Cooking

I haven’t been giving nearly enough attention to breakfast. With my half marathon training, I haven’t been eating big, hearty breakfasts like pancakes because I just can’t work out with a full stomach. But when I went away for Labor Day weekend, I slacked off on the training and went into a full-blown breakfast-loving carb frenzy.

One of the pancakes that I had was a steel cut oat recipe, a wonderfully hearty pancake with a completely different texture than your ordinary buttermilk. When we came home, I scoured the internet to find something similar. No luck. I did, however, learn a few tricks for working with uncooked steel cut oats, and I merged those with a known-to-be-fantastic recipe for buttermilk pancakes from Alton Brown’s I’m Just Here for More Food.

Prefer regular pancakes? Omit the oats and follow the instructions below. The recipe makes 12 4-inch pancakes.

NOTE: The oats must be soaked in buttermilk for at least 24 hours before cooking. Soak them tonight for breakfast on Sunday. On breakfast day, you can add as much or as little of the soaked oats as you like.

Ingredients

• 2 1/3 cups low-fat buttermilk
• 2/3 cup steel cut oats
• 2 cups (270 g) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp table salt
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
• 3 Tbsp unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Prep Work: Combine 2/3 cup oats and 1/3 cup buttermilk in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 24-48 hours.

Breakfast Day: Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar) in a large bowl. Whisk to combine.

In a smaller bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, applesauce, butter and vanilla extract.

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir just until the batter comes together. Do not mix until smooth. Gently mix in half of the buttermilk-soaked oats. Hearty enough? Stop there. Want more oats? Trust me, it can accommodate the whole thing.

Allow the batter to rest for 5 minutes before cooking.

Place your nonstick griddle over medium-low heat. Test by flicking water on it. If the water dances across the griddle, it’s ready.

Rub the griddle with butter. Wipe the butter away with a paper towel to leave just a slight residue behind.

I use my regular old flatware gravy ladle to scoop out equal portions, and make two shifts of six pancakes each. Cook until bubbles form on the surface and the bottom is golden, about 3-4 minutes on the first side and 2 more on the flip side.

I didn’t like the taste of strawberries with them, so I dug into the boy’s jar of Valencia peaches from Trader Joe’s. It was the perfect texture and sweetness to complement the pancakes and the maple syrup.

Results

I made these on a weekday and my husband actually stayed home to eat breakfast because they smelled so good. The Tiny Kitchen Assistant was practically giddy about the intersection of two of his favorite breakfast foods, oatmeal and pancakes. He demanded that I package one into a baggie so that he could eat it cold for school lunch. That might be the ultimate compliment!

Tags: breakfast, buttermilk, pancakes, steel cut oats, stovetop

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