Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

This past Saturday I used the very last of our blueberries stash. It was a very sad day for me but I'm excited for what's to come. Only about a month and a half until peak blueberry season! I'm convinced that one of the reasons why I love blueberries so much has to do with the fact that they peak right around my birthday, which makes for a very easy/fairly inexpensive birthday gift and/or a way to celebrate! Last summer I took Brad blueberry picking for the first time. We both both got caught up in how much fun we were having that before we knew it, we had picked around 11 lbs of blueberries. I was in blueberry heaven for the next couple of weeks after that. Since we had picked so many, I also made sure to freeze a bunch of them to use during the off season months. (Quick note: Blueberries are super easy to freeze. Lay blueberries flat on a cookies sheet and place in the freezer until frozen. Pour frozen berries into ziploc bag and viola! Frozen blueberries that #1 still look like blueberries right off the bush and #2 easy to scoop out as many as needed)

Anywho, this past Saturday, I decided to use the last of the berries to make some "made from scratch" blueberry pancakes. I currently have a subscription to Cook's Illustrated and a couple months back they featured a recipe for Blueberry Pancakes. Well of course it is just my luck to not be able to find that particular issue so I scoured the internet instead. Lucky for me, someone had copied an ATK Blueberry Buttermilk Pancake recipe over on cooking. com. So I whipped up a batch and they were quite delightful. I plan on using this recipe again once we have some more blueberries as well as comparing it to the one that was in my magazine....whenever I find it. I do want to mention though that the original recipe calls for 1 Tbsp lemon juice for it's 2 cups of milk and then goes on the mention that if you have buttermilk on hand, use that instead of the milk + lemon juice mixture. That confused me slightly since the common substitution for buttermilk is 1 Tbsp lemon juice (or vinegar) to 1 cup water. So I did in fact up the lemon juice to 2 Tbsp for the 2 cups milk. But it is ultimately up to you.

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
America's Test Kitchen

RECIPE INGREDIENTS 1 tablespoon lemon juice from 1 lemon 2 cups milk 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces) 2 tablespoons granulated sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon table salt 1 large egg 3 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and cooled slightly 2 teaspoons vegetable oil 1 cup fresh blueberries or frozen blueberries, preferably wild, rinsed and dried

DIRECTIONS Whisk lemon juice and milk in medium bowl or large measuring cup; set aside to thicken while preparing other ingredients. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl to combine. Whisk egg and melted butter into milk until combined. Make well in center of dry ingredients in bowl; pour in milk mixture and whisk very gently until just combined (a few lumps should remain). Do not over mix. Heat 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes; add 1 teaspoon oil and brush to coat skillet bottom evenly. Pour 1/4 cup batter onto 3 spots on skillet; sprinkle 1 tablespoon blueberries over each pancake. Cook pancakes until large bubbles begin to appear, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Using thin, wide spatula, flip pancakes and cook until golden brown on second side, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes longer. Serve immediately, and repeat with remaining batter, using remaining vegetable oil only if necessary.