww pastry, or all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 cup blueberries (optional)

1.In a medium bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

2.In another medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs and vanilla.

3.Whisk dry ingredients into egg mixture, just until combined. Whisk in melted butter.  If batter is too thick, add additional buttermilk or regular milk.

4.Prepare an electric griddle (preheat to 375 degrees) or nonstick skillet (heat over medium heat).

5.Pour a generous ¼ cup of batter for each pancake. Sprinkle a generous 1 Tbsp. blueberries over each pancake, if using.

6.Cook for approximately 3 minutes, or until underside of pancakes are golden-brown and bubbles form on surface.

7.Turn and cook for 1 or 2 minutes on second side.

8.Serve hot with butter and syrup.

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